Get Along: The New Live Album & DVD From Tegan & Sara
It was announced recently that Tegan and Sara’s much-anticipated new live CD/DVD set Get Along will be released on November 15th. They released three tracks from the live record as a bit of a teaser. “Back in Your Head” is always nice and will always be one of my all-time favourites among their songs, but it was the other two preview tracks that really caught my attention.
“I Won’t Be Left” is a song from the record So Jealous that hasn’t really been played live all that much over the years. It’s a good song, certainly, and Tegan’s performance on in is fantastic. “Not With You” is a song from This Business of Art, their first wide-release album. As is no secret to Tegan and Sara fans, Sara feels very uncomfortable performing any songs from that era; after all, it was over 10 years ago that the album was release. That discomfort is not at all apparent on this track, though, and it has to go down as one of Sara’s best live performances ever.
From the track listing provided, I think the 15 songs they chose were a fine selection, ranging from “Divided” (one of their first ever songs that has become a classic) to recent songs like “The Ocean” (which is an even better song when played acoustically vs. the electric album version). It was obvious that they chose songs from all across their career, so it’s a really great overview of all of their albums; it’s sort of a greatest hits collection.
I was happy to see “Monday, Monday, Monday” included, one of my favorite Tegan and Sara songs of all time, a song that they actually just “brought back” to playing live when touring Sainthood in February 2010. In fact, the first time they’d played it in over two years was in sound-check, and during the concert that I myself attended at the Orpheum Theater in Boston, MA (in which Sara made a little slip-up on the lyrics of the second verse, certainly forgive-able considering how long it had been since they’d played it!) So I have some sentimental attachment to that song.
Of course, I think the major value of the whole “Get Along” package is the two documentaries. Anyone who’s seen a Tegan and Sara documentary knows that they are never dry, and always entertaining. Tegan and Sara constantly prove that their humour is omnipresent; they’re not just kidding around! They’re always a lot of fun. But what makes these particularly interesting is not only is one of the documentaries about their mini-tour in India (yes, India!), the other is about the early days of their career, something that we’ve heard them talk about, but something they’ve never really covered in detail. Anyone who’s followed their career knows that it’s been a rough ride to get where they are today, so that one, as a fan, is the most fascinating to me.
The CD/DVD is available for pre-order now, and it’s under $20 USD. The Deluxe edition, which comes with THREE autographed posters is about $50, and we all know that those posters are going to be worth a ton, since Tegan and Sara fans are going to glomp all over them and over-bid! But if you’re not a super-fan (like me!) then it’s still worth checking out the live record; I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised just how good they are in their stripped-down live sessions!
