Halloween Candy Claws--Masks and all!

Apparently these holiday months are a slow time for event catering here in Portland. Therefore, I was given a heaping 5 days off from work to do with as I please. I decided to take advantage of the days off by checking out a couple of shows, doing some unnecessary record shopping, and (hopefully) finishing my album. One song to go!

As posted below, I saw Tennis last night at the Holocene, but before that, I decided to go see Candy Claws again at Mississippi Studios. This was the third time I've seen the band, and each time, the band has been halved. Oh no! Someone is eating all the candy!


I first saw them in Des Moines (another awesome show Trista opened for) where they had 8 members. Apparently, their van had recently exploded and they lost all of their equipment, and they still managed to kill it at the Vaudeville.


The next time I saw them was here in Portland for the Musicfest Northwest Festival. This time they only had 4 members, brandishing new equipment and mostly just playing to a backing track.

A few nights ago, at Mississippi Studios, the once 8-piece band had dwindled down to a mere 2. I had to overhear something that sounded like the mention of members quitting, because I was too afraid to ask about it myself--the remaining 2 looked the part of the whole situation, as if they were just barely holding the whole thing together. So, a combination of that, the unexpectedness of only 2 members, and the fact that when they started I was literally the only person in the audience (people trickled in later) made for a supremely weird show experience.

The drastic drop in members also had a huge effect on the music they played as well. It may have had something to do with the fact that the 2 remaining members were ill at the time of the show, but they opted for a laptop performance (probably not having a lot of other choices), playing what sounded like a complete dance remix of their first album, not entirely unlike their 2 previously released 15-minute songs, Two Airships and Exploder Falls.


I hope all of this doesn't mark some sort of impending doom for this band. I'd really like to see them at their fullest. Ideally, all 8 members with proper equipment, and a fresh outlook, unhindered by months of touring and members quitting.

Of their previous two albums, Kay and Ryan of Candy Claws said:

On our previous album, "In the Dream of the Sea Life," we smashed all the sounds together as if they were at the ocean floor under the huge weight of miles of water... This time around, there's a lot more space in the mix("air" instead of the crushing weight of "water".)

It is this thought and inspiration that goes into each album that I really like about this band. I'd really like to see what the third album would consist of. With the way things seem to be going, I wouldn't be surprised by some sort of fire theme...