Big John Bates paints Americana black

By Jamie Hutchinson

If there’s one thing Big John Bates has become known for, it’s stage performance. But not everyone wants to play the same show year after year. Once in a while, you need to shake things up and throw a little darkness out there.

The band’s latest release, “From the Bestiary to the Leathering Room,” marks more of a change for the band as they further develop the sound they’ve been working on for a few years. Similar to film scores, there’s more of an emphasis on atmosphere and the violin and cello featured in the album help generate that. Unlike John Bates’ Voodoo Dollz days, the focus is more on the music than the burlesque performances that once accompanied the band but were retired around 2010.

“We wanted the music to carry the whole show, not just the image,” John Bates says. When they first started using burlesque dancers in their live show, it was something special. Not many others were doing it. Eventually, every city had burlesque and that originality was lost. For this album, they also wanted a darker, less “boppy” sound. With that, Bates focuses less on the psychobilly sound that defines most of his back catalogue, replacing it by what upright bassist, co-writer and co-vocalist Brandy Bones refers to as Americana noir.

“That’s a pretty good description of it, I think,” Bates says. The album features Southern Gothic lyrical themes, with many tracks dealing with death, and has a more “environmental” feel to it. One of the bands biggest influences is alternative country band 16 Horsepower and the band even goes as far as covering the Denver band’s single “Black Soul Choir” on the new album, with Bones handling vocal duties. In addition, the band does their take on Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger,” a song they not only end their shows with but the album too.

“I just wanted something light to end the album with,” Bates says. “You can tell when you listen to the album and you get to that song, it’s completely different than everything else on the record.”

Most of the album was recorded on Bates’ 1970s cabin cruiser Caleuche, named after the mythical Chilean ghost ship. The inside of the boat consists of teak and hardwood floors, which fits with the band’s choice of wood instruments, but is excellent for vocals too, with Bates calling the boat the “best vocal booth ever.”

Since partnering with Bates, Bones has remained a strong presence on the band’s music and live performances. She and Bates both write the songs and take turns on lead vocals, freeing up Bates to focus more on guitar, especially when it comes to using different notes to create alternative chords between he and the cellist. As for performance, Bones is an acrobat, treating her upright bass like a balance beam as she stands on the sides of the neck without taking a break from playing.

“She’s super acrobatic,” Bates says of his musical partner and wife. Bones came from Montana where she trained as a gymnast. After arriving in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the band is based, she taught gymnastics to the local burlesque crowd. “She just employed it while she was playing bass,” Bates says. “She was like, ‘Hey, why not?’ Right?”

Though the burlesque and psychobilly have been left behind, Bates says their change in performance and sound has been well received by audiences not just in Europe, where much of their fan base exists, but west of the Atlantic too. And while the performance is different than it used to be, he says, “It’s still a really intense show.”

IF YOU GO:

Tue., Nov. 17, 9:30 p.m.

The Aquarium (Dempsey’s upstairs), 226 Broadway, Fargo

Tickets available at ticketweb.com