Pages: 1 2 3

“You come down to the States and, especially in the South I find, people are chatty,” she said. “They’ll just start babbling to you in front of like 1,500 people. They’re not shy at all. They’ll start asking you questions, yelling at you and stuff. That’s not as common in Canada. … (Canadian audiences) are a lot quieter in between songs. I don’t want to say they’re politer, I just think that it’s like, they’re a bit shy.”

The response of more zealous fans is often overwhelming, Sara said. When she and Tegan find themselves struggling to make themselves heard over screaming fans, she explained, it creates an uncomfortable situation for the band as well as other concert-goers.

“I sort of have an empathy for the audience member that spastically calls out for things or yells at us or whatever,” she said. “But then on the other hand, I just feel miserable because it’s impossible to have a conversation with the audience if people are screaming at you. And me and Tegan really love to be able to speak with the audience directly, and so sometimes it seems like a dictatorship to be like, ‘OK, everyone must be silent while we’re talking.’ But if they’re not silent, then it just ends up being kind of irritating, I think, for everyone, and usually that means that we won’t talk as often … Or there’s a natural tendency to want to call those people out and kind of tease them and then it seems like you’re a totally evil person. So sometimes we just avoid the whole thing and just don’t talk anymore.”

Even as a music fan herself, Sara says she finds it difficult to relate to fans who interrupt a show to shout at her and Tegan.

“The thing that bothers me is that I know it bugs the people in the audience,” she said. “Sometimes it’s like it’s less irritating for me, but I can tell it’s irritating the people in the crowd.”

“In a strange way, I almost feel protective of the people who do that, because I’m like, there’s got to be something wrong with you,” she went on. “Like, why would you do this? Especially when people (in the crowd) start to tell them to shut up and stuff, I’m like trying to imagine what it would be like to be that person. I would never be that person. I would never, ever yell at my favorite band. I don’t even like to stand close to the stage. I’m so scared that they’re going to like notice me doing something like yawning or, I don’t know, shifting, looking bored, whatever.”

During a recent concert at New York’s Webster Hall, Sara addressed a fan who was screaming from the balcony as “Attention-Seeker.”

Larger, more vocal, crowds are an indication of Tegan and Sara’s flirtation with mainstream success. The White Stripes’ famous cover of So Jealous’s “Walking With a Ghost,” and the fact that their songs are staples on television shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” have caused Tegan and Sara’s fanbase to swell. The vast majority of club dates on their current tour have sold out, which still bewilders the ever humble and gracious twins.

“It does surprise me,” Sara said. “I’m always really happy and relieved when shows sell out,” she said. “I feel like that will never stop, when you just sort of walk out on stage and you go, ‘Oh, I’m so glad you’re all here. I’m glad you decided to come.’ I think I feel a little bit less stressed than I used to about it, but I definitely love it. I think that it’s really cool.”

Sara says she feels she and Tegan will probably never grow complacent about their fans’ adoration, which she acknowledges could be fleeting.

“I never take it for granted because people’s opinions change and their musical tastes change, and so there’s a tendency to think … maybe they’re going to be fickle like how I am,” she mused. “I lose of track of what a band that I like is doing, and then I’ll think, oh shit, I haven’t revisited that band in a long time. What are they doing? I worry sometimes that that’s going to be our fate.”

For now, the Quins are content that a decade of paying their dues is finally paying off.

“It’s a long time coming because for so many years doing a tour in the US meant opening for somebody, doing a tour in Australia meant opening for somebody, doing a tour in Europe meant spending a bazillion dollars out of our own pocket and opening for somebody,” she said. “From So Jealous on, things sort of started to shift. And for us to now be able to go out and be the headliner is still kind of a new thing for us. I’m just getting used to the idea that we can actually go out and sell 1,500 tickets or whatever. That’s exciting to me.”

Tegan and Sara wrap up the current leg of their tour Dec. 15 in Australia, and will hit the road again in Europe next February. Sara said they expect to return to the States in spring 2008.

For more information and tour dates, visit www.teganandsara.com or www.myspace.com/teganandsara.

Pages: 1 2 3

Elizabeth Raftery is the managing editor of Blast. Follow her on Twitter.