Tegan and Sara

Performing in the incredible Forum Theatre, Tegan and Sara were so much more than I expected. Not only was the show comfortable and intimate, but the girls were so entertaining, and not for obvious reason of their music.

It did start off a little slow though. Kaki King although exceedingly talented, isn’t very exciting. Sitting there in her own little world may be ok for the recording progress (which was completed during the week of the concert in Melbourne’s Southgate) but on stage she sounded repetitive and reclusive.

However, she was not the reason why I went. Tegan and Sara put on one fine show. Amongst the abundance of amazing songs (some which appeared to be cut down to fit more in) was some witty banter exchanged between sisters. Sara exclaimed she can never understand our accent while we struggled to understand what she meant by ‘niggly bumps’ – apparently a common phrase around these parts. Their sisterly interaction was a little bit of insight for the fans into what it’s like to hang out with the twins. There was no air surrounding them, they were very friendly and despite Tegan’s illness, they put everything into it.

After every 4-5 songs they would talk to the audience, share their thoughts then continue on their merry way playing everything we wanted to hear. They began with ‘Dark Come Soon’ and followed up playing all the tracks from The Con except for ‘I Was Married’ and the obvious old favourites such as ‘Walking With The Ghost’ and ‘So Jelous’. During ‘Back in your head’ Sara wanted to try out this thing where we all stood facing the back clapping out hands while they played. While this was some quirky fun it was not the best song to do it to as, a) I like that song and really wanted to see it, b) its too long to have your arms up in the air.

And for the inevitable and always entertaining encore? A cover of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ which was amazing, apparently a new addition to their live shows, they pulled it off as one of their own. Ending on ‘Living Room’ they succeeded in fulfilling the request of an annoying punter in the back, and maybe the rest of us too.

Despite their tiny stature, they have a massive stage presence which is matched by their sound on stage. They had the whole crowd in the palm of their hands and we enjoyed every second of it.

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