Show Reviews: Tegan and Sara w/ Holly Miranda at the Ogden

“Waves” by Holly Miranda

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Dear Holly Miranda,

We are such assholes. Father Guido worked his bar job until 8:30 and when we reached Ogden Theatre, the box office fellow said you finished playing your set “like hours ago.” While we think he was being a bit hyperbolic, we still felt horrible being late as your people put us on the list. Blast those early all-ages shows.

So we decided to conduct a crowd survey on how your show went, interviewing intriguing strangers at random–because that’s how we roll–gathering data from a scientifically-sound sampling which included strippers, a Tegan & Sara fanboy, and Joe! But first, here are a few uber-important things we think people should know about you:

You’ve been writing and playing solo and with your band, The Jealous Girlfriends, for the better part of the aughts. A sultry and raspy-voiced Detroit musician, you sound similar to, and have toured with, our favorite band of the past year, The XX; you have a BFF/band member (?) named Timmy, just like Donnybrook’s BFF the Timmy T Machine; you have blog called The Magicians Private Library which is also the name of your recently-released album; and you hung out with GWAR and got punched in the face in a mosh-pit at SXSW.

Now! Onto some results from the survey:

The first couple of girls we talked to happened to be “skin club” employees at the Diamond Cabaret, and were super nice. Despite your name being on the marquee and all, they didn’t even know who you are, let alone catch your set–but they are Lady Gaga fans, and not very observant, so you shouldn’t be hurt. They did give me half a cigarette and then ran up front screaming when Tegan and Sara came on.

Thank god for fanboys, who are completely psyched to get to the show early. The Tegan & Sara fanboy said your set was really really great. Your voice was beautiful and your songwriting was aces. He said the second band, Steel Train, was kind of ‘meh.’ I’m sorry, Steel Train. You all should go check them out for yourselves and make your own opinion, although fanboys are pretty good barometers.

The man on the left is Joe McCabe, rock-and-roll photographer for Reverb. The man on the right is Ricardo Baca, Reverb’s El Presidente, UMS founder, and also the brother of Angora Holly Polo, true story. Next time you see a giant tall man who looks like Joe standing in front of you at a show, or a sunglassio’ed Ricardo for that matter, you have no right to bitch because now you know now that it’s their job to be up front. Check out Reverb’s review of that night.

Anyways Joe told us that you put on a great show, Holly Miranda, and that Steel Train was kind of ‘meh.’ He said the Tegan and Sara fans reminded him of ICP fans in that they all kept asking him to portray them in a good light. Make us look good, they said! He had to keep reminding them that he’s a photographer, not a writer, and probably wouldn’t be portraying them at all.

So that’s about it for the survey, I guess.

Then the emo twins Tegan and Sara came on. Sure, I’ve seen the DVD special on them, and I know how cute they are. They have this hip-yet-innocent Canadian rocker girl thing going on, replete with spiky haircuts. I get it. But their voices tend to grate on me throughout an entire album, and I was actually surprised they could fill the Ogden with fans and drive such an extravagant tour bus as was parked out front. Well, Father Guido loves ‘em, and so did the gigantic packed crowd at the Ogden, and now I see why. They put on an amazing show! They’re awesome people, too!

They connected with the crowd, telling stories about Popples growing up (remember Popples???), and then some possibly-drunk girl up front almost fainted and Tegan stopped the show for about five minutes, carefully (but still humorously) making sure she got to safety, asking security to help her out of the crowd and into a seat. How nice is that?

And they completely rocked it live. With the backing band combined with the neon ’80s stage light-show, their music took on a whole new dimension. It was a punk rock/’80s arena show. Father Guido and I are complete assholes–did I mention that yet?–so we tried to figure out which twin we like better. We think Tegan is more charismatic, but Sara is super hot in a delicate kind of way, but we think Tegan has a stronger voice, but Sara’s songs are some really fun ’80s shit. Which twin do you like better?

Anyways that was our night, and again I’m sorry, Holly Miranda, but we heard from a ton of people that you were great, so hopefully people will read this and still go to your show next time. Below are some pictures of your tour buddies, Tegan and Sara.

Signed,

Angora Holly Polo + Father Guido Sarducci IV

Scientists