Consider my mind blown.
So Wednesday was the Tegan & Sara and Death Cab concert. Holy shit... it was fantastic.
We got there, and the line to get in the venue went all the way down the street... so we hiked to the end and Alli dropped her ticket along the way, and that could have been a fiasco, but some kind stranger was like "Hey dumbass, you dropped something".
We get in the venue and realize that it is the exact same place we went to see The Killers at four years ago, the name just changed. So that was kind of a nice little serendipity. The spot where we finally ended up was a lot better than the spot we finally ended up at for the Killers show.
There were a lot of pretentious indie kids who were only there for Death Cab. The kid who was standing next to me was hating on Tegan & Sara up until the time we moved. Oh well, he was fat anyway. I had made it my mantra that no one was going to ruin Tegan & Sara for me and I stuck by that.
The band that came on first was City & Color, which was not even on the ticket. It's this one guy who's really fucking adorable who's been touring with Tegan & Sara. He was good. He had a nice voice and played five really depressing songs. Alli described him as the "American Damien Rice", which is fairly accurate.
That's Dallas Green: the guy from City & Color... just wanted to share that 'cause I think he's cute as hell. I didn't take this picture, I had to dig it up on Google Image Search. No, I'm not going to put this under an LJ-cut; consider your friends page raped.
Then a bunch of people went to pee or something and we got to move closer to the front. Then Tegan & Sara came on and I about shit. And now I'm going to do a nerdy, song-by-song recap of their portion of the show, because it was the highlight of my week.
You Wouldn't Like Me: It's ironic that they opened with this song, because they closed the last Tegan & Sara show I went to with it. At the time of that show I hated this song, but I've since come to terms with it. It's okay, and a lot better live.
I Bet It Stung: Totally wasn't expecting this song to get played on this tour. But damn I was excited for it. This may have been the best performance of the whole evening. This song just rocks so fucking hard live.
Burn Your Life Down: The first song they played from The Con (their most recent album; the first two songs were from So Jealous). Honestly it was kind of a low point in the show for me. Didn't translate as well to the stage as the previous two songs did. But whatever, it didn't stop me from singing it at the top of my lungs.
Walking With A Ghost: I knew they were gonna play it; they have to play it: it's their big hit. But that's cool; this is another song that is a lot better live than it is on the album.
Hop A Plane/Superstar: They did a medly of these two songs and it was really bitchin' because "Hop A Plane" is from the new record and "Superstar" is from their very first record. I was really shocked when I learned they were playing "Superstar" on this tour, partly because it's so old, and partly because Tegan openly hates this song. But there's a certain part of the T&S fanbase who looooooooooooove "Superstar" (the crazy, fandyke portion) and beg them to play it every tour, so I guess they just finally conceded. At any rate, I will never complain about them playing old stuff.
Relief Next To Me: This was a good version of this song. The album version is really endearing and quirky, but the way they played it at the show was so slow and intense; it was great.
Like O, Like H: This was one of the songs from The Con that I was really looking forward to hearing live. It's just a weird ass song and I dig hardcore. This along with "Relief Next To Me" and "Living Room" made a nice medly of weird songs, one after the other.
Living Room: The only song they played from If It Was You. Always great live because it's just got this spooky riff (that on the album they play on a banjo, but live they play it on a guitar, making it a lot harsher) and really paranoid lyrics. This is another big favorite among the fandykes.
Nineteen: I'm gonna be honest, I'm not too sure this is where this song fell in the setlist. In fact, I have no idea where on the setlist this song was, but I know they played it because everybody loves it and Alli was like "OMG I LOVE THIS SONG!"
Call It Off: The newest single from The Con and my favorite song from that album. Slow, sad, everything I expected from this song. Also, I think this was the song that Tegan dedicated to everybody who's voting for Obama. Then she went on a tirade about how much she hates McCain, which was great, because she said something like "Did you guys watch the debate the other night? ... Didn't you just wanna run up there and punch McCain in the face? ... I probably wouldn't punch him, I would just run up there almost do it and then be like 'PSYCH!' ... Then give him two for flinching." Of course, right behind us was the ONLY obnoxious, heterosexual, republican in the place screaming "I'm voting for McCain because I like my money!" and I was like "Bitch you're eighteen, you don't have any fucking money! ... And what the hell is someone like you doning at a freaking Death Cab For Cutie concert?"
Where Does The Good Go: I was happy they played this instead of "I Know, I Know, I Know" (they could have gone with either one, because they're both really catchy, extremely popular songs from So Jealous). I like "I Know, I Know, I Know" but "Where Does The Good Go" just have really fantastic harmonization.
