Afterward, a handful of fans lined up to purchase cassette tapes the two had made.
It was the first time they had ever signed autographs.
And for Tegan, it was the night she learned a lesson thats followed her for two decades.
Trevor Brady for Rolling Stone
We also received our first hate mail that day.
They delivered it to the merch table at the show.
It was an excellent first experience because Welcome to your future.
Nowadays its just part of the commentary.
So many artists speak about this, Tegan says.
Back then no one even understood what this was and there was no place to talk about it.
It was heavy to carry at the time.
But back then, I just felt ashamed and just thought, yo let it end.
Looking back, Tegan realizes that her first reaction to learning she had an impersonator was a bit histrionic.
That night she learned she had more than an imposter.
It was my first night alone there, Tegan says.
My partner was away and I remember pushing my dresser in front of the door.
Who was I protecting myself from?
I just remember it being chaos.
Tegan wasnt the only victim and she wasnt the only one who felt immediate repercussions from Fegans actions.
Sara had always been the more shy, reserved twin, especially when it came to interacting with fans.
Thats how paranoid I remember feeling, Sara says.
I knew most of their albums by heart, Carr tellsRolling Stone.
And you could contact them.
But the same relatability had implications for how Sara felt about their career.
It felt really toxic, Sara says.
Sometimes it felt like community.
There was something beautiful about it.
But it seemed like it was always right on the edge of curdling.
Like it would only take one bad actor.
The victims are victims and its awful it happened.
But most of them were out there trying to get my personal information off the internet.
And so many of them acknowledged they were violating my privacy too.
And I was just able to access so much compassion that it spilled over even to fake Tegan.
The sisters describe their rising fame as something both exciting and devastatingly claustrophobic.
What I will say is, Im thinking, How do we change this institutionally?
I dont know if its enough to say to fans, Hey, yo, dont act insane.
Like, what are you doing?
So I hope when people watch this film, you ask yourselves hard questions.
How we treat people matters.
