I love New York. Last night, completely unplanned, I went to a concert. The main performers were
Tegan and Sara, who I of course know of and whose music I thought I was familiar with, but it turns out--I wasn't! I know about four songs, almost all of which got played ("Superstar", from one of their earlier albums, wasn't; oh, and I don't think they played "I Know I Know I Know", either, which seems weird to me because that song was on
Grey's Anatomy, if not more shows, so...maybe I missed it? I don't know). Anyway, contrary to my friend
Katie's very nature, we got to the venue (
Webster Hall) in time to wait in the long-ass line that wrapped itself around two blocks. Randoms kept coming up to us and asking, "What's this line for?", like they thought we might say, "Free iPods--join in on the fun, the more the merrier!" or something. We got inside early enough to peruse the merch table (Katie bought a t-shirt; I bought a set of three Tegan and Sara buttons, one of which is for Cambria) and get a pretty good position about ten feet from the stage.
At just after 9:00, the opening band (
Northern State) came on. I'd never heard of them, and according to Katie her friend Pat said, "You'll either hate them, or sort of like them." So obviously we had high hopes. But I thought they were really super fun! They were basically the female version of a poor man's Beastie Boys, which is not to say they weren't energetic and funny and fairly fantastic. I mean, come on: three white Long Island girls in their mid- to late-twenties rapping and jumping around like three-year-olds high on birthday cake? Bound to be entertaining. The rapping was quite ridiculous--I mean, they aren't LFO or anything, rapping about "ruby red slippers and a bunch of trees", but their songs are sort of silly. Yet, they played two songs that were featured on
Grey's Anatomy ("Better Already" and "iluvitwhenya") that were actually quite good, and I'm also partial to "Away Away" as well. That said, however, they were far better live than they are on their CD, because I downloaded the music this morning and was much less enthused by the energy they brought. Still, probably the best opening act I'd ever seen, because they were highly entertaining and their songs were fun, and that's basically all I ask for in an opening act. Also, they had t-shirts that I thought were pretty awesome: see right. I totally want one and might actually order it online.
Katie is just so into Tegan and Sara; it's so much fun to see a band you like with someone who's SO INTO THEM, and I'm so glad she brought me. Tegan and Sara are a great act live. I mean, first of all, their music is fantastic, and their voices are so uniquely melodic that they can kind of lull you into a particular deep state of consciousness...or some crap like that. They also tell funny stories on stage throughout the set, which is apparently a throwback to when they didn't have enough material for a full show but wanted to give the crowd one anyway. They also do this adorable thing where they say "Thank you", very sweetly, after the applause after each song. But they don't take no shit--Tegan good-naturedly gave this heckler in the back a tongue-lashing when he kept saying obnoxious things between songs. I hate hecklers; why they come is totally beyond me. Don't you have something better to do with $25? Also a great thing about Tegan and Sara is that if you get bored (which is difficult, but not impossible, especially when you don't know all the songs) you can always occupy yourself with trying to figure out which one is which. Apparently they're identical, technically, but they do look different, so while differentiating them is not hard--like, if they switched sides of the stage between songs, you would notice--if you don't know which is which to start off with, you can spend hours trying to decide. I was wrong with my guesses, but whatever; I still enjoyed the show very much.
At the end of the show they did this thing where they announced the last song, then admitted they'd be back for an encore, and asked us not to clap after the last song or before the encore, but just be absolutely silent and then when they came back out for the encore we would be super loud. Well, of course some drunk assholes forgot, and some purposefully tried to ruin it, but for the most part people were pretty quiet and when they came back on stage it
was really loud. Good times.
God, it was so packed. There were times when people were jumping up and down so much I really thought the floor was going to cave in to the basement below; I could feel the hardwood floor bending under the weight. For the most part the other people in the crowd were cool, but every once and a while you'd get some really obnoxious girls who would push forward and stand in front of me, like they had every right to be there, and then they would kind of lean back so that not only were their heads in my way, but they were also sort of pushing me backwards. One couple in particular I wanted to just smack; this blond girl and her girlfriend, I think, who was really skinny and had a strange Joey Lawrence (WHOA!) haircut and smelled terribly like B.O., pushed in front of me and then the smelly girlfriend was all bopping around to the music and kept hitting me with her elbows. I kept exchanging "WTF?" glances with this girl standing next to them, who was very sympathetic, and with Katie. It really ruined a bit of my Northern State experience, but eventually they left and never came back. (I didn't mean for that to sound so sinister; I never saw them again, but I'm sure they were still there somewhere.)
Katie wrote down all the songs they played throughout the entire concert, which I didn't really understand, but I asked her to send it to me so if she is eventually able to decipher her own handwriting I'll add it to this post. They played "Walking With a Ghost" during the encore, though, that I know. I'm rambling and digressing because I can't think of a good way to end this post, so maybe I'll just say TEGAN AND SARA RAWK! and leave it at that.
ETA: Oh my God, I totally forgot--pretty much the funniest part of the concert was when they started playing this song that you could tell everybody recognized but nobody could really place it. Finally, I shouted to Katie, "It's 'Umbrella'!" What is it with artists and "Umbrella"? Rhianna did it, it was a hit, fine (I totally loved it, I'm not going to lie; still do, in fact). Then that chick whose name I don't know (maybe she was French? Or had a French name?) covered it, but made it really slow. And
then Mandy Moore covered that slow cover! And now Tegan and Sara are playing it at their concert (BTW, it was the best version I'd heard, better than the original even, which is so catchy)...I just don't get it. Is it like some big music industry in-joke, that everybody's going to keep covering "Umbrella" because it's funny? I'm confused, but amused. (God, maybe that should be the new title of my personal blog.)
ETA some more: Katie emailed me the set list from the concert (which, curiously, I don't think has a name--"The Con", I guess). She doesn't think she got it all right, but it's probably pretty close.
1. Dark Come Soon (The Con)
2. Like O, Like H (The Con)
3. Nineteen (The Con)
4. Hop A Plane (The Con)
5. Speak Slow (So Jealous)
6. So Jealous (So Jealous)
7. "Your House" (she can't remember)
8, Where Does the Good Go (So Jealous)
9. Soil, Soil (The Con)
10. "Don't Need You" (again, can't remember)
11. Relief Next to Me (The Con)
12. Are You 10 Years Ago (The Con)
13. Back In Your Head (The Con)
14. The Con (The Con)
15. Call It Off (The Con)
Encore
1. You Wouldn't Like Me (So Jealous)
2. Take Me Anywhere (So Jealous)
3. Umbrella
4. Walking With a Ghost (So Jealous)
5. Living Room (If It Was You)
Labels: concerts, music, New York, Northern State, Tegan and Sara
