 |
| Tegan and Sara @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Sunday marked the first concert of the 87th year of the San Francisco’s beloved Stern Grove Festival and the season started off with a capacity meadow and hillside crowd embracing a Pride month show that featured Tegan and Sara, King Isis and DJ Lady Ryan – all acts that advocate for LGBTQ rights.
 |
| Tegan @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
It’s hard to believe that sisters twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin have been performing together more than twenty years. They began Sunday’s full-band show with “Living Room” off their 2002 debut album “If It Was You,” before Tegan announced that the day’s show would feature “a lot of old songs” – leading to a large ovation from the crowd. Sara took the lead singing turn on “Sentimental Tune” off 2009’s “Sainthood” before the band went into the title track from 2007’s “The Con” and Tegan led on vocals and guitar. Interestingly, the twins off take guitar duty for songs they sing lead on – resulting in the other twin generally just handling a microphone for backing vocals and harmonies. “The Con” was a great demonstration of the duo’s somewhat ahead of its time approach to melodic pop-punk that has stayed relevant and instrumental – informing artists from Demi Lovato to Taylor Swift.
 |
| Sara @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“Walking With a Ghost” was delivered deftly by Sara with its choppy guitar and defiant tones and was met with a large reaction from the crowd. As Tegan admired the crowd up on the hill, Sara chimed in that the crowd made her feel like she was in “Game of Thrones” and “you are coming for us.” Telling the audience that their mom was in attendance, Tegan continued to marvel at the event “this is so exciting. We did not know what was happening. This beautiful venue is magic. This is such a significant contribution to the community to put on live music for free.” “It also smells so nice here,” Sara added “a natural, nice outside smell.”
 |
| Tegan @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“Hell” from “Sainthood” led into their most electronic dance song of the day with “Boyfriend” from 2016’s “Love You to Death” with many in the crowd accepting the duo’s invitation to dance along with the song. After Tegan did a terrific job in handling a distractive, bikini-clad concert-goer’s engagement (“It’s Pride month and we should be celebrating who we are. It’s a beautiful day and you all are behaving so well.”), the duo went into a great piano-backed “Arrow.”
 |
| Tegan and Sara @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
2004’s “Wake up Exhausted” got off to a false start before Tegan led a reset of the song’s acapella beginning and then the full band kicked in. “Goodbye, Goodbye” led to “Smoking Weed Alone” from 2022’s excellent album “Crybaby” with Tegan singing and Sara interjecting with chants. “Yellow”- also off “Crybaby” – saw Tegan and Sara nicely bringing a very hook-filled version of a song they have said addressed the twins’ hard work on rebuilding their relationship to come out of Covid isolation.
 |
| Tegan and Sara @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The twins brought “folk festival-style” to two acoustic versions of “Call It Off” and “Back in Your Head.” “Thank you all for coming out on this beautiful afternoon. Especially to all the people who climbed to the top of the hill,” Sara said before the band roared to performance to a close with four songs. A blistering “Hop a Plane” fed into the anthemic “I Can’t Grow Up.” “If any of you are celebrating Pride Month, this one is for you,” Teegan told the crowd before going into “Closer” and the band finished with a beautiful, acoustic “Not Tonight” to wrap up a perfect day.
 |
| Tegan and Sara @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Earlier, Oakland’s King Isis defied her self-admitted nerves playing in front of her biggest crowd to date with a set that showcased the talented singer-songwriter – who returned to the Bay Area from a European tour. Much of her set focused on her recently released EP “shed” – including “Monki”, “333” and “NVR Rally.” Her music is frequently described as genre-bending” and her performance demonstrated that with songs bouncing from ethereal to soulful to alternative - including an interesting Nirvana cover.
 |
| King Isis @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
As she has before at the grove, DJ Lady Ryan set a terrific vibe with her opening DJ set and music between acts - getting the crowd engaged early and often.
 |
| DJ Lady Ryan @ the Stern Grove Festival (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Thanks for reading and while you're at it, you can follow us as well here: Instagram | Facebook.
