Tegan and Sara @ Bogart's, 5/9/08
Tegan and Sara / An Horse
I think that everyone who grew up as a music fan in Cincinnati in the past 30 years or so has some sort of relationship with Bogart's. Maybe it was where you first saw Sonic Youth, or where your friend's band played the high school band challenge, or where you got elbowed in the head and passed out because it was too hot, or whatever. Everyone has a story, and memories. Most people seem to have fairly negative memories due to the expensive beer and the excessively unpleasant staff, but some of us remember it fondly as the place where we saw some damn good shows and learned how to love good music.
Tegan and Sara dropped by Bogart's a few days ago for a sold out all-ages show. That was the fourth time that I had seen these Canadian identical twin sisters, and it was as good a show as any I have seen them put on. The opening band was an Australian duo called An Horse that sounded sort of like if Tegan and Sara were actually Tegan (playing electric guitar) and Some Dude (who plays drums and sings). Which is to say that they were pretty awesome and that their singer/guitarist had a truly beautiful blue Fender Mustang with racing stripes. That is a guitar, for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about.
Tegan and Sara are currently on tour supporting The Con, which came out last year and is one of the best breakup albums to come out in a really long time. They played most of the album and stayed fairly faithful to the versions on the record, with the exception of a few songs that got stripped down and which Tegan and Sara played without the three other backing members of the group. They also played songs from their earlier albums, and it seemed like the crowd knew them just as well as they knew the newer material. Which is to say that they knew them really well.
The fans at the show seemed like mostly high school and maybe college kids, and mostly female. But, wow, did they love the band. One girl made a huge sign encouraging people to clap over their heads (which Sara asked if she could have to take with them to future shows) and another tossed her cellphone to Sara with a message on it about how she loved them. Some of the more endearing moments of the night came when Sara and Tegan were interacting with fans, like when it took Sara a few minutes to figure out what the girl wanted her to do with the cell phone, at which point Tegan intervened and read the text, and then offered to respond to a text that the girl's dad had sent asking how she was doing. Someone else also apparently had a sign that asked Sara if she would be that person's first Sweet 16 kiss. Sara claimed that she was a bit too old to be kissing 16-year-olds but said that there was surely another (younger) Sara in the place who would be happy for a kiss.
My personal favorite moment of the night came when some fans who had been at their show in Indianapolis the previous night. They sent up a huge card saying that they really wanted to hear "I Know I Know I Know" which Tegan had apparently forgotten all of the words to the previous night. So, in order to be helpful, they had made huge cue cards with all of the words to the song on them. Sara and their drummer held up the cards while Tegan tried to play the song and read the cards at the same time. Hilarity ensued. At one point she stopped playing and yelled at Sara that she was holding the wrong card and then waited until Sara found and held up the right one. Then, of course, there was the moment when Sara said it was time for their last song. She then explained that there would be an encore whether or not we clapped, but that it made her really happy when people clapped and cheered so it would be very exciting for them if we could cheer before they came out for the encore. It may not sound all that great, but it really was.
In any case, Tegan and Sara are awesome, The Con is awesome, and if you ever get a chance to see them live you should totally take it. The shows would be worth it for the fans and stage banter alone, but the songs are also amazing, and it is always so nice to see a band that takes the time to interact with its fans. So, hey, Tegan and Sara, if you ever read this, could you send me your autograph or something?
I think that everyone who grew up as a music fan in Cincinnati in the past 30 years or so has some sort of relationship with Bogart's. Maybe it was where you first saw Sonic Youth, or where your friend's band played the high school band challenge, or where you got elbowed in the head and passed out because it was too hot, or whatever. Everyone has a story, and memories. Most people seem to have fairly negative memories due to the expensive beer and the excessively unpleasant staff, but some of us remember it fondly as the place where we saw some damn good shows and learned how to love good music.
Tegan and Sara dropped by Bogart's a few days ago for a sold out all-ages show. That was the fourth time that I had seen these Canadian identical twin sisters, and it was as good a show as any I have seen them put on. The opening band was an Australian duo called An Horse that sounded sort of like if Tegan and Sara were actually Tegan (playing electric guitar) and Some Dude (who plays drums and sings). Which is to say that they were pretty awesome and that their singer/guitarist had a truly beautiful blue Fender Mustang with racing stripes. That is a guitar, for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about.
Tegan and Sara are currently on tour supporting The Con, which came out last year and is one of the best breakup albums to come out in a really long time. They played most of the album and stayed fairly faithful to the versions on the record, with the exception of a few songs that got stripped down and which Tegan and Sara played without the three other backing members of the group. They also played songs from their earlier albums, and it seemed like the crowd knew them just as well as they knew the newer material. Which is to say that they knew them really well.
The fans at the show seemed like mostly high school and maybe college kids, and mostly female. But, wow, did they love the band. One girl made a huge sign encouraging people to clap over their heads (which Sara asked if she could have to take with them to future shows) and another tossed her cellphone to Sara with a message on it about how she loved them. Some of the more endearing moments of the night came when Sara and Tegan were interacting with fans, like when it took Sara a few minutes to figure out what the girl wanted her to do with the cell phone, at which point Tegan intervened and read the text, and then offered to respond to a text that the girl's dad had sent asking how she was doing. Someone else also apparently had a sign that asked Sara if she would be that person's first Sweet 16 kiss. Sara claimed that she was a bit too old to be kissing 16-year-olds but said that there was surely another (younger) Sara in the place who would be happy for a kiss.
My personal favorite moment of the night came when some fans who had been at their show in Indianapolis the previous night. They sent up a huge card saying that they really wanted to hear "I Know I Know I Know" which Tegan had apparently forgotten all of the words to the previous night. So, in order to be helpful, they had made huge cue cards with all of the words to the song on them. Sara and their drummer held up the cards while Tegan tried to play the song and read the cards at the same time. Hilarity ensued. At one point she stopped playing and yelled at Sara that she was holding the wrong card and then waited until Sara found and held up the right one. Then, of course, there was the moment when Sara said it was time for their last song. She then explained that there would be an encore whether or not we clapped, but that it made her really happy when people clapped and cheered so it would be very exciting for them if we could cheer before they came out for the encore. It may not sound all that great, but it really was.
In any case, Tegan and Sara are awesome, The Con is awesome, and if you ever get a chance to see them live you should totally take it. The shows would be worth it for the fans and stage banter alone, but the songs are also amazing, and it is always so nice to see a band that takes the time to interact with its fans. So, hey, Tegan and Sara, if you ever read this, could you send me your autograph or something?