On their first album after the death of their bandmate Joe Haener, Shannon & The Clams find light in the shadows

Late last month, retro-soaked garage R&B heroes Shannon & The Clams took over Southeast Portland’s boutique roadhouse The Showdown for a frenetic dance party to celebrate the release of their seventh album, The moon is in the wrong place.

Another collaboration with The Black Keys guitarist and producer Dan Auerbach, the new record perhaps inevitably revealed a more thoughtful approach to the popular Bay Area outfit’s cheesy grooves. It was the first music they’d recorded since the horrific car crash in 2022 that killed the band’s longtime drummer Joe Haener outside his family’s Salem-area farm just weeks before his wedding to S&TC frontwoman Shannon Shaw.

The album doesn’t so much whistle through the graveyard as stare straight at the Grim Reaper. Sun-drenched garage body-slices like Britpop hootenanny “Bean Fields” and “Big Wheel,” with its lovesick psychedelia feel, speak to the shadows that hover over the album, but the pure love of life the band finds in their music proves indomitable.

With the newly formed quartet on the southern leg of an extensive (and mostly sold-out) national tour – and coming back to town on July 27 for a crazy Project Pabst lineup alongside Gossip and Billy Idol – Shaw spoke to WW about the challenges of incorporating such emotionally charged material into their notoriously wild shows.

WW: How is the tour going?

Shannon Shaw: Really good! I was really surprised by the response to this album because the content was so personal. I didn’t really know what to expect but I just felt a real need to share it and get it all off my chest. Part of me was afraid that people wouldn’t get hooked. It didn’t. People love it and want to be a part of it. We have such amazing fans and they’ve been so supportive. It’s been a really nice response.

With the new material, have there been any changes in the audience? In the set lists? What are the shows like?

They’re definitely still very danceable. People are still going wild. There was no stage diving on this tour, but a lot of people are still dancing and singing along. It’s fun. We still want you to leave with a good feeling. And, you know, we want to leave with a good feeling!

Sometimes there are tears when we play one of the heavier ballads, but we really try to make the setlist have a little bit of everything. We don’t want it to be all just dark. We want the full adventure – layered, you know? It’s a complicated album, a little more psychedelic than usual, that really covers the whole range of emotions – just like grief. We do play a lot of the new stuff, but I wouldn’t say the album is dark overall. It’s uplifting! Sometimes when you’re in extreme darkness, everything that’s bright and shining stands out more than it did before.

Do you think it will continue like this? Have you already started working on the next album??

I haven’t thought about recording the next album yet. For me, our albums are like yearbooks that capture our lives in the moment we write. I guess it depends on when the urge and ability to write songs comes back, but I don’t plan on not writing about my life.

Do you still live near the city?

No, I don’t. I moved in with (late fiancé) Joe and moved away after he died. I still spend a lot of time in Portland and Aurora, though. My time in Portland was kind of a flash in the pan, but still very meaningful. I loved living there, but moving there during the pandemic was weird because we were in lockdown for a lot of the time we lived together. We probably only started getting out – going to shows, making friends, interacting with people – in the last five months that he was alive.

Back to the Bay Area?

Yes. (Haener) was the reason I moved to Portland, but I loved it. I’m really glad (his death) didn’t tarnish my relationship with Portland and Aurora and the Northwest in general.

How long have you lived up here?

Since October 2020? I mean, we were together for five and a half years before he died, so I was in Portland and Aurora a lot before I moved. I still love it there and feel really good when I’m there. My bandmate (guitarist) Cody (Blanchard) still lives there.

Portland really has a very special place in our hearts, but definitely in mine. I loved Mount Tabor so much. The Hollywood is probably one of the most amazing theaters in the world. I love the Laurelhurst Theater, Laurelhurst Park, Laurelhurst Market – just that whole neighborhood. I lived on the corner of 22nd and (East) Burnside, and when I lived there during COVID, I would walk about 4 miles every day through Laurelhurst and into Kerns. I just loved that.

So the album release in Portland was more than just a question of logistics?

The Portland release was very deliberate. We wanted to release the album in Oregon because that’s where Joe’s life began and ended. We actually did part of the release on the farm – we played an acoustic set for Joe’s family – and then we had the super fun dance party DJ night at The Showdown. I spent so much time on the farm in Aurora and Marion County. That’s where he worked, and so much symbolism from that time and place found its way into the record. It just felt right.

GO: Shannon & The Clams play at Project Pabst at Waterfront Park, 98 SW Naito Parkway, projectpabst.com. Saturday, July 27. Single-day tickets $115.