Chicago BeAt … Dead Man’s Bones’ 1st Chicago concert (featuring Ryan Gosling and Chicago children’s choir)

Not many actors can upstage Oscar-nominee Ryan Gosling. But at last night’s first ever Chicago performance of Dead Man’s Bones, his new spooky-sounding, ‘50s-rock inspired indie outfit, Gosling was frequently upstaged by local all-girl singing troupe St. Andrew’s School Children’s Choir.

Not that the beaming Gosling, a former child singer himself on The Mickey Mouse Club, seemed to mind, cheering on his co-stars and unleashing high fives with the girls at the end.

Some 15 girls, dressed in white hooded robes, their faces dolled up to look like skeletons, crowded against the base of Schubas’ tiny stage, their collective voices lending Bones’ music – concocted via guitars, synthesizers, percussion, and occasional flute – a soaring spirit and epic scope. And when called upon to dance like zombies, throw candy to the crowd and die slow-mo deaths, the girls brought the fun.  The best part of a very good night wasn’t a Ryan Gosling-led performance, but a stirring cover of Nancy Sinatra’s version of the sultry, haunting “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down),” performed by 8th grader Jaimie Villar from St. Andrew’s. In short, without the choir, Dead Man’s Bones wouldn’t have been as endearing and enjoyable.

At the same time, the band wasn’t riding the choir’s coattails. Gosling was a charismatic front man with a killer vibrato perfectly suited for macabre jams like “In The Room Where You Sleep,” “Name in Stone” and the band’s best song, the dramatic, rousing, slightly cheeky “My Body’s a Zombie for You,” and the actor lent a spot of solid guitar work and some dazzling playmanship on piano. Even better, Gosling seemed to be having a ton of fun, occasionally interrupting his singing with mild bursts of laughter and brandishing a silly smile. It was a refreshing sight to see, considering the actor is most often seen playing intense, deadly serious characters like a Neo-Nazi or a drug addict.

Band mate Zach Shields held his own with equally rich vocals and percussion work. Also stealing the show was Chicago-born touring female vocalist and flautist Andye Jamieson; she had the strongest set of pipes this night, easily dominating the room when allowed to go all out. A bit more of her solo singing would have been welcome.

While the band got tripped up here and there, their infectious sense of fun, and the songs themselves – lush, poetic, engulfing, sort of like Arcade Fire paying homage to Vincent Price and Edgar Allan Poe – made the evening more than just a novelty. It all made for a good concert. And with a strong arsenal of songs from its debut, self-titled album, Dead Man’s Bones is more than just “Ryan Gosling’s band” or “that band with the children’s choir” and “the band that plays strange Halloween-ready music.” They’re a band to watch (although Gosling certainly shouldn’t quit his day job).

Setting the perfect tone were three opening acts, compiled for a talent show MC’d by a ghost with a cowboy hat who talked like Peter Lorre. Chicago singer/artist Sierra Dufault sounded a bit like Dead Man’s Bones herself with her solo singing performance, following a bit where she painted to beat of a literal drum, captivating the crowd. Following was Nashville belly dancer Jenn Ross, who did three sets of belly dancing set to industrial synth-heavy soundtracks. Cool stuff, if a bit redundant. Closing up the opening was Jeff Bibik, a Vegas sideshow-ready comedian with pitch-perfect yuk-yuk humor and some solid sleight of hand. (All three performers were featured in a previous Chicago Beat post).

Below are Chicago Beat video snippets from Ross, Bibik and Dead Man’s Bones, respectively. And Schubas has a vid from the 2nd performance here, and some great pics here.