Bands We Love - Dead Man's Bones

Remember the photo we took a week ago in Los Angeles from the show we didn't get to see? Well, our friend Dave C. from our favorite LittleRadio made magic happen and got myself and GuerrillaStylist in to see the very sold out Dead Man's Bones show at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. The venue was packed and so dark you could barely see in front of you. You know when you don't know where you are and it's dark and anxiety kicks in and you jump when you bump into something fearing it's going to be a skeleton or something creepy but it's just a pillar or another person standing in your way? That's how I felt as we made our way to the back of the venue to find a seat. The feeling was perfect for the show we were about to see.

After an hour long talent show (umm, there was a guy who put himself through a wire hanger), Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields come out on to the stage followed by their band and the St. Peter's Church Choir from Philadelphia. The choir was dressed in white hooded robes with black hearts on them and their faces painted a ghostly white with black eyes. The stage was lit blue and red and the backdrop was a graveyard and haunted house with dim lights for stars. The mood was set.

If you've heard the record, you should really try to check out one of their shows as they are two different experiences. One can easily accompany the Dead Man's Bones record with some Devics, or Black Heart Procession, maybe even Nick Cave. The show, though, is another experience completely. It's like performance art. My favorite part of the night was when a young choir member is "shot" and dies right there on stage. Gosling and Shields hold up a white sheet and a short film of her "afterlife" is projected on to it while they recite a poem to go with the film. The film ends, the sheet comes down, and the girl starts to sing a slow, almost talking, spooky version of Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down). If you didn't know that it was a Nancy Sinatra song, you would have thought the boys genius for writing a song so perfect to go with this bit.

Shields and Gosling are great together, as they trade singing duties and instruments, and so comfortable on stage and with the choir of kids. They made it seem like they were accompanying the choir rather than the other way around. I kept thinking how fun it must be to be one of those kids and get to sing out lyrics like "My body's a zombie for you" and "When I think about you, flowers grow out of my grave" (The latter, so romantic, is it not?)

The only thing about being at the show I didn't like was the audience. Seriously people, shut up and watch. I still don't understand why people pay to talk.

Favorite songs - Pa Pa Power (a good get up and dance tune), Dead Man's Bones, Paper Ships (Shields' voice on this is so beautiful and angelic), In the Room Where You Sleep (Gosling's vibrato makes you wanna move your body in sin) and of course Name in Stone.

I decided earlier in the night that this show was going to be one that i just got to and enjoy, no flip, no camera, no note taking. I failed, just a little, and pulled out my camera to take this shot.
That's all you get. Go buy the record or see a show.