EPIC {{arts & entertainment}}

To celebrate the release of their latest album, ‘Sainthood’, Tegan and Sara announced a European tour, the oh so imaginatively named Sainthood tour. On the 14th November, the two girls along with their band and their crew, and a very strange supporting act that went by the name Astronautalis, rolled into Manchester. The line outside (I’ve heard) began at some point around midday. I hope you all remember the times where you’d queue for hours to see your favourite bands, because the girls at the front of this queue weren’t your typical 14 year olds with nothing better to do than wait for hours to see their favourite band, they battled through the atrocious rain that seemed to appear every time Tegan and Sara step foot in Manchester, and kept their place at the front of the queue (while some of us were smart enough to go find somewhere warm, for an all you can eat chinese buffet).

Now the thing I’ve noticed when it comes to Tegan and Sara’s support acts, is that you never really know what you’re going to find when the first ‘band’ hits the stage. Last year, on their spring tour, we were graced with Northern State, and on their one off London and Glasgow shows, you had An Horse. This time, a white guy, in a shirt and tie that looked nothing more than a sound check guy strolled onto the stage with his macbook in hand and began to rap, advising people to steal from their friends and to drop out of college, only to later inform them that everything he had said onstage up until that point was a lie. Though his degree in ‘lighting design’ had thus far gotten him nowhere, after all, he was stood infront of several hundred girls, and a few guys, rapping his way through his set and reminiscing about his friendship with Tupac Shakur. This guys name was ‘Astronautalis’ whom you can check out here. I can probably say that 99% of the room, those of us that weren’t at the London show the night before, were stood, jaws dropped at the sight of this guy putting his heart and soul into something so ridiculous and entertaining, and being so humbled to be on tour with Tegan and Sara.

Tegan and Sara, the two sisters who can put on more than a show, they took the stage next. And I’m pretty sure that their show is so obscenely long purely so that they can fill it with their unprepared banter and chats with the crowd. They came on to the sounds of Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, bursting straight into the Con. Two competely contrasting styles of music, but with these girls, they can get away with murder. I won’t say much about their set, considering it was made up of oldies and new songs that were a delight to everybodies ears because, the way they perform is something magic. But the real treat when you go to a Tegan and Sara show is how completely entertaining they are, and how personal they make it. With a drunk girl screaming ‘you wot you wot’ up to the stage, and Sara taking this as an opportunity to engage with the crowd and mock the girl completely harmlessly, you can’t help but love them. Little anecdotes between songs, that usually come from Tegan have the crowd laughing ridiculously, especially when we hear all about Tegan’s fear of bees and how this resulted in a broken window in one of her first apartments. Hint: girlfriend, shoe, Tegan screaming. Sara’s own attempt at giving some sort of background story behind one of their new songs meant the crowd twisted her words, embarrassing her, Tegan saying she wasn’t being embarrassed, that the hairflip was because she was being slutty, “this isn’t even about Christina, it’s about her mom!” Out of all of the times that I’ve seen these girls, I can say that in a smaller venue they shine more than ever, and I can promise you, if you go to a Tegan and Sara show, you’ll have a hard time not laughing.

See more photos from the show here, keep up with their tour goings on here, and see their upcoming shows in Europe, Canada and the states here.