Dead Mans Bones
 | Author: Team | Posted: October 21st, 2009 | Filed under: Events, Music | | Comments Off |
(Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields perform at NY’s Poisson Rouge)
It was a dark and stormy night outside of Le Poisson Rouge, the bone chilling weather was befitting for the occasion. The wind carried the shrieks of anxious girls waiting in line in hopes to get close enough to the stage to see two actors belt out tales about zombies who hunger for love, whose hearts are not eaten but broken, and pirates who are all but bones, floating on paper ships, dreaming of ladies unknown. I’ll admit. I was one of them. Well, one of the first girls in line. Tickets to this spooktacular event were general admission and I have not even dared to go to a general admission concert since I was in high school, so, I was not sure what to expect. I say that scared me the most. Ghosts, I can befriend. Zombies, I might just have an eerie fascination with. Screaming fangirls? Well, to me, they are the scariest creatures of them all.
Even the venue wasn’t sure of what to expect due to the sheer mass of phone calls and e-mails of people hoping to score tickets to none other than Dead Man’s Bones. A gothic doo-wop eclectic mixture, whose first album, (produced by IMA ROBOT’s Tim Anderson) should be the soundtrack for Halloween (who isn’t sick of hearing monster mash playing on repeat during the season anyway?). Dead Man’s Bones is fronted by actors Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields.
On the back of their CD (released via ANTI on October 6th), I noticed they had imprinted in the background the phrase “NEVER LET A LACK OF TALENT GET YOU DOWN!” and I whole-heartedly agree. I believe that is what made me most anxious to actually be able to review and see this concert because it seemed that these two were making music because they had a strong love for it, it was their way of having fun and collaborating with children (who perform in a choir during the show) and adults alike who felt the exact same way as they did.
Gosling and Shields worked together as a team and alternated between instruments and vocals. They laughed their way through technical difficulties and ignored the occasional girl screaming one of their names. In fact, at one point during the concert, a small handful of girls were screaming for Gosling as he sat down by the piano, but before he played, he joked into the microphone “Mom, can you please quiet down? We’ve talked about this.” The set included such songs as “Buried in Water”, “My Body’s a Zombie for You” and “Name in Stone”, that all seemed to embody a different genre of music… which never disappoints.
My only hope is that listeners become fans of this band because of the music and not because of the names attached. Shields really holds his own and exhibits just as much stage presence and charm as Gosling. Together, they are a match made in a Tim Burtonized version of heaven.
– Jennifer Manel
