Concert Review: Tegan and Sara at The Pageant 5/4

The Amp’s Editor in Chief, Caroline Doerhoff, could not have gotten a better cuatro de mayo present than watching these two crazy twins kick out the jams at The Pageant…

I’ve been a Tegan and Sara fan since my high school days, so when I heard that they were coming to The Pageant, I could not have been more STOKED to see them live. I refused to be deterred by their “Live at the Phoenix” EP, which made their trademark harmonies and unique voices sound…well, a little shrill. No no. It couldn’t be…I was determined to see for myself.

When we arrived at The Pageant, I was immediately struck by how young the crowd seemed. I mean, I’m tall, so I’m used to being able to see in most conditions…but these people were tiny. And their moms were there with them. In our spot above the pit, I spotted not one but two girls with their moms. I don’t know why I expected the usual crowd of twentysomethings, what with Tegan and Sara’s catchy, tight, melodies and popsensibilities, but for the record I was taken aback. (I was also startled by how many petite young girls could be rocking the fashion mullet pioneered by Tegan and Sara in the “So Jealous” days.)

The lights dimmed right around 8 pm, right on schedule, and girl-boy duo An Horse took the stage, and proceeded to thank us, the audience, for being so polite. Over the course of their 35 minute set, we were called polite maybe three more times, even after an audience member screamed either “You suck!” or “Cubs suck!” (the world may never know). Undeterred by garbled sports-related yelling, An Horse (also known as Kate Cooper of Iron On and Damon Cox of Intercooler and Mary Trembles) delivered a concise set of mid-tempo songs that sounded a lot like Tegan and Sara at their most earnest and straightforward…and plus a dude on the harmonies. Cooper joked with the audience about the ubiquity of sports fans between here and her native Brisbane, Australia, and their unfortunately short set was overall quite enjoyable. The lights came up again too soon, and the blond duo trooped off stage to considerably more applause than they garnered at their arrival. I’d say they won me over. Charming, really.

Tegan and Sara arrived onstage shortly after, bringing on the shortness as well as a backup band of three black-clad guys to fill out their sound. Without a pause, each shouldered a guitar and they launched into “I Know I Know I Know,” barely breathing between phrases as they sped through. I’ll admit that I was concerned that they would just power through all of their songs in this manner and the audience would be in the parking lot in 45 minutes. Luckily, I was wrong…and I’m glad I was.

Over the course of the next hour and a half, Tegan and Sara would deliver amazing renditions of the majority of “The Con” and “So Jealous” as well as a few from “If It Was You.” From their gut-wrenching version of “Call It Off” to crowd pleasers like “Back In Your Head,” they belted out songs they’ve probably sung hundreds of times like they were freshly written. I have to say that I was nervous to hear Sara’s voice live (see above comment about “Live at the Phoenix”), but I was greatly impressed by her vocals as well as Tegan’s. It really is remarkable that identical twins could sound so different, but Sara’s soprano and Tegan’s alto really blend together well, even live.

They seemed to genuinely enjoy themselves, taking time to indulge in witty banter that they seemed to enjoy as much as the crowd listening did. Topics covered included: unicorns, grade 3 boyfriends, hockey, boards with nails in them, Sara running down the streets of the city at night, and their mom. I could never do their dynamic justice…so I’ll let them do the talking themselves. Thank you YouTube!

talk of unicorns…

…and their mom

Overall, the concert was one of the most solid and enjoyable I’ve been to at The Pageant in a while, and I can’t remember the last time that I laughed so much at a show. I’ve been waiting for years to see Tegan and Sara in concert, and they definitely exceeded my (rather high) expectations.

But don’t just take my word for it on their performance…here’s “The Con” (thanks to weaverash01 for all of the videos featured here!)

 

NOW WITH VIDEO: A New Appreciation for Feist? What Can’t Colbert Do!?

Amp Editor-In-Chief Caroline Doerhoff has re-realized her love for Feist, thanks to Steven Colbert. What can’t that man do! NOW WITH VIDEO!

