Tegan and Sara
Moore Theatre, Seattle, WA
10.27.17
If it’s true that by owning your criticism you take the power out of it, then Tegan and Sara are officially a force to be reckoned with. Received poorly by critics—yet beloved by fans—the duo’s fifth studio album, The Con, turned ten this year, and they brazenly did the opposite of sweep it under the rug.
Instead, they decided to release The Con X: Covers, a full remake of the album, plus bonus tracks, all recorded by other artists. And then, on the back of completing their tour cycle for 2016’s Love You To Death, they set out to tour The Con all over again. In doing so, they sold out Seattle’s Moore Theatre for a night of over-the-top intimacy and nostalgia alike.
There was no opening act and they kept things mostly acoustic, Tegan and Sara standing on a subtle riser center-stage, accented by a well-choreographed light show. Accompanying them on the tour were Timmy Mislock and Gabrial McNair, both stellar musicians in their own right, who filled out the twenty-two track set with new depth.
They front-loaded the set with the original track listing, in order, from The Con, and didn’t get far before they broke out their endearing personalities. During “Relief Next To Me,” Sara stopped mid-verse to tease Tegan for playing the wrong chord. Whether she did or not didn’t even matter, the crowd was putty in their hands. There were stories about being recognized while getting coffee in their pajamas, not being let into Neumos with 1,000 forms of identification, and the weirdness they encounter when—for some strange reason—people make the assumption that they live together.
After finishing the tracks from The Con, Sara stopped to say, “Now that we’ve taken an album that’s slightly under 40 minutes and made it a few hours…we have a few more favorites from other albums. We tried to make them as equally depressing.” While the content of Tegan and Sara’s music may always lean gut-wrenching, the crowd all seem more than happy.
Favorites like “The Ocean,” “Living Room,” have everyone singing along. After “Red Belt,” Tegan took a moment to talk about their covers album. “We set out to engineer a lot of diversity. Everyone had to be an outspoken LGBT ally or person. And we chose a handful of emerging artists.” It is obvious, with all proceeds from the covers album going to their Tegan and Sara Foundation, that the duo is out to make a difference, centering on distributing access, power, and money to the LGBT community that has always stood by them. As they closed the set with a reimagined “Closer,” the crowd applauded, reciting every word.
Review by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Sunny Martini
Tegan and Sara
