Text by Sean Kennerly. Photos by Daggers For Eyes.
Shannon’s voice is so many things – it cracks at just the right moments, envelops you in its velvety smoothness and lets you lie down in it, then right as you’re in the perfect spot it growls and kicks you off and you get dizzy wondering if it will ever take you back. I feel like I knew she was a great singer before, but now she sounds even better if it’s possible? She seems so effortlessly self-assured now in her range, like if Wanda Jackson and Marilyn Monroe had a baby and made it wear Danzig onesies. Her slowed-down cover of Misfits’ “Angelfuck” almost brought tears to my dead eyes.
Shredder Cody’s no schmuck with the pipes either. He holds his own in the singing which is pretty impressive when you’re next to Shannon. They seem to have evolved into each other stylistically – their inflections mesh so perfectly together. They played a few new songs that were awesome and which I suspect will be out soon.
It was Devil’s Night at Baby’s All Right and the show was sold out. Andy Animal, mastermind of Meltasia and general badass about town, a man who can peer into the soul of any moment, was born to MC for the Clams. I’ve never seen an MC do an encore before, but his introduction speech was so good he came back out and did it again halfway through the set and it was just as effective the second time.
The Clams were dressed up like witches with extra eyes all over the place, which was cool but they always kinda look like they’re in costume anyway, especially if you’re on a bunch of mushrooms in an abandoned zoo. But this was at Baby’s which is a great place to see them because the sound is soooo good. To really crawl inside the full Clams experience, you need a loud, crisp sound system and a good sound person. Bless them for making it so.