You know, I’ve loved Feist for a few years now…her voice is magical, her songs are well-crafted, her lyrics are witty. But I grew complacent in my love, I’ll admit it. I grew comfortable in my affection for Feist, though I sometimes thought she deserved more than her modest success. And then….that commercial. After seeing that iPod commerical for the hundred bajillionth time, I grew disenchanted. Don’t get me wrong, “The Reminder” is the definition of a solid album…I just got to the point where I wanted to punt a baby every time I heard “1234″ coming from some chick’s cell phone.

When I heard that Feist was coming to the Pageant here in Saint Louis, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get tickets because of her overwhelming popularity. The show sold out quickly, just as I assumed it would, and I wasn’t disappointed. Now I see that maybe I should have been…

Tonight on The Colbert Report, Feist agreed to play an impromptu song. Armed with just an acoustic guitar and a microphone, Feist proceeded to blow my mind with her rendition of the song “I Feel It All.” She sounded fantastic…there wasn’t an off note anywhere, and her improvisations felt natural, never clumsy or overdone. My love for Feist was rekindled in those few minutes…and I have Steven Colbert to thank. Let’s hear it for the Colbert Bump!

EDIT: Watch and believe! Here’s Miss Feist on Colbert.

 

Funny Games: Crazy Music for a Crazy Movie

Publications Director, Megan Hundley, has an affinity for going to see movies that pretty much bomb. As per usual, she’s got an opinion and wanted to write about it. This time it is a movie review of “Funny Games”, a movie in which the music plays a fairly integral role in setting the mood/tone.

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Listening to nice, calming music on the radio and driving along a serene mountainous landscape on their way to a beautiful landscape. This is how the family in the American version of the film Funny Games begins their story. The viewer is certainly put in their place when the name of the movie is flashed on screen in bold red letters at the same time that an incredibly scary death metal song is played, which is actually the song “Bonehead” by Naked City. I certainly jumped in my seat since I went into this movie knowing only that it was about a family who is visited by some unwelcome visitors, wearing creepy white gloves and what looks like tennis outfits, at their lake house.

Upon further investigation into this seemingly interesting story, I find that this movie is supposed to depict of the way violence is portrayed in the media. My first question was: How is it possible for the same writer/director to make the carbon copy of his previous work within 10 years of one another, let alone at all? Welcome to the world of writer/director Michael Haneke. His latest movie, Funny Games, starring Naomi Watts, is the exact same movie that he made precisely 10 years prior with, oddly enough, the same name. The only differences between the two films are the cast and the language.
My mantra during this movie was literally: “What the hell is going on?!” As soon as one of the creepy white-clad boys came to the family’s house asking for eggs and acted immensely uncomfortable and unsure of himself, I knew insanely weird things were going to happen (as if the death metal song in the beginning credits didn’t give that away, right off the bat). One of the first disturbing occurrences that took place was the disappearance of the family dog, which we later find falling lifelessly out of the trunk of the family’s Range Rover in the driveway. Well kids, the terror did not stop there. From that point in the movie on, the all-white-wearing young men terrorized by playing “games” with the family. While these young men were extremely creepy, they were also very polite. With a plethora of pleasantries exchanged through out the film, they always asked the family nicely to do such atrocious things. It’s no surprise that the tag line of the movie is “It’s easier when things are polite”.
While the two young men are relentlessly torturing the family, they keep calling one another a handful of different names. For instance, when the young man in charge calls his counterpart “Tom,” he then becomes “Jerry;” and then when he calls his partner “Bevis,” he is then “Butthead.” These pairs are both, of course, cartoon characters in relatively modern America and are recognized by the general public rather easily. I can see from this why the movie may have been named Funny Games, but I find even that to be a stretch.
One of the most interesting things about the movie is the fact that the young man who was in charge of the homicidal mania that was this movie breaks the fourth wall on numerous occasions. Periodically, throughout the movie, he asks the audience questions and tells the audience things he is thinking. The most memorable breaking of the fourth wall happens at the end of the movie, when he simply stares the viewer in the eye and you immediately know what is going to happen from that point on.

