Tegan And Sara - It's Not Fun. Don't Do It!
Rating: not rated
Running Time: Approx. 2 hours
Distributor: Vapor/Sanctuary Records/Shock


Shut up! Shut up! I can't take it anymore! Two hours straight of Tegan and Sara Quin talking non-stop! My advice: don't watch this DVD all in one go. It's not fun!

In terms of content, the DVD boasts several features, with or without commentary, including your standard live show, video clips and tour video. The live concert, recorded over a year ago at The Phoenix Concert Hall in Toronto, Canada, showcases their latest album, 'So Jealous', but strangely doesn't capture the feel of their live performance. This is largely due to the editing which has cut all the inter-song banter, opting for a more streamlined concert. Foolishly I thought that watching the concert again, this time with commentary on, would atone for the lack of Tegan and Sara charm. I was wrong. Small bursts of twin chatter between songs is endearing and entertaining; constant talking over songs about anything and everything is irritating and draining. At the final song they thank people who have managed to watch the concert in full without skipping songs - I was not one of them.

There are, however, some funny moments as the two champion those audience members who clap their hands above their heads and I picked up some information I didn't know about their career - that they toured with Neil Young when they were 19, for instance.

The tour documentary is fun and does well to include the rest of the band and crew members to break the double onslaught of Tegan and Sara footage. The commentary during the making of 'So Jealous' is, again, funny and informative but can get tiresome when watched continuously. Constantly teasing themselves over what they were wearing at the time ("Someone should have set fire to me when I was wearing that") or what hair-style they had ("Look at your bangs! Someone said Tegan looked like Alice Cooper so she got her hair cut"), the original documentary is barely audible except for parts when Tegan or Sara shushes the other with, "Wait, I wanna hear what I say here....Oh gosh, do I really look like that?"

The photo gallery is particularly clever, even if it is a blatant rip off of Spike Jones, but they're happy to admit that. The twins talk through a two-inch-deep pile of photos from throughout their career - stretching back to when Tegan had blonde hair. They bicker over the disproportionate number of photos that Sara is in and finish with a photo of Tegan sulkily contemplating new career options. The gallery also includes photos of Sara's bruised knees, injuries that were sustained while they were in Adelaide! So whoever bought Sara weird porcelain clowns at an Adelaide show should buy this DVD.

Oh, and the marionettes are kind of cute.

Cassie Hilditch