MARQUETTE, Mich.—Two local songwriting duos, Team Awesome and Shadow Arcade, will open the 2012-13 Coffee House Concert Series sponsored by the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University. Their show begins at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14, in the Peter White Lounge of the University Center. Admission is free, with donations encouraged.

Team Awesome is an original alternative rock duo composed of Marquette teenagers. Heather Evans, guitarist and singer, began playing viola in middle school and took up guitar at 13. She was introduced to the band The White Stripes by fellow orchestra member Gretchen McKenzie, who began playing bass at 11 and also contributes vocals. Thanks to a shared love of the band, the two soon began jamming and formed Team Awesome. The original songs composed by Evans and McKenzie have become a key element of their sets, along with an eclectic mix of covers by various artists. They play not only as an acoustic duo, but also as a garage rock trio with drummer Dawson McKenzie. The group has played regular gigs in Marquette since 2010 and plans to release a double acoustic-electric album in the near future.

Shadow Arcade plays energetic and enjoyable indie pop music about girls, boys, booze, cars, trains and awkward occurrences. In April 2012, through the magical combination of raucous basement concerts and breweries in Marquette, local musicians Troy Graham and Breanne Kanak met, conversed, and soon began to write catchy, revealing and sometimes hilarious songs. This melding of the minds would become known as Shadow Arcade. This band envelops its audience with only a guitar, tambourine and two dissimilar but refreshingly harmonious vocal styles. Shadow Arcade has been featured at several venues in and around the Upper Peninsula. The duo released its first full-length album, “Were We,” in mid-August.

This event, as with all U.P. Folklife Festival events, is funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.