While the movie did not end up the way I might have wanted to, it certainly made a great impact on me. I certainly do not ever want to let creepy young men wearing all white anywhere near me. I fear I might never play tennis again because of this movie. Thanks for taking yet another life sport away from me, Mr. Haneke.

 

A Fusion of “Art” and Music by Megan Hundley

I had, what I thought was, a wonderful idea! I was going to listen to an album that recently came out and then draw what I “saw” when I heard it. Well, here’s the result of that brilliance.

I guess it was more of a “free draw”, highly comparable to a free verse or one of those writing exercises where you can’t pick your pen up off the paper and you just write whatever comes to mind. That’s basically what I did except I had to pick my Sharpie up to change colors (or mediums when I used a pen).

Here’s what happened: I listened to Volume One by She & Him, the band that consists of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Then I drew stuff on a piece of 8” x 11” computer paper. These are things that I thought of when I listened to their music. I hope Zooey and M don’t hate me now because I did this terribly awesome doodle.

Say what you will about my 21 year old attempt at drawing with permanent markers and a Paper<3Mate pen. I think it seriously rivals the Maddox kids drawings.

ROCK!

 

Someone New Loves You, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

KSLU DJ Tim Lemieux, endearingly referred to as Mew Mew, gives you his take on the most recent SSLYBY show at the Bluebird. Read and enjoy!

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In one of my infinite acts of wisdom, I decided that, on Monday the 14th, I would go to the Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin concert at the Bluebird instead of studying for my communications test. So I loaded myself into the car with my gal pals Leah Ducey and Lauren Choate and we headed on our path to the Bluebird. After quickly getting lost due to the lack of a big sign for the venue, and the fact that we had never been there, we entered the bar and paid our minor fee.The Bluebird was small and a bit dark but fairly cozy with couches and tables. We waited a bit until the first band, Gentleman Auction House, took the stage.
I had seen Gentleman Auction House, a local band, about a week before at the Billiken Club. They had played an energetic and cute show at the Billiken Club so I was expecting good things. Thankfully, they didn’t disappoint. They started off with a slow and intimate song. They had some small technical difficulties with Kiley Lewis’s keyboard, the continued on. It was clear that, despite their energy on stage, they were someone what uncomfortable with the small and quiet crowd; lead singer Eric Enger called all of us closer to the stage with a promise to cuddle and commented on how quiet the room was in between songs. They played some old songs and new stuff off their EP, The Book of Matches. Overall, a very good set, but maybe not as good as they had been at the Billiken Club.

Next on stage was Via Audio, a fairly energetic New York band. They were very high energy, especially bassist David Lizmi who was bouncing around the stage in his cut off jean shorts and his pink hat. They moved from classic indie-pop rock to including some techno beats in a song about robots and then to a jazzy song. Lots of the songs they played were off their Say Something, Say Something, Say Something. It wasn’t the best thing I had seen, but still good.

The time most of the crowd of 50 was waiting for came quickly and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin took the stage. Phillip Duckey started on drums, Will Knauer and John Cardwell on guitars, and Jonathan James on bass. The energy from the crowd, especially the drunken girl right behind me, influenced the band, and they seemed to be really enjoying themselves. They began playing lots of songs off their new album, Perishing. After about 5 songs, they switched around the who was playing what instruments, with John moving to bass, Jon moving to drums, and Phillip moving to guitar. During a rendition of “Modern Mystery”, Phillip’s guitar crapped out. Despite the problem, he played it off well, first trying another guitar then grabbing a tambourine and then playing air guitar. He got the problem fixed right after the song and they continued on. The set was amazing and very strong the whole way through. The band really enjoyed themselves. I had their last song, “Oceanographer”, stuck in my head the rest of the night. Overall, I enjoyed myself and became a fan of SSYLBY all in the same night.