Review by : Joey Kavanagh
Photo’s by : Kieran Frost
At one point during their set at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, Tegan and Sara recount their first tour of Europe, around ten years ago. Playing to small crowds with barely any money to their names, the Canadian twins survived on chocolate-covered pretzels and came back to their hotel every night asking themselves why they were putting themselves through it all.
Tonight, it’s a different story. Playing to a practically sold-out and decidedly enthusiastic crowd, some of whom have been queueing for hours to guarantee close proximity to their idols, it seems the girls’ toil all those years ago was worth the while.
Opening with ‘The Ocean’ from their most recent album ‘Sainthood’, the pop-folk purveyors waste no time in demonstrating that their signature harmonies are just as impressive in a live setting. Newer material dominates the earlier part of the set (with a large inflatable reptile making its way on to the stage for ‘Alligator’) before they delve into their fairly extensive back catalogue.
Switching guitars for keyboards and back again, the pair take turns at lead vocals and, although there seems to be some technical problems with the sound early on, the twins and their band rarely miss a beat. Tracks like ‘The Con’, ‘Walking With a Ghost’ and especially ‘Nineteen’ inspire audience sing-a-longs as Tegan and Sara pepper their set with bouts of self-deprecating banter.
At one point, my friend whispers to me “I don’t understand all the comparisons with Heathers…” Fledgling Dublin band Heathers have indeed faced constant questions about their music’s resemblance to Tegan and Sara’s, not helped by the fact that the Blackrock girls occasionally include a cover of ‘Nineteen’ in their live gigs.
As female twins with a penchant for harmonies that share vocal duties pretty much down the middle, the comparisons are probably somewhat inevitable, if not a little lazy. In any case, if Heathers manage to hone their act to anywhere near the level that Tegan and Sara have achieved, they’ll be doing alright.
Giggling at the audience’s calls for ‘one more tune’, the sisters Quin (who may or may not have Irish heritage) return to the stage for an acoustic encore and one last full-band number. They make a tongue-in-cheek appeal to fans who illegally download their music to support them in other ways but, based on tonight’s performance, it’s unlikely that Tegan and Sara will have to resort to a diet of chocolate-covered pretzels again any time soon.
