I went into the Tegan and Sara portion of Friday’s show with no expectations because, for me, they seem to have lost some of the charm that their earlier albums and performances were jam-packed with. Being a lesbo from Calgary, you would think that I would experience the same affinity towards them that all the other queer girls in the front row do, but their ‘few octaves too high’ singing style and recent commercial sound have left me wanting more. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised to find myself genuinely enjoying the show. I felt nostalgic and warm when they played their old stuff, putting me right back at my first Tegan and Sara acoustic set in Calgary, and beyond excited about the new music they introduced. One new song in particular, featuring Tegan’s vocals, blew me away. It was dark and dirty and what made it so wonderful was that instead of the vocals being a separate entity from the rest of the song, all the instrumentation and Tegan’s loud, low, distorted voice blended together to produce a uniform power that left me in awe. The sisters’ banter made them real and relatable and their tight set had me back aboard the Tegan and Sara train.

I feel slightly unsuited to give my opinion on a Broken Social Scene show since I’m friends with a singer in the band and more so because I’ve never been a fan. They’ve always just been over-produced noise to me, and I enjoy them all so much more in their individual side projects. With this slightly paradoxical bias kept in mind I’ll get on with the review: I thought they were glorious. How’s that for a twist?! I, Meg Walls, devout disliker of BSS, found myself doing a little toe tappin’ and head bobbin’ with the rest of the sold-out crowd. The majesty of the Orpheum perfectly suited the energy that BSS exudes and even though they didn’t include “Lover’s Spit” in their set list. I would say that they’ve cracked my top fifteen shows. Way to go guys!