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Concert Review: Tegan & Sara, Elsinore Theater, 4/17/08
This review is going to sound pretty bitchy, I think. I really like Tegan & Sara, and I'm glad I went to the show. I'm just looking at a few things objectively, is all.
On Thursday,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lunar8i8star and I had a lovely day in in Salem before attending a Tegan & Sara concert at the kitchy-awesome Elsinore Theater. The best part of said theater is the ridiculous Romeo & Juliet mural in the lobby. The whole foyer looks like one of those Medieval Times restaurant deals. But they do have the most comfortable seats I've ever experienced in a concert setting.
We purchased our tickets about a week after they went on sale, and therefore ended up back under the balcony. This wasn't an issue really, since I don't think there's actually a bad seat in the house, and it was a seated concert. The opening band was an Australian group called An Horse. I'll be honest...I don't think they're anything special. They sound like every other post-punk garage band that I've heard in the last ten years. "Postcards" was the only song that did anything for me. Lately (read: the past five years or so) my musical tastes have been gravitating towards new-grass, bluesy-rock, "folk," and singer-songwriters (think: Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Josh Ritter, Patty Griffin). "Rock" music has to have something new or different to catch my attention these days. The reason I enjoy Tegan & Sara so much is that they sounded unique enough to hook me, and then their music is so damn catchy that I couldn't just listen once. An Horse does not have the same type of appeal.
That being said, An Horse had a significantly stronger set that T&S. Maybe it's because it was only the second show of the tour, but there were some pretty major kinks that need to be worked out. For example, Tegan needs to relearn her own songs. I'm generally pretty forgiving when it comes to live shows; a false start or two is almost expected. The last time we saw Josh, all the members of the band started one song in completely different keys. But did they stop and have a minor freak out about it? No, they just pulled it together during the first chorus. Tegan & Sara preferred to stop altogether and try to smooth over their mistakes with loooooong ramblings that made very little contextual sense. Yes, you're adorable, it's one of the reasons I like you, but that adorableness only goes so far.
Most of the songs they played were from The Con, but they did play a lot of my favorites from So Jealous (their strongest album, imo), and If It Was You. It was great to hear some of these songs live, others not so much. The vocal reaching that works so well on the albums is hit or miss in the live performances, to the point where you wish they would just go for something a third or fourth below their intended note just so that you didn't have to deal with the inevitable flatness that will result from their failed attempt. I blame a lot of these types of problems on hearing, or rather lack thereof. I don't think either of them was able to hear much of what was going on around them, and that led to interesting tonal choices.
I also think that perhaps I was more aware of this than some because of the earplugs I was wearing. Again, earplugs are the greatest thing to happen to concerts since microphones. You've heard me talk about this before, so I won't go into it again. By cutting out all the excess feedback and noise, it makes it easier to concentrate on the vocals, which is why I listen to popular music anyway. It's all about the lyrics (do you hear me, Jason Manns?)
All in all, it wasn't the best show I've ever been to, but it certainly wasn't the worst. I found a new venue that I think would serve folk/blues/blue-new-grass bands very well, and I hope to return there in the future. Sara said that she and Tegan prefer playing smaller theater venues, and some of the other concert-goers (mostly faux-punk high school girls and older lesbian couples) were bitching about how they wished T&S were playing in a smaller, more private venue, but I think T&S would be better served in an outdoor amphitheater setting. I think seeing them during the summer in the Les Schwab amphitheater in Bend would've been perfect. The music would have had somewhere else to go, they probably would've been able to hear themselves better, more people would've been able to attend, and dancing would've been encouraged instead of frowned on by the bouncers. That would have been an awesome show, and definitely something to consider for the future.
Spend the money on the cds, not the tickets.
On Thursday,
lunar8i8star and I had a lovely day in in Salem before attending a Tegan & Sara concert at the kitchy-awesome Elsinore Theater. The best part of said theater is the ridiculous Romeo & Juliet mural in the lobby. The whole foyer looks like one of those Medieval Times restaurant deals. But they do have the most comfortable seats I've ever experienced in a concert setting. We purchased our tickets about a week after they went on sale, and therefore ended up back under the balcony. This wasn't an issue really, since I don't think there's actually a bad seat in the house, and it was a seated concert. The opening band was an Australian group called An Horse. I'll be honest...I don't think they're anything special. They sound like every other post-punk garage band that I've heard in the last ten years. "Postcards" was the only song that did anything for me. Lately (read: the past five years or so) my musical tastes have been gravitating towards new-grass, bluesy-rock, "folk," and singer-songwriters (think: Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Josh Ritter, Patty Griffin). "Rock" music has to have something new or different to catch my attention these days. The reason I enjoy Tegan & Sara so much is that they sounded unique enough to hook me, and then their music is so damn catchy that I couldn't just listen once. An Horse does not have the same type of appeal.
That being said, An Horse had a significantly stronger set that T&S. Maybe it's because it was only the second show of the tour, but there were some pretty major kinks that need to be worked out. For example, Tegan needs to relearn her own songs. I'm generally pretty forgiving when it comes to live shows; a false start or two is almost expected. The last time we saw Josh, all the members of the band started one song in completely different keys. But did they stop and have a minor freak out about it? No, they just pulled it together during the first chorus. Tegan & Sara preferred to stop altogether and try to smooth over their mistakes with loooooong ramblings that made very little contextual sense. Yes, you're adorable, it's one of the reasons I like you, but that adorableness only goes so far.
Most of the songs they played were from The Con, but they did play a lot of my favorites from So Jealous (their strongest album, imo), and If It Was You. It was great to hear some of these songs live, others not so much. The vocal reaching that works so well on the albums is hit or miss in the live performances, to the point where you wish they would just go for something a third or fourth below their intended note just so that you didn't have to deal with the inevitable flatness that will result from their failed attempt. I blame a lot of these types of problems on hearing, or rather lack thereof. I don't think either of them was able to hear much of what was going on around them, and that led to interesting tonal choices.
I also think that perhaps I was more aware of this than some because of the earplugs I was wearing. Again, earplugs are the greatest thing to happen to concerts since microphones. You've heard me talk about this before, so I won't go into it again. By cutting out all the excess feedback and noise, it makes it easier to concentrate on the vocals, which is why I listen to popular music anyway. It's all about the lyrics (do you hear me, Jason Manns?)
All in all, it wasn't the best show I've ever been to, but it certainly wasn't the worst. I found a new venue that I think would serve folk/blues/blue-new-grass bands very well, and I hope to return there in the future. Sara said that she and Tegan prefer playing smaller theater venues, and some of the other concert-goers (mostly faux-punk high school girls and older lesbian couples) were bitching about how they wished T&S were playing in a smaller, more private venue, but I think T&S would be better served in an outdoor amphitheater setting. I think seeing them during the summer in the Les Schwab amphitheater in Bend would've been perfect. The music would have had somewhere else to go, they probably would've been able to hear themselves better, more people would've been able to attend, and dancing would've been encouraged instead of frowned on by the bouncers. That would have been an awesome show, and definitely something to consider for the future.
Spend the money on the cds, not the tickets.