Tegan and Sara Stories
Writing about my Tegan and Sara tab in that last post reminded me of some good Tegan and Sara stories.
Story the First
Back in 1999 or 2000 (I can’t find any information on this), I caught Tegan and Sara on Open Mike with Mike Bullard doing their new version of “More for Me” and I instantly fell in love. Their record, “Under Feet Like Ours”, was no longer available to buy, and “This Business of Art” hadn’t come out yet, so I went off to the internet to grab some mp3s. This was the first time I really saw the benefit of digital music (to find what I couldn’t buy), awesome.
At the time, I was co-editor of the Vanier College newspaper and using my “status” to get interviews with musicians/authors I really liked, so I sent a note to T&S and ended up doing an email interview with Tegan. It was appropriately irreverent and I made the poor editorial decision to change “etnies” (I didn’t know they were shoes at the time) to “neties” (because I thought she was referring to those net-like leggings). Very entertaining though, and I like to hope that it drew some people to their first Montreal show a few weeks later.
Story the Second
The first show T&S did in Montreal was at vegetarian caf? by day, hipster music haven by night, Casa Del Popolo (House of the People). It’s an incredible caf? just at the border of the Plateau and Mile End who puts on the best shows in town. They’re partially owned by one of the guys in Goodspeed You! Black Emperor, own La Sala Rosa across the street (they used to rent out the dance hall for bigger concerts, but ended up having such demand for larger shows that they bought it out and do shows at both venues), and have this incredible Art-O-Matic machine, which is a converted cigarette machine that lets you buy artist submitted art for two dollars. One dollar goes to the artist, one dollar to the Casa, with the only stipulation being that it fits into a cigarette pack. I once bought a mix tape solely made up of songs about chickens from it once.
So T&S are doing their show, I bring a friend, and off we go. We walk in and the girls are sitting by themselves at one of the tables so I go say hi, tell them I did the “interview”, etc. They invite us to sit down and we end up playing Asshole (Sara once one game, I won the rest) and chatting for a couple hours before the show started.
I’m telling Sara about how I really wanted a copy of “Under Feet Like Ours” but couldn’t find it anywhere. She told me that due to label changes, and the fact that many of those same songs were being released on “This Business of Art”, they weren’t allowed to sell or even give them away. But, they had a ton of copies stored at their Mom’s place in Calgary, so she gave me her Mom’s address to send a self-addressed envelope and she’d send me a copy. As she’s handing me the address, Tegan freaks out a little, grabs her hand and says “what are you giving him?!” Sara calmly explained, and I continued chatting with Sara. She tells me that Hawksley Workman dropped acid all seven days they recorded “This Business of Art” and that she was in tears for a lot of the recording sessions. I like to believe that’s true.
We’re talking about Montreal (Sara: “I went to this party in Laval (just outside Montreal, where I lived) a couple years ago; everyone was on speed and wearing fanny packs”), and life when she asked me how I liked the city:
Me: “Honestly? I’m getting a little bored of it all.”
Sara: “You should move out west!” (they had just moved to Vancouver earlier in the year)
Me: “What? No, that’s ridiculous; I can’t just move out west.”
Sara: “Why not? I did.”
I dismissed it immediately, but spent a sleepless night thinking about it a few days later. I honestly couldn’t think of a single good reason to stay in Montreal and figured that Vancouver was a better option than Kingston, Ontario. Within a month, I’d applied to Concordia University to raise my (poor) grades from college, and moved out to Vancouver the year later to attend The University of British Columbia, where I now work. Rock stars offer great life advice, go figure.
Back to the Casa, Sara remembers that she has to do a phone interview and needs to find a pay phone. She makes some comment about how cold it is outside, and Tegan snaps, rudely “well, why don’t you bring Matthew with you? You two seem to be getting along really well!” Awkward as hell. At this point, my friend went to find a table, Sara left to do her interview, and I was stuck at the table with Tegan, who obviously didn’t like me. A few awkward minutes later I mumble something about going to find my friend and leave. The show was good, I said goodnight to Sara, and that was that. Now I have a copy of the “coveted” Sara and Tegan record, complete with the upside-down tray card that makes you put the CD upside down if you want to organize it in your collection.
Story the Third
I used to write for DiSCORDER Magazine. My friend was editor at the time (her: “Write for DiSCORDER.” Me: “No.” Her: “Come on, free CDs!” Me: “Ok then.”) and got me a pre-release copy of their “So Jealous” record. Great record, highly recommended for fans of power pop.
A few months later, they were touring “So Jealous”, and a friend of mine wanted to go. They were playing this all ages show at Vancouver’s now-closed (and servers of the city’s worst Fettucini Alfredo) Mesa Luna, so we show up and are told that it’s sold out but if we wait around, they might let some more people in. The bouncer looks really nervous as he’s telling us this, so I assume it’s one of the first times he’s sold “extra seats”. As it gets close to showtime, he comes around and stamps all our hands (there were about a dozen of us waiting for the “extra seats”), and tells us that we’ll talk to him one-by-one. He tells one guy to go around the corner, get his money out, and then come back. The guy pays, goes in. Then he tells me the same thing, and I wanted to have some fun. How often am I going to be ina situation where the bouncer is nervous about the transaction? So I stood up, openly took out a $20, and gave it to him. He looked at me, cocked an eyebrow, and asked “this is for the both of you?” I looked right back at him, said “yes”, and took my friend inside. Tickets were $20+ each. Something feels satisfying about undercutting a bouncer asking for a bribe.
We get in and find some friends of my friend. I’m getting along really well with one of them – she invites me to her girlfriend’s show the next week – but she’s getting handsier and handsier as the night goes on. I like to tell people that I got picked up by a lesbian.
Umbrella Cover
These days, the girls are doing an awesome cover of Rihanna’s Umbrella in concert. Next to the Swivel version, this is my favourite of the many covers:
« Okkervil River – Unless It’s Kicks Chords - I Lost My Favourite Tie »
Comments
id really like a copy of under feet like ours as well. do you think i could get one, too? i too fell in love with them instantly. theres something about them that moves me and im able to relate to them.
Hey Sling,
I don’t think there ARE anymore copies of that record. But I haven’t spoken to either of the girls in over 5 years, so I wouldn’t be any help.
Post a comment