Tegan and Sara – Bass Concert Hall, TX

Don’t let the matching outfits fool you — while twin songwriters Tegan and Sara Quin could easily turn their act into a cliché-filled disaster by finishing each others thoughts in perfectly planned spontaneity and exchanging carefully-crafted stories of childhood designed to elicit soft chuckles from the audience, they somehow rise above being ridiculously adorable to put on an enjoyable show for both the skinny-jean wearing hipsters and the harmony-loving folk rockers.

Tegan

With entry music courtesy of Lesley Gore (a little sunshine and lollipops anyone?) they kicked things off with The Ocean, On Directing and The Cure from their latest album, Sainthood before Tegan started confessing her love of Red Bull, the first of several rambling pieces of banter between the sisters (Canadian jokes, watching football as children, playing “Orphanage” and a deep-seated fear of abandonment, their first show at South by Southwest and a bottle of Patron from the previous evening were other topics of discussion).

They managed to squeeze about 75% of the new record into the set, slipping in earlier tunes like Walking With A Ghost and Speak Slow from So Jealous and Soil, Soil and Nineteen from The Con.

And the best part of the night, the magical “something” when the two play solo as they did for their extended encore which included Back In Your Head and Call It Off before they were rejoined by their band for Living Room as to not end the show on a soft note.

Set List
The Ocean
On Directing
The Cure
Hell
Sentimental Tune
Alligator
Where Does the Good Go
Speak Slow
Walking With a Ghost
So Jealous
Soil, Soil
Monday Monday Monday
Dark Come Soon
Red Belt
Arrow
Nightwatch
Northshore
The Con
Nineteen
You Wouldn’t Like Me
–
Back In Your Head
Feel It In My Bones
Divided
Call It Off
Living Room