Big John Bates Interviews

Big John Bates @ Lucky Bar, Victoria
Brand X (January 2005)

Lucky Bar packed as quickly as the doors opened and it was a rare sight to see an audience show such unconcealed enthusiasm for a local opener that has been on the scene for such a short time. Next up was Vancouver's Big John Bates and The Voodoo Dolls, who after having an opener give them a run for their money knocked up the tempo and tore into the songs, rarely even letting in room for applause. The band had an instant relationship with the audience and truly enjoyed being on stage, with bursts of musical agility, high endurance stage antics and true showmanship (and womanship, hence the stand-up bassist) the band went off, and John Bates moved to every corner of the stage, into the crowd - which is a typical sign of musical showboating to many who use a cordless electric guitar, but there was something much more enriching about his sheer enjoyment of the audience that was pure showmanship and dexterity.

--------------------------- Big John in the crowd -------------------------- Dahlia Rose and Little Miss Risk raising the blood pressure

A quarter-way through the set came The Voodoo Dolls, a burlesque duo that certainly challenged the audience's ravaged attention spans, who peered back and forth from watching the band with their elaborate musical skill and style to the scantly clad dancers who dressed as nurses (I was fortunate enough to be taken from the crowd and given the patient treatment), lingerie clad funeral mourners and various other themes. The stage was a mesmerizing site and the sounds were equally as impressive.

- review by Jesse Ladret
- photos by Kent Ainscough

Big John Bates @ Vnuk's, Milwaukee
The Onion Magazine (July 2004)

Clearly inpired by raunchy hedonism, Big John Bates plays the kind of upbeat, blues-infused rock'n'roll that practically oozes pomade. Live, it's the type of music that gets the toes tapping. And the Voodoo Dollz isn't Bates' backing band, but rather a burlesque show inspired by his lyrics.

Big John Bates @ the Night Gallery, Calgary
by Brad Halasz - Nerve Magazine (Mar 2004)

Most love-deprived people don't like going out alone on the consumer whore extravaganza that is Valentine's day, but the single fans of Cowtown had no choice as Vancouver's Big John Bates brought his B.B. King signed White Falcon and Brian Setzer-looks along with the sexy Voodoo Dollz Burlesque show to the Night