Music

Fully grown drummer of Canadian pop-punk band got stuck in a claw machine

by Mark Teo

If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably spent ample time—and loads of cash—on claw machines. Indeed, it’s easy to be mystified by the tantalizing prizes awarded by claw cranes: Some offer oversized stuffed toys. Others offer up video games and low-grade electronics. Others, meanwhile, offer up drummers.

At least that’s what a couple of kids at a Dave & Busters in Nyack, New York, got stuck with recently. As Toronto pop-punk band Junior Battles [disclosure: the three members of the band who were not in the claw machine—singer/guitarists Sam Sutherland and Aaron Zorgel and bassist Justin Taylor—work with AUX], tested their luck in the claw machine, a little girl spotted something strange: She saw someone hidden in the plush animals. And, as it turns out, it was beer-drinking drummer Joel Dickau, who, while being yanked by a mechanical claw-arm, managed to climb out of the machine, bearing a giant stuffed bear.

Junior Battles, for their part, were in town playing a wedding. “We were playing a comedy club at the mall for a wonderful couple we didn’t know at all, but who just love the band,” says Sutherland. “We learned a few covers but mostly played our sad-sack pop-punk songs for their entire family for about two hours.”

Eventually, that led the band to Dave & Busters. Sutherland adds that the band’s obsessed with claw machines. “Joel cannot leave a rest stop without hitting the claw machine. He and Aaron have a pretty solid system worked out, where Joel runs claw while Aaron acts as the ‘depth man,'” he says.

“The band has a decent collection of dusty stuffed animals from across America. Seeing that gargantuan machine at D&B was like visiting mecca. Joel ran his usual tight game, but the claw didn’t close and basically stole his dollar. The only appropriate action was to check the prize gate and see if a slender vegan could fit through. He could.”

Climbing in claw machines, it turns out, is an unexpected benefit of living a cruelty-free lifestyle. Once Dickau emerged from the machine, he didn’t keep the prize for himself. Instead, he handed it to the little girl, who replied with a “Thank you!” Awww.