Speak Slow: It's probably the catchiest song they've ever written, which makes is great live... But it's not exactly deep, so there isn't much more to say about it.
One Second: I had been waiting all fucking night for this song. I love, love, love, love, LOVE this song... I seriously think it's the best song Tegan has ever written and when I learned they had been playing it this tour I was like "WTF OMG STFU!" Because it's not even on any of their albums. It's on an EP called I'll Take The Blame that they released last fall and ever since then I've pretty much just had this song on repeat continuously and, ya know, it's not that often that any band plays a non-album song live. I was in fucking heaven. I was also the only person in the crowd who knew all the words to this song.
The Con: After they finished "One Second", they said they were doing two more songs and they Death Cab was coming on. And I said to Alli and Jess "I bet you anything, it's 'The Con' and 'Back In Your Head', in that order". And I was right. "The Con" was great. It's the most popular song on the album and Alli had another "OMG I love this song!" moment.
Back In Your Head: Originally I thought they might play "Call It Off" last, because it's the newest single and it's a slow song, but then they played it during the middle of the show and I figured "Okay, they must be closing with Back In Your Head", because it's the big hit from The Con. It was great, of course. Super catchy, super endearing. We were singing it the rest of the night.
Other highlights included Sara's hair (she has the emo boy haircut), their new drummer that looks like Chris Cornell, and a fandyke screaming "SARA I LOVE YOU!!!" and Sara being like "... I know you want me to say I love you too... but you're a stranger... but I think you're great, nonetheless."
Then Death Cab came on, and they rocked way harder than I ever expected them too. They played mostly songs I didn't know, but that was okay because they all were really fucking awesome. Ben Gibbard (their singer) has lost a ton of weight and has ridiculous sideburns and is looking pretty hot, I'm not gonna lie. They have amazing stage presents and from where we were standing I could see them perfectly. Just a great show all-around. THEN for an encore... THEY DID SIX SONGS... SIX FREAKING SONGS... That's unheard of! I've NEVER heard of a band doing more than three songs for an encore. Highlights included "Cath", "Long Division", and "I Will Follow You Into the Dark", which Jess cried a little during. Have to admit, that "blackest of moons" line was really crazy hearing a hundred-and-some people going "ooooooooooo" on "moon". Very intense.
Then we left, and got Taco Bell, and they screwed up Jess's order, and she was pissed.
Peace:
BRAD
We got there, and the line to get in the venue went all the way down the street... so we hiked to the end and Alli dropped her ticket along the way, and that could have been a fiasco, but some kind stranger was like "Hey dumbass, you dropped something".
We get in the venue and realize that it is the exact same place we went to see The Killers at four years ago, the name just changed. So that was kind of a nice little serendipity. The spot where we finally ended up was a lot better than the spot we finally ended up at for the Killers show.
There were a lot of pretentious indie kids who were only there for Death Cab. The kid who was standing next to me was hating on Tegan & Sara up until the time we moved. Oh well, he was fat anyway. I had made it my mantra that no one was going to ruin Tegan & Sara for me and I stuck by that.
The band that came on first was City & Color, which was not even on the ticket. It's this one guy who's really fucking adorable who's been touring with Tegan & Sara. He was good. He had a nice voice and played five really depressing songs. Alli described him as the "American Damien Rice", which is fairly accurate.
That's Dallas Green: the guy from City & Color... just wanted to share that 'cause I think he's cute as hell. I didn't take this picture, I had to dig it up on Google Image Search. No, I'm not going to put this under an LJ-cut; consider your friends page raped.
Then a bunch of people went to pee or something and we got to move closer to the front. Then Tegan & Sara came on and I about shit. And now I'm going to do a nerdy, song-by-song recap of their portion of the show, because it was the highlight of my week.
You Wouldn't Like Me: It's ironic that they opened with this song, because they closed the last Tegan & Sara show I went to with it. At the time of that show I hated this song, but I've since come to terms with it. It's okay, and a lot better live.
I Bet It Stung: Totally wasn't expecting this song to get played on this tour. But damn I was excited for it. This may have been the best performance of the whole evening. This song just rocks so fucking hard live.
Burn Your Life Down: The first song they played from The Con (their most recent album; the first two songs were from So Jealous). Honestly it was kind of a low point in the show for me. Didn't translate as well to the stage as the previous two songs did. But whatever, it didn't stop me from singing it at the top of my lungs.
Walking With A Ghost: I knew they were gonna play it; they have to play it: it's their big hit. But that's cool; this is another song that is a lot better live than it is on the album.
