Prepare to fall under group’s spell at Bijou on Wednesday, April 27
By Carey Hodges
“Joy, we are all gonna partake in some joy, OK?!”
Shannon Shaw, frontwoman for Oakland rockers Shannon and the Clams, says there will be a doubling down on dancing and smiles – as well as LOTS of laughter – when asked what folks can expect at the band’s show at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville on Wednesday, April 27.
Here. For. It.
Fresh off of a sweaty, electric set at the High Water Festival in North Charleston, South Carolina, Shannon and the Clams are ready to keep dishing out the energy as they embark on a spring/summer tour with their sunny, psychedelic blend of surf and garage rock.
“Honestly, the crowd [was] SO READY!” Shaw says of her group’s set at Riverfront Park. “That was such an amazingly fun group of people out there. Anytime I was feeling a little shy or made a little mistake, I’d look out at the sea and smiles and cheers and [would] get back into it. They make it easy to have a great show.”
The band partnered with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach on their sixth and most recent album, 2021’s “Year of the Spider,” which found Shaw and company pairing their signature warm, retro sound with intimate lyrics touching upon topics like her father’s health battles, forest fires and general life upheaval. That combination of dark subject matter and shiny doo-wop manifests in a mystical, cozy vibe when the band hits the stage – one of the many reasons why their live shows are a favorite among music afficionados and frequent concertgoers.
“The meanings of the songs have changed in some ways,” says Shaw of that album. “They were written pre-pandemic, but since they have breathed air in a pandemic-stricken world, I feel like the soul we pump into them live has changed to a different color.
“Instead of leaning on the experiences I wrote of for ‘Vanishing’ – aka my dad – I am now speaking to a group of people that have survived a wild and sometimes terrifying couple of years. It feels very natural to call on the more recent experiences. I also feel a strange psychic magic when I think of a lot of the lyrical content of this album; there’s some coincidental foreshadowing happening throughout the entire record.”
Are you ready to catch that same strange psychic magic in person? Shannon and the Clams will perform at the Bijou on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in a show presented by beloved local music venue the Pilot Light. Tickets are just $20 plus fees and can be purchased here. The next stop for the group will be in Atlanta, where they will perform with Josephine Network at the Masquerade on Thursday, April 28, and on Friday, April 29, at Shaky Knees Music Festival.
