Tegan and Sara came into town on a cold Friday night in Boston at The Wilbur for a sold out show. But this wasn’t like any other Tegan and Sara show. This one was special and intimate and something Tegan and Sara have never done before, so the crowd was in for a real treat. Tegan and Sara reign from Calgary, Alberta, Canada and are fresh off of their release of their ninth studio album Hey, I’m Just Like You which is an album of rerecorded songs from their adolescence, songs they wrote as teenagers. The new album accompanies their newly released memoir High School which is now on the New York Time’s best sellers list.
The Hey, I’m Just Like You Tour is in support of their new album and memoir. The show at The Wilbur started off with a video of Tegan and Sara informing the crowd that cell phones and cameras were not to be used. Tegan and Sara wanted this tour to be different from their others in the sense that they really wanted people to live in the moment and be present. The sisters then came out on stage and opened the show up reading a short story from their childhood. The stage was set up with a bookshelf holding all of the books in which Tegan and Sara would read from throughout the show. After reading the first story they went into song, playing “Hey, I’m Just Like You” acoustically, which set the tone for how the rest of the night would carry on. In a way they set up the show in an order that told the story of their teen years and how they came to write these songs on Hey, I’m Just Like You as well as songs from their other popular albums. The show had a format in which Tegan and Sara would read a short story or memory from their adolescence, play a song or two that would go along with said story, show a home video of them, and then chat with the crowd about the story behind the videos while fitting in some twin banter. From all the videos, stories, and songs, you can tell just how much Tegan and Sara have grown together.
In the early years they explained how they didn’t get along too much, until they found out about drugs and specifically acid. They laughed about how their acid trips would affect them but in actuality it made them become closer and it really changed their relationship. They bonded over so much and started making more music together. They told the story of how they found their step dad’s guitar and how monumental that was in their career. They didn’t really know what they were doing at the time but just had fun jamming out and bonding over making music, even if it didn’t sound good at the time. They played music more and more and started to get better. Music for them was an outlet as they described. It was a way for them to talk about things and deal with feelings that were not that easy to deal with. Sara was able to talk about her feelings of being gay through music and so was Tegan. They each had a special moment in the show where each of them would sing a song solo that pertained to a story they had just read about themselves. Sara sang the hit song “Boyfriend” and Tegan sang “I Was a Fool”. The night closed out with the sisters singing “Where Does The Good Go” insisting that the crowd had to sing along with them. The crowd eagerly sang along in unison and it was such a beautiful moment. Everyone was glowing. Tegan and Sara thanked the crowd for coming and told them that if they could take away something from this show it would be to not be afraid to be your true self and to have more compassion for others. It was definitely a night to remember !
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