Two years ago, musician Shannon Shaw lost her fiancé in a car crash mere weeks before their wedding. Amidst her grief, Shaw turned to music, rallying her bandmates from garage punk quartet, Shannon & the Clams to create their latest album, The Moon Is In The Wrong Place. 

“Losing Joe made me unafraid of so many things,” Shaw says of her late fiancé. “I have a lot less fear. It’s given me new perspective. Baring my soul is so much less scary than it would’ve been before.”

The band performed their new music at Pabst’s Blue Ribbon Music Festival in Portland this past July. Project Pabst was held for the first time in seven years at the city's Waterfront Park.

With their blend of doo-wop, punk and garage pop, Shannon & the Clams shared their distinctive twang, transporting festival goers to a bygone era. In  “Real Or Magic,” the seventh track off their new album, Shaw’s yearning vocals are accompanied by delicate guitar riffs, urging listeners to close their eyes and sway. In the pre-chorus she croons, “It was real, or was it magic?/You kissed my eyes, you disappear/I saw you, my God you shined/You've shown your love light one last time.”

The frontwoman’s grief is on full display throughout the rest of The Moon Is In The Wrong Place and guitarist Cody Blanchard, drummer Nate Mahan and keyboardist Will Sprott amplify Shaw’s sentiments. Known for their dynamic live performances, Shannon & the Clams move seamlessly from the longing of “Real or Magic” to more upbeat songs with a melancholic edge like “The Vow” and “What You’re Missing.” Shaw wrote “The Vow” prior to her fiancé’s death, intending to surprise him with the song on their wedding day.

“I hated the idea of him never getting to hear it,” she says. “What do you do with this depressing song that never got to have its life?”

The answer? Share it and relish in the catharsis. See here, Shannon & the Clams relish Project Pabst.