is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talented Hamsters in Need of Banter Editor.
Natalie and I just saw Tegan and Sara play at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. They put on a really good show. And the Brava Theater is a good place to see a show. The sound was good, everyone had a comfy seat,and all the seats had a good view of the stage.
Who knew? The Brava Theater is basically right next door to my friend Levon's restaurant, where I eat all the time, and I had somehow managed never to become aware of its existence until tonight. Natalie and I laughed when we realized where it was, because she had actually printed out Mapquest directions to get us there.
So I really liked the Tegan and Sara show. Except that they talked too much. I mean, I do like their banter, but sometimes the stories are too long, or too precious, or too boring. And then there are too many of them. The show was two hours long, but I doubt there were that many more songs than an hour-long show put on by more reticent between-song-talkers would have offered.
One dumb-loud-audience-guy tried to get them to move on once, but he did it so inelegantly that the audience turned on him.
So. Too much banter, but their musical performances were great. Before the show I was worried that in concert that might be too hamster-y (given that I do like their music but that sometimes I suspect they are actually twin girl Canadian hamsters instead of merely being Canadian twins) (I suspect that because of a strange kind of vocal affect towards which they sometimes tend). But I really liked the show, their voices sound great live (it is Sara who tends more toward hamster, I have discovered, though Tegan is still hamster-ready), they play their instruments well, and their backing band is good. I do recommend seeing them.
But here's the thing. During the first three songs I was already planning on going out and buying tickets to a show in New York or Philly, so I could see them again, and maybe even take Gus (who hasn't heard them, and may or may not like them). But by the 8th or 14th song I had already decided that once was more than enough. And not because of the music! No, only because of the banter. And, like I said, not because the banter was bad, but because there was way too much of it.
What they need is a ruthless editor. Some frank person needs to leave ruth in the dust and tell those twin hamsters to pipe down.
They played their whole new album, and it sounds like it has at least four really good songs on it, which is a good number for me to arrive at with a bunch of songs I've only heard once. I tend to like to let songs and records grow on me a bit. Their new album comes out tomorrow. I will probably buy it. In fact I will probably buy it tomorrow, because John Vanderslice's new album also comes out tomorrow, so I will probably be at a record store.
Meanwhile back at the Tegan and Sara show, they played their whole new album first, like maybe they wanted to hold us hostage before giving us the songs we might have come to hear? That's fine. I'm patient and I like to hear music played live. But I think the combination of a whole hour of songs I had never heard before and the relentless we-are-twin-sister banter rendered me inert by the time the songs that might have made me move appeared. That's not really a complaint, only an observation that they may have had a more responsive audience throughout if they mixed up the old and the new rather than starting with a barrage of the new.
My criticisms of the show are all structural, leaving the content of the music untouched.
10:59 p.m. - July 23, 2007
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