Hop A Plane/Superstar: They did a medly of these two songs and it was really bitchin' because "Hop A Plane" is from the new record and "Superstar" is from their very first record. I was really shocked when I learned they were playing "Superstar" on this tour, partly because it's so old, and partly because Tegan openly hates this song. But there's a certain part of the T&S fanbase who looooooooooooove "Superstar" (the crazy, fandyke portion) and beg them to play it every tour, so I guess they just finally conceded. At any rate, I will never complain about them playing old stuff.
Relief Next To Me: This was a good version of this song. The album version is really endearing and quirky, but the way they played it at the show was so slow and intense; it was great.
Like O, Like H: This was one of the songs from The Con that I was really looking forward to hearing live. It's just a weird ass song and I dig hardcore. This along with "Relief Next To Me" and "Living Room" made a nice medly of weird songs, one after the other.
Living Room: The only song they played from If It Was You. Always great live because it's just got this spooky riff (that on the album they play on a banjo, but live they play it on a guitar, making it a lot harsher) and really paranoid lyrics. This is another big favorite among the fandykes.
Nineteen: I'm gonna be honest, I'm not too sure this is where this song fell in the setlist. In fact, I have no idea where on the setlist this song was, but I know they played it because everybody loves it and Alli was like "OMG I LOVE THIS SONG!"
Call It Off: The newest single from The Con and my favorite song from that album. Slow, sad, everything I expected from this song. Also, I think this was the song that Tegan dedicated to everybody who's voting for Obama. Then she went on a tirade about how much she hates McCain, which was great, because she said something like "Did you guys watch the debate the other night? ... Didn't you just wanna run up there and punch McCain in the face? ... I probably wouldn't punch him, I would just run up there almost do it and then be like 'PSYCH!' ... Then give him two for flinching." Of course, right behind us was the ONLY obnoxious, heterosexual, republican in the place screaming "I'm voting for McCain because I like my money!" and I was like "Bitch you're eighteen, you don't have any fucking money! ... And what the hell is someone like you doning at a freaking Death Cab For Cutie concert?"
Where Does The Good Go: I was happy they played this instead of "I Know, I Know, I Know" (they could have gone with either one, because they're both really catchy, extremely popular songs from So Jealous). I like "I Know, I Know, I Know" but "Where Does The Good Go" just have really fantastic harmonization.
Speak Slow: It's probably the catchiest song they've ever written, which makes is great live... But it's not exactly deep, so there isn't much more to say about it.
One Second: I had been waiting all fucking night for this song. I love, love, love, love, LOVE this song... I seriously think it's the best song Tegan has ever written and when I learned they had been playing it this tour I was like "WTF OMG STFU!" Because it's not even on any of their albums. It's on an EP called I'll Take The Blame that they released last fall and ever since then I've pretty much just had this song on repeat continuously and, ya know, it's not that often that any band plays a non-album song live. I was in fucking heaven. I was also the only person in the crowd who knew all the words to this song.
The Con: After they finished "One Second", they said they were doing two more songs and they Death Cab was coming on. And I said to Alli and Jess "I bet you anything, it's 'The Con' and 'Back In Your Head', in that order". And I was right. "The Con" was great. It's the most popular song on the album and Alli had another "OMG I love this song!" moment.
Back In Your Head: Originally I thought they might play "Call It Off" last, because it's the newest single and it's a slow song, but then they played it during the middle of the show and I figured "Okay, they must be closing with Back In Your Head", because it's the big hit from The Con. It was great, of course. Super catchy, super endearing. We were singing it the rest of the night.
Other highlights included Sara's hair (she has the emo boy haircut), their new drummer that looks like Chris Cornell, and a fandyke screaming "SARA I LOVE YOU!!!" and Sara being like "... I know you want me to say I love you too... but you're a stranger... but I think you're great, nonetheless."
Then Death Cab came on, and they rocked way harder than I ever expected them too. They played mostly songs I didn't know, but that was okay because they all were really fucking awesome. Ben Gibbard (their singer) has lost a ton of weight and has ridiculous sideburns and is looking pretty hot, I'm not gonna lie. They have amazing stage presents and from where we were standing I could see them perfectly. Just a great show all-around. THEN for an encore... THEY DID SIX SONGS... SIX FREAKING SONGS... That's unheard of! I've NEVER heard of a band doing more than three songs for an encore. Highlights included "Cath", "Long Division", and "I Will Follow You Into the Dark", which Jess cried a little during. Have to admit, that "blackest of moons" line was really crazy hearing a hundred-and-some people going "ooooooooooo" on "moon". Very intense.
Then we left, and got Taco Bell, and they screwed up Jess's order, and she was pissed.
Peace:
BRAD