MUSIC | Tegan and Sara grace St. Paul in performance on The Current

Before taking the stage at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, Canadian indie-folk rockers Tegan and Sara visited St. Paul for a performance at MPR's UBS Forum. The twin sisters played four songs in front of an intimate crowd of about a hundred in between telling stories and fielding questions from 89.3 The Current DJ Mark Wheat.

Wheat introduced Tegan and Sara by noting that they were one of his first major radio interviews and expressing his gratitude for their support of public radio. The duo were wry and relaxed and very chatty, a fact that Sara attributed to coming up through Canadian folk festivals, where one was expected to "tell stories and workshop with musicians" in a manner that, to the MPR audience, must seem "cute and Canadian and socialist."

Accompanied by Ted Gowans on keyboard and guitar and Shaun Huberts on bass, they first played "On Directing" from their recent release, Sainthood, before chatting about Tegan's tattoos and then moving into "Alligator," their latest single from that release. With Sara on lead vocals and Tegan accenting with xylophone and avocado-shaped shaker, the tune was charmingly stripped-down—yet another take on a song that has recently been remixed by collaborators including Passion Pit, Holy Fuck, and VHS or Beta. (The collection of "Alligator" remixes is available on iTunes and is slated for release on vinyl.)

Tegan and Sara then played what they called one of their "golden oldies," going back to 2007's The Con for "Nineteen." Sara spoke about the root of Sainthood's title, noting that the duo had written and recorded a song by that title, but because some of the lyrics were taken from a Leonard Cohen song and no arrangement could be made for permissions, the song was dropped form the record. Still, they noted that the notion of "sainthood," for them, was a practice of being good and was something instilled in them from a young age when they were "almost hysterically well-behaved." As Sara mock-admonished, though, Tegan had been "very bad last night." Tegan noted that she had been silent because she was "trying not to throw up," and Wheat cracked that that definitely made her the "Minneapolis" of the twins. (Later, onstage at the Orpheum, Tegan specifically mentioned a visit to the Gay 90s and a local strip club.)

To close out the set, Tegan led the crew through "Living Room" from 2002's If It Was You, which she called a song that would incite a riot if they didn't play it at their shows. Tegan burned through the lead of the impassioned song about protective love with Sara lifting up the sweetening harmonies and Gowans providing the extra tug on the heartstrings with his slide guitar. No matter the state of your head, or if your saints have hangovers, songs like that always fill a room with a state of grace.

Carl Atiya Swanson