Sweet Digression

Having recently entered high school, thinking about the past has been inevitable. In the town I grew up in (and am still growing up in), high school was the big deal. Get there, and you’re set. You’re an adult. It was a staircase.

In the first stage of elementary school, you were the coolest of cool if you were a third grader. There was no reason, you just were. Then you went on to the second stage of elementary school, where you were cool if you did student council, or if you were a fifth grader. But once you were a fifth grader, you spent the whole year pining for sixth grade. Why? Because in fifth grade, you still walked in lines. You still had one teacher. Sixth grade was a whole new world. You were an adult. Well, you were a teenager. Tween. The terms all blurred in your head.

(Come to think of it, fifth grade was my most naive year. My friend had me convinced there was a dragon in the school’s tool shed, I tried to open the doors all year)

Sixth really was all it was said to be. You got a locker, a gym locker, separate classrooms, new folders. You convinced your parents you were ready for an iPod or cell phone (but didn’t text message). Seventh grade was the forgotten year (though my favorite by far), and then you entered eighth grade. The clock ticked throughout the whole year, ticking time away. Soon - very soon - you would be in high school. You’d be a freshman. You’d choose your own classes. You couldn’t wait. And so the year droned on, and you would have done anything for it to end.

End it did. You left the middle school happily, swearing never to visit again, and entered high school. Where you were the baby, the freshman, and not really respected by anyone. You got to the top of the staircase, only to find that you were stuck in mid air, attempting to float to the next staircase just out of your reach.

I still can’t see that staircase. It’s blue, maybe. It looks pretty high. It has high and low steps, and I don’t know where it ultimately leads. I see college, a career, real adulthood. Vague, and the top is still cloudy.

In a way, I never left sixth grade. It was the first real change in my life, at leas that I can remember. It was the first time I started blogging (shhh - those entries are long gone), the first time I realized how much I loved to write, the first time I met one of my best friends (who happened to move this year). Sixth grade represented transitions in my life. At the time, when we were writing papers on the elementary school/middle school transition, I BS’d it all. I really didn’t realize how important that year was and still is. Because when I close my eyes and picture school, I see my sixth grade hallway. Not my eighth, seventh, or current. I see my sixth grade hallway, my locker, my friends, my math class. It’d ridiculous.

This blog entry is a total ramble, and I had a completely different point in originally writing it. But that’s okay, I needed to blog. What are you nostalgic about? Is there a time in your life that seems to define your whole life so far (like sixth grade has to me?)

(Click on any pictures for larger image)
For the past three years, my favorite band has been Tegan and Sara. I’ve been meaning to see them live since I first listened to ‘Walking With The Ghost’ but was never able to find a good day to go.

This weekend, I went! The doors opened at 7:15, and we got there at about 6:30 to eat beforehand. I legitimately couldn’t eat, though, because I was really excited. By the time we got in line, it was 3089540835 miles long (or, you know, not). It went by quickly and we ran into the venue. While waiting for the opening act to start, I bought a huge Tegan and Sara poster! (I can’t find an online picture of it, but it’s amazing and on my right as I write this)

There were two opening acts. Both were incredibly talented, but lasted a very long time. And then…Tegan and Sara! They opened with ‘The Ocean’ (one of my favorites from Sainthood).

And then they played Speak Slow, The Cure, Alligator Tears, Nightwatch, Where Does the Good Go, Nineteen, So Jealous, Sentimental Tune, Call it Off, Redbelt, Arrow, Back in Your Head and Hell (though not in that order, and I’m definitely missing some). Tegan was on the far left for most of the performance (and at one point, she pointed out that those on the far left seats couldn’t see her, and they should switch with those in the front row mid-performance. During Arrow, she also pointed out that she would be on the keyboard, making it sound like a guitar because Sara can’t actually play guitar)

But of course the best part of the concert was their commentary/banters. Sara started with one about AM radio (”it was like…twitter”) and how she regrets not being an R&B artist instead of an Indie one.

Later they talked about their stepfather, Bruce, and how they were attached to him when they were younger. They also talked about how they had become musicians, and everyone’s original reaction to it (”We’d travel, and on the way we’d visit family. What I then thought was love and excitement at seeing us, I now realize was fear and judgement.”). They talked about how Sara was once ‘Most Improved Piano player’ and Tegan ‘Best Piano Player’ when they were little.

Tegan later complained about her lips being chapped, and someone threw her chapstick (”Someone gave me lipchap. Thanks! Oh, Sara says I shouldn’t use it…”). She also made a ‘that’s what she said’ joke and everyone cracked up, because it was hilarious.

Then they left, and everyone cheered for an encore. Being awesome, they came back. But they didn’t do just one song! They did a couple. They played My Number (I never thought I’d get to hear that live, because it’s older, but SO GOOD), Walking With The Ghost (being the first song I’d ever heard by them, I was really happy to hear it!), Feel It In My Bones (which I had only heard once before and loved!) and Living Room (which I freaked out about, because I LOVE that song live).

Every time one of them would start to tell a (somewhat) serious story, the other would interrupt and make the whole audience crack up. Their interaction is so fun to watch! So basically, if you ever have to chance to see Tegan and Sara live…DO NOT HESITATE. They are fantastic live, charming, hilarious, quirky, adorable, talented, AWESOME. I would have posted videos but my friend and I are laughing through the banters and singing along to the songs.

I really hope I get the chance to see them again soon. They really are my favorite band ever.
(Buying a TnS hoodie wouldn’t be at all weird, would it? Because I’m a second away from buying one, so tell me that’s okay!)