Tegan and Sara, Astronautalis,The Jezabels @ The Tivoli(03/05/2010)

Mon 10th May, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Apologies to local support and tonight’s openers The Jezabels as I missed their set due to other commitments. International support act Astronautalis was hand-picked by tonight’s headliners to open every show of their Australian tour. His aggressive hip-hop was unexpected to say the least, but through his eccentric personality and energetic performance Astronautalis proved to be a near perfect appetiser. After thanking the crowd for “giving a shit” he exited the stage, leaving The Tivoli crowd in eager anticipation for this evening’s main course.

After a short interval, Tegan and Sara took to the stage and kicked their set off with new track The Ocean. Early songs showed off their impressive vocal harmonies and simple yet effective light show and by the time the girls switched to the keyboard for Alligator they had the crowd hanging on every lyric. Standing a couple of metres apart in the centre of the stage, Tegan and Sara swapped seamlessly between keys, electric and acoustic guitar throughout the evening.

Tegan took charge between songs, entertaining punters with anecdotes about past tours, the origins of various tracks and some playful banter with a New Zealander in the crowd. The Con was an early highlight, with the crowd erupting into a sea of bobbing heads and raised hands which continued into similarly fast paced tracks Nineteen and Northshore. In a set heavily weighted towards recent albums So Jealous, The Con and last year’s critically acclaimed Sainthood, the appearance of Monday Monday Monday was a welcome cameo for long term fans. Sentimental Tune showed Tegan and Sara at their energetic best before they signed off to a sea of raised phones and cameras for crowd favourite Hell.

To unrelenting applause Tegan and Sara made their way back on to the stage for tonight’s encore. Leaving the other three band members backstage, the Quin sisters performed a stirring, stripped back version of popular track Back In Your Head. Some more stage banter ranging from therapy (which seemed to be the topic of the night) to light hearted jokes about Australia’s technological progress separated Dark Come Soon and early track Divided before Tegan and Sara were joined by their band to bid farewell to tonight’s fans with the emotional duet, Call It Off.

With a set spanning their decade long career and banter that provided the crowd with a real insight into their inner thoughts both as people and performing artists, Tegan and Sara brought to The Tivoli a show that was in one word, complete, as these identical twins from Canada know how to put on a truly great performance.