Tegan And Sara Show Off Music, Comedy Skills At Massey

It's good to know if this music thing doesn't work out for Tegan And Sara, they could go just into comedy.

All joking aside, the Quin twins' live banter — which has been written about many, many times before — was one of the stellar parts of their nearly flawless performance at Toronto's Massey Hall on Tuesday night. The twins' set followed an excellent warm-up by openers An Horse, who performed songs from their Rearrange Beds debut.

The only real mishap — and it was minor — occurred when Sara started "Walking With A Ghost" a little "too aggressively" (her words, not mine) and accidentally put her guitar out of tune. She turned it into a good joke, and things carried on.

By now, of course, the Quins are seasoned performers, and while it's very possible for too much stage banter to get in the way, here it's really part of their shtick. It only adds to the show, and while they admit that they're still "awkward" (Tegan's words during the encore) it's part of the reason people see them in the first place.

To be quite honest, this was the type of show that should have been recorded for a live album both because of its performance quality and audience interaction. Communication with one's audience is an essential part of live shows, and if a band don't do it well they risk coming across as stand-offish. At this point, the Quins have nearly mastered both.

Here are some of the best bits of banter from Tuesday's show:

1. After beginning with four songs from Sainthood — which is their best album to date — and following So Jealous' "I Bet It Stung" and The Con's "Burn Your Life Down," Sara paused to say she was having an excellent time playing the prestigious venue. Then she got emotional about playing Massey Hall. She fully acknowledged it was "really cheesy and I'm getting my period" and didn't know why she was "getting upset."

"See, my thing is when I'm not hanging out on tour with you, I get my period at a completely different time, and when I'm on tour with you, you pull me to you and I don't feel upset that I'm going to get my period as well. I just feel upset with you," Tegan quipped in response.

2. "Where Does The Good Go" and "Speak Slow" followed before Sara got embarrassed about her prior display and started asking Tegan if her emotionality "was the equivalent of how we make fun of people at awards shows."

"No, you know, because this is your stage," Tegan quipped, before rattling off a list of reasons "people cringe at awards shows," such as winners "rustling through bits of paper in their pockets and crying" before "the music starts and they're going to get yanked."

She paused, then said, "Believe me, you could've gone on for much, much longer before we turned your mic off."

3. Prior to introducing "Hell," Sainthood's first single, Tegan began rambling about spotting "three generations" of Tegan And Sara fans (a mother, a daughter and a grandmother) in the audience at one of their recent shows. Amusingly, she said she was going to tie it in to "Hell" somehow and how she and Sara had shared some kind of nostalgic moment at one of their most recent shows about two separate things: their mother and high school.

"Hell," of course, is about the drug-addled east side of Vancouver, so one had to wonder how Tegan was going to tie the theme of the song into a family watching the show and her own family.

"Don't say mom's a drug addict," Sara cut in.

4. Following "Night Watch" and four other songs from Sainthood, Tegan reminisced about old family photos she'd gone through recently. Amusing pictures of the Quins' first dates — at eight years of age — with friends named Robbie and Scott had turned up.

"What's striking is you can barely tell the difference between Sara and Robbie or me and Scott," she quipped. "I was like, 'Whoaaaaa.' Being a teenager is hard, but being eight and a lesbian is really hard. I mean, you probably don't know how hard it is yet, but looking back I'm like, 'Oooh. That was hard.'"

5. Near the end of the show, after having introduced the backing band, Tegan paused to consider that she'd perhaps been monopolizing the microphone a bit during the show.

"I feel like I'm the host," she said.

"Thanks for having me," Sara replied.

Here is what Tegan And Sara played:

"Arrow"
"Don't Rush"
"Alligator"
"The Ocean"
"Walking With A Ghost"
"I Bet It Stung"
"Burn Your Life Down"
"Where Does The Good Go"
"Speak Slow"
"Hell"
"On Directing"
"Red Belt"
"The Cure"
"Paperback Head"
"Night Watch"
"Soil, Soil"
"Knife Going In"
"So Jealous"
"Nineteen"
"Northshore"
"Sentimental Tune"
"Someday"
"The Con"

Encore:
"Back In Your Head"
"Feel It In My Bones"
"My Number"
"Call It Off"
"Living Room"