Duffy x Uhlmann + Abbey Blackwell

Doors open 7 PM, music 8 PM.

Blurring the limits between speed and slowness, guitarists Meg Duffy and Greg Uhlmann communicate in velocities, underwriting each other’s peaks and flurries as they ache toward a mutual horizon. After playing in Perfume Genius and Hand Habits, Duffy and Uhlmann embarked on their first record together, Doubles. A testament to the wordlessness of their musical intimacy, they take up the guitar in order to make an imprint of the slowness and presence of their improvisational practice. These one-take improvisations, recorded in Uhlmann’s brothers’ house on a borrowed tape recorder, unfold like a game of truth or dare. Their constant motif is an unceasing return, a steady heartbeat they mutually commit to, knowing when one wanders off, the other will either follow or call them home. Here, flushness overrides order, each note saunters by like initials etched into tree bark: a devotion both passing and eternal.

Primarily known as a bassist with groups like Grammy-nominated band Alvvays and surf pop band La Luz,  Abbey Blackwell (Seattle) is focusing her energies on writing for solo guitar and voice. Her songwriting calls back to the lyrical, hanging melodies of Sibylle Baier and Linda Perhacs, with angular, geometric chord progressions that lean in satisfying directions. Her next full length album Big Big Motion will be released 9/13.

(photo: Jacob Boll)