Getting Lucky with Tegan and Sara

On Thanksgiving eve, I found out that Tegan and Sara were playing at the Lisner Auditorium over the weekend in DC, but when I inquired about available tickets, the show was completely sold out. Boo.

Instead of conceding defeat, I looked on Craigslist for extra tickets the next day. I found several listings for single and pairs of unwanted tickets for sale and e-mailed all of them. One woman with a pair of tickets responded almost immediately.

My second dilemma then became finding someone to go to the concert with me. Most people were out of town or busy; others I assumed wouldn't like angry girl indie alternative acoustic pop rock. I got mildly desperate and made a half-hearted attempt to coax Indhu to return from West Virginia a day early, but she gave some lame excuse about wanting to spend time with her family.

So I responded to the Craigslist woman asking if she'd be willing to part with just one ticket. She snubbed me by not replying. Blast! I was thwarted once again. But then some guy e-mailed me saying he had one single ticket still available.

My third dilemma was then to decide whether I should go alone. Some people don't mind, and in fact, might even enjoy doing things alone. I am not one of those people - except for when it comes to going to the bathroom. Despite the prevailing gender stereotype, I do not like going to a bathroom in a herd.

But I digress.

It was Saturday morning, the day of the concert, and I had nearly given up on the idea of going at all when I saw that Nick was on Gmail chat. On a whim, I asked if he wasn't interested in going to a concert with me that night, was he?

"What kind of music is it?" he asked.

"Oh, music you probably wouldn't like," I replied.

"Well, who is it?"

"Tegan and Sara."

"Who?"

"Exactly."

Five minutes later-

"Sure, I'll go."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I looked them up on their Myspace page. Their music seems good."

So I went back to Craigslist once again to look for two tickets. New listings selling unwanted tickets appeared. One sounded particularly desperate. I put my kick-ass negotiation skills to work and made an offer (2/3 of the face value). The woman accepted and we exchanged a few e-mails to plan the pick-up. In the end, she decided it was easier to drop them off at my house in the early evening. She even showed up on time. Just when I thought it couldn't possibly get any better, she gave me the tickets - for free!

I was stunned. I didn't quite catch why I didn't have to fork over $40; all I heard and remembered was the word "free." So not only did I get free tickets, I got them hand-delivered to my door. It was awesome!

Fast forward a few hours. The concert was fantastic. The Canadian identical twin sisters were very endearing on stage. They even had Nick lovestoned. They played new songs from their new album, old favorites, and a great cover of Rihanna's "Umbrella."

The sisters also claimed to love our nation's capital although what they associate with this place is a little alarming (but not entirely surprising). Tegan (or was it Sara? Damn twins...) told some story of how while they were desperately seeking a place to 'relieve' nausea from a severe hangover, they came across some sketchy drug deal involving cocaine in toothpaste boxes that went down in a McDonald's bathroom. We Americans sure know how to make a lasting impression.

Another highly entertaining moment was when Sara told the audience of how she had found a video on a fan site of a group of fans spanking each other during one of their concerts in Fort Lauderdale. It was so disturbing to her that right before they were about to perform the same song during which the alleged spanking took place, she asked that the house lights get turned on to discourage any potential spanking at this concert. So the lights went on and there was no spanking. We waited until after the show.