Garage-punk band Shannon and the Clams play Oakland's Fox Theater
One of the most beloved local bands on the Bay Area punk scene, Shannon and the Clams play songs from their latest effort The Moon Is In The Wrong Place when they headline the Fox Theater in Oakland Saturday.
Mixing of '50s and '60s sounds -- elements of early rock and roll stylings (particularly Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison), doo-wop, girl groups, surf and R&B -- with more modern garage-punk grit, singer/bassist Shannon Shaw and singer/guitarist Cody Blanchard first started playing music together in 2007 while students at Oakland's California College of the Arts. They would fill out the band's line-up with drummer Ian Amberson, eventually signing with local record store-affiliated imprint 1-2-3-4 Go! Records for their retro-tinged debut I Wanna Go Home that featured Shaw's raw, emotive delivery at the center of the band's original tunes.
A number of singles and their second effort Sleep Talk followed, with the band eventually moving to Seattle-based Sub Pop subsidiary Hardly Art for the more polished Dreams in the Rat House in 2013. By the time they released Gone By Dawn two years later, drummer Nate Mahan had taken over for the departed Amberson (the later addition of singer/keyboardist Will Sprott would cement the band's current line-up). The group had by then established itself as a powerhouse live act, growing its national fan base and earning invitations to perform at Coachella and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.
The discovery that Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach was a fan would lead the quartet to being signed by his Easy Eye Sound label and him producing their next album, the stellar Onion in 2018. Shaw would also record her solo debut Shannon in Nashville with Auerbach producing and co-writing a majority of the songs on an effort that couched her brassy, powerful voice over lushly orchestrated '60s pop and country arrangements backed by a band of Nashville session legends including drummer Gene Chrisman (Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis) and keyboard player Bobby Wood (Elvis, George Jones, Tammy Wynette).
The group would reunite with Auerbach to record their most recent effort, 2021's Year of the Spider that saw Shannon and the Clams pushing their sound ever forward. Shaw performed with her own band at the Mosswood Meltdown in July, but tragedy struck the singer in August when her fiancé and the drummer in her group Joe Haener -- a scene fixture who had played in such notable bands as the Gris Gris, Battleship, the Rock n' Roll Adventure Kids and others -- died in an Oregon car crash just months before their wedding. While Shannon and the Clams would cancel a number of scheduled appearances, they made an emotional return to the stage at the 2023 edition of Gonerfest in Memphis.
Channeling their heartbreak in the studio, the band released its latest effort The Moon Is In the Wrong Place in May. The collection of gorgeous tunes eulogize Haener and find the Shannon and company emerging from the loss with a transformative work of art that is being hailed by many as the most powerful album of their 15-year career. For this show at the Fox Theater in Oakland Saturday, the will be joined by fellow Bay Area favorites Noelle & The Deserters. Fronted by former member of SF Americana group Sweet Chariot and current guitarist in Shaw's solo band, Noelle Fiore her group of gifted musicians including members of Once and Future Band, Tarnation, the Aislers Set and Sonic Love Affair released their first album High Desert Daydream last May to wide acclaim.
Shannon and the Clams
Saturday, Oct. 19, 8 p.m. $35-$49.50
Fox Theater
