REVIEW: Tegan & Sara

REVIEW: Tegan & Sara

TeganandSaraTegan & Sara, Sydney Opera House, April 26 2013

Sure, we’re only four months into the year, but this writer’s calling it: Tegan & Sara’s Heartthrob is the album of 2013. I might be risking the wrath of their legions of loyal fans saying this, but since their breakthrough third album If It Was You back in 2002, these queer, Canadian twins have been consistently good but not great.

All that’s changed with Heartthrob, a spectacular grab at major stardom. It seems to have done its job, too – while the Quin sisters aren’t quite up there with pop princesses Britney and Rihanna (yet), Heartthrob delivered them two well-attended shows at the Sydney Opera House, a venue they’ve been photographed outside of – but never played – during each of their six previous Australian tours.

Wisely, they played the new album almost in its entirety across the night’s 20 songs, with highlights including the fizzy Dragonette-esque pop of Goodbye, Goodbye and what’s undoubtedly their best song to date, the stirring power ballad I Was A Fool.

Older fans had plenty to enjoy too, with faithful renditions of earlier singles like Walking With a Ghost and Back in Your Head. Even those who’d found their way to Tegan & Sara through their unlikely DJ collaborations were rewarded, as the night closed with an epic version of their song with Dutch trance DJ Tiesto, Feel It In My Bones.

Of course, so much of what sparkles about the Tegan & Sara live experience is the brutally honest, occasionally tense but always hilarious interplay between the 32-year old twins. Throughout the night, the pair expanded on the Heartthrob theme explored in their new music, dishing about everything from their shared childhood love of New Kids on the Block to their naive hope they’d become besties with Billy Corgan after a brief meeting.

Given the packs of rabid fans rushing to the front of the stage with each new song and ignoring the Opera House staff’s repeated pleas to sit down, there were more than a few Tegan & Sara fans with the same wish on Friday night.

INFO: Tegan & Sara play the Groovin’ The Moo Festival and their own headline shows until May 9. www.teganandsara.com/shows/

Read our interview with Sara Quin

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