Doing Their Best to Rock Out - Tegan and Sara at the Warner Theater

The Warner Theater provided an extravagant setting for an equally unrestrained concert put on by the female duo Tegan and Sara Wednesday night. The artists, twins, are perhaps best known among the general public for choice songs on hit shows such as Grey’s Anatomy. But to hear the crowd at the Warner last night, you would think them to be rock stars in the vain of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

The show began at a low simmer with two opening acts – Steel Train, an all-male quintet from New Jersey with a British rock/Kings of Leon feel; and Holly Miranda, who both sounded like Juno started a band and looked like her, too. With this hour-long wait, the crowd was stirring with pent-up energy that released itself with an excited roar when Tegan and Sara stepped on stage.

They began with a relatively low-key new release, “The Ocean.” This opener and the next few songs didn’t get the crowd from their seats, as the songs were all from their new album Sainthood and were simply less well known. But at Sara’s invitation the crowd stood, and exploded into shouts and applause with the first chords of the classic “Where Does the Good Go.” The band played a good mix of old and new pieces throughout the rest of the set (having warned the audience that this would occur at the beginning of the show). Their characteristic banter kept the audience laughing and cheering all night.

At one point, a man interrupted Sara with the request, “Rock out Sara!”

“Doing my best,” she replied, “Doing my best to rock out.”

The energy the rest of the concert was so high that Tegan and Sara joked PCP and ecstasy were handed out at the door to all of the ticket holders.

“We’ll be talking about this concert for a long time,” Tegan commented.

A highlight for this reviewer was an acoustic version of club favorite “Feel It in My Bones,” a collaboration with hip-hop artist Tiesto. They commented that the real version would probably be heard at a rave, but the combination of their voices and a lone guitar made the acoustic particularly stirring, and quite typical of Tegan and Sara. The duo is known for their adversarial song style, voices competing against each other both in volume and in offsetting harmony. This was amplified last night by the simple fact of rock concert volume, but even more so by their enthusiasm for the music and their overwhelming appreciation for the loving audience. The experience of Tegan and Sara live is of far greater worth than any ticket price.