Live Review: Tegan & Sara, Clubfeet

The doors to the theatre are thrust open and immediately the room is absolutely abuzz with what seems like Brisbane's entire female homosexual population, all with haircuts resembling those of tonight's iconic headliners.

Melbourne synth-poppers Clubfeet leap straight into a solid set of songs from their debut album, Heirs & Graces, and offer little more in terms of performance and sonic variation. You don't want to say something like, 'They may as well have played the album from an iPod', but the set didn't entirely offer too much more scope.

When the lights drop and a four-to-the-floor kick drum sounds, it feels like something from an old '80s nightclub, somewhere the kids from The Breakfast Club might've danced to the new Cyndi Lauper smash. But no, it's Tegan & Sara, initially void of the guitars and angsty vocal delivery of old but still full of the youthful exuberance that they've always possessed. The set is initially propelled by nothing but new songs – Drove Me Wild, I'm Not Your Hero, Goodbye Goodbye, I Couldn't Be Your Friend – and the Canadian Quin twins are almost apologetic for it. But these tracks, suddenly alive with real drums and allowing room for the voices to soar, sound quite remarkable. From here some oldies creep in and the audience is beside themselves – Back In Your Head is first and is closely followed by The Con, Arrow, Living Room and new single I Was A Fool, sounding something like an '80s power ballad.

Their infamous banter is as sharp and as hilarious as ever as they flip between quips about koalas, Aussie slang and generally taking the piss out of each other. Their vocals sound utterly flawless within the stunning Tivoli environs, and the likes of Where Does The Good Go, Walking With A Ghost and Alligator are near-on tear-evoking, such is the emotion that pours from each and every line.

The main set closes with recent and exceptional single, the thumping, dancey Closer, while the encore is nothing short of a fan's wet dream – the jaw-dropping audience reaction to the acoustic only Call It Off even had the twins taken aback while another acoustic rendition of Nineteen gets similar. A medley of fan favourites follows and highlights just how many songs these two now have spread across seven albums – this would've been a suitable closing memory, however, they chose to end with a version of Tiesto's Feel It In My Bones, a song on which they featured.