Tegan and Sara Quinn stood on the Halifax Metro Centre stage, under simple lighting. After blasting open their show with two songs off the latest album, Heartthrob, they stepped forward, their band in darkness, and they were two women with guitars again.
“We haven’t been to Halifax in two years,” Tegan (I think it was Tegan, their voices are, well, identical. That’s how having your twin as your bandmate can be a downside, but mostly, very convenient for harmonizing) said. “So we need to play some old stuff.”
By now, you know we at Mixtape love Tegan and Sara’s updated, electro sound, and we’re big fans of their newest album, Heartthrob. But like any long-time fans, we are attached to the old stuff too. When they stopped in Halifax last night, they did not disappoint. It’s hard to mix simple songs written for acoustic guitar with multi-layered songs like “Feel It In My Bones” – recorded with DJ Tiesto – but they did it with ease. They played nearly the entire new album, but mixed in crowd pleasing favourites like “Where Does the Good Go,” “Alligator Tears” and closed their encore with “Living Room.”
The set included a backdrop with cubes emerging from a canvas inspired by the Heartthrob album cover and the light show played-up the 3D. Some of the newer songs came with videos that featured lyrics. A highlight was “All Messed Up” with tears blurring handwritten lines.
Lights was a no-brainer as the opener – her smooth electro-pop was a good lead-in to the new Tegan and Sara sound, and the audience knew her songs enough to dance and sing along to. Lights will join Tegan and Sara for the rest of the east coast tour, which wraps in Moncton tonight.
The audience was younger than they were in 2009 – the last time they played Halifax. The turn-out included Halifax hipsters, proud queers, teens and tweens, some with their moms who adorably mom-danced to Closer (the closing song), then herded their sleepy children home. Obviously, the popularity and accessibility of Heartthrob has attracted a new audience for the band.
Both bands played to the home crowd by flattering the charming image we in Halifax like to believe about ourselves: before the show, Lights strolled down the boardwalk and snapped an instagram pic with children’s TV show star/prop Theodore Tugboat, and called it “the cutest boat in the world”. Tegan Quinn greeted the audience with “good haircuts, good clothes, Halifax has style”. We’ll pretend they don’t love every city as much as they love Halifax.
Photos: Mixtape/Scott Blackburn