Thebarton Theatre, a delightfully thespian-inspired venue, seems the perfect choice for Tegan and Sara Quin to spill their declarations of love and rejection across their shorthaired, tartan-clad fanbase.
Renowned for their heartbreakingly sincere ballads, which delve deeply into teenage insecurities and love affairs, this ever-evolving Canadian duo has moved past the bitter regret of their earlier indie-rock albums and leapt towards the confident synth-pop sonics of their 2013 album, Heartthrob.
Still littered with the desperate pleas and accusations that are characteristic of their musical repertoire, their latest LP welcomes a sleeker, more reflective attitude on these affairs.
This sleekness transcends their music and finds its way to the twins own aesthetics – with each dressed in shaped-to-fit clothing and sporting clean-cut hairstyles. Having surpassed their teens by over a decade now, this new look and sound becomes them – a reflection of the clarity of their newfound direction.
It seemed fitting, therefore, that they should perform the majority of the tracks from Heartthrob throughout their 90-minute set. With a dynamic, beating pulse covering the remnant acoustics of each tune, Tegan and Sara clawed the crowd back to the angst of their younger years.
The charming rapport built through their music, matched with their own hopping banter, warmed the dancing crowd and drew a sense of universality into the intimacy of their songs.
“You Drove Me Wild” opened the show and, as scattered mosaics of the twins’ faces flickered across the background, jumped the set into the pop-heaviness of the album.
Followed by “I’m Not Your Hero”, “Goodbye, Goodbye” and “I Couldn’t Be Your Friend”, each lyric was another prayer to a distant lover, aurally drawn into existence by the brooding turmoil of the upbeat melodies.
Making a compromise with the crowd – dictating that the more response to their new music they received, the more they would want to play their older music – the Quin sisters held the attentions of the venue with an expert ease.
This promise was kept by the musicians, performing the pleadingly tense “Back In Your Head”, the self-doubting “The Con”, the viscerally homely “Where Does The Good Go?”, and the jarring “Arrow” in succession.
With each memory hanging off of insecure sentiments, “How Come You Don’t Want Me Now?” epitomised their cyclical hopelessness, with the lyrics falling in and out of emotionally charged canyons.
This was comparable to the tragedy of “Now I’m All Messed Up”, its heartbreaking iteration allowing these twins to completely relinquish themselves to their youth. Volleying between the lines “go” and “please stay”, the twins’ vulnerability called forward images of passionate defeat and unrequited infatuations.
This was disparate, however, with the beating urgencies and carnalities of “Closer”, which is an empowered vote of confidence to the sisters. Performed with the energy and wry candour their eighteen-year strong career has allowed them, the audiences own energy was reflected back to them in full.
However, the highlights of the show weren’t until after the proper set had reached an end. The acoustic-driven encore of “Call it Off”, “Nineteen”, “I Feel You in My Bones” and a clever medley introduced as “all the songs you wish we played, but didn’t” drove the point home that this poppy indie-rock outfit are moving forward musically, while still retaining their core talents and values.
With their warmly welcoming quirk, Tegan and Sara offered up their hearts with each new tune. The vulnerability of their music and the lack of resolution held within added charm and a sense of truth to their crushingly honest performance.
The calibre of their live act is unparalleled in respect to their recordings; they build their harmonies to astral heights, flinging lyrics back and forth with a powerful urgency, and watch as these sentiments crash down upon the listeners in memories of teenage injustices.
