But when Duffy announced a special guest among the audience, I was absolutely thrilled to witness Lillie West of Lala Lala take the stage alongside Duffy. Duffy’s career is heavily ornamented with their slide guitar skills, from their solo on “Holding On,” from The War on Drugs’ Grammy winning A Deeper Understanding, to their appearances on Weyes Blood’s Front Row Seat, as well as their title of regular guitarist, bassist, and pianist in Kevin Morby’s live band.īeing a five-day music festival, TNK brought Chicago musicians out of the house to support fellow artists, as I ran into Chicago based musicians Tasha and Sports Boyfriend’s Eileen Peltier amongst the crowd. And when they pulled a slide out of their shirt pocket during “Flower Glass,” the crowd went silent, jaws dropped, with the exception of one gasped “nice!” causing a chuckle to roll through the audience.
For instance, midway through “jessica,” the audience first got a glimpse of the polished impeccability of Duffy’s guitar techniques through an extended guitar solo (whammy bar and all) - shredding against an otherwise mellow, methodic ballad of forgiveness. It would be too easy to simply compare the stylistic and rhythmic choices of Hand Habits to those of Big Thief - Meg Duffy’s vocals to those of Adrianne Lenker - but that would be erasing beauties in each respective artist. After receiving a good laugh from the crowd over the playful lyrics following “a damn dog” getting out, they explained how they wrote this song for their dear friend Hannah Read (better known by the stage name Lomelda), unaware during the initial dedication that it would be a heart-yanking tale. Hand Habits then dove into the well-known “are you serious?” and “placeholder” before interrupting the recognition with another new one that Duffy affirmed no one’s ever heard. The final opener of the night, Fran, was soft spoken, yet commanded the stage like a headlining act, speaking with no urgency, but interacted with confidence unlike novice openers trying to cram in song after song. I’ve witnessed shows there in which I was one of only 20 people in the majority-family-and-friends audience, and ones like Saturday night, where the venue was jam-packed an hour and a half before Hand Habits even walked on stage.ĭream-pop artist Fauvely kicked off the night, followed by the raspier, twangier Garcia Peoples. I’ve been to plenty of shows at Schubas - the intimacy yet extensive recognition of the venue brings artists from all over to the 165 capacity space - from Chicago-based student bands to internationally touring artists.
HAND HABITS FULL
And with these songs, I really do.By Avery Adams Photos by Layton Guyton 18 Jan, 2020ĭay four of the five day Tomorrow Never Knows (TNK) Festival brought Hand Habits to Schubas, along with three opening acts for a night full of PBR drinkers swaying to calm, captivating music. In order for other people to feel it, I have to make sure I’m feeling it too. You want people to be able to project their own experiences onto this feeling that you’re trying to create and communicate. And if you’re able to feel moved by it, I’m not thinking that you’re so moved by the tragedy of my life or my experience, but it’s maybe just that you can relate to the feeling of it. I’m not talking to a specific ‘you’ when I’m singing a song. ‘The reason I make music is because I’m interested in connecting with people. I think this also coincides with my trans identity too, because so much of that journey for me has been me really fighting against what I’m not ‘allowed’ to be.’ĭuffy explains how they are inspired by working collaboratively and how this was brought into the new album by stepping back, questioning the process and viewing it from a new perspective. I wouldn’t allow myself to step into certain roles because of the little box I was putting myself in based on all of these false narratives that I had come to believe about myself. Sasami empowered me to take up a lot of different sonic spaces and challenged me to rethink these limitations that I had about my own identity.
‘I felt a massive shift in the way that I was seeing the world and seeing myself, moving through certain emotional patterns and behavioural patterns, and really taking them apart. Speaking about the change in musical direction, Hand Habits aka Duffy says: Emboldened by going into therapy and coaxed by Ashworth to push the songs into unexpected new routes, Fun House is more personal and stylistically adventurous than anything Hand Habits have created before. Produced by Sasami Ashworth ( SASAMI) and engineered by Kyle Thomas ( King Tuff), the record was not intended as a reaction to the pandemic, but was the result of taking a moment of pause. Their new album, Fun House, is out now on Saddle Creek and explores a new direction that sees Duffy take on a more electronic landscape. Meg Duffy’s indie, soft rock project has long been pleasing music critics and fans alike.
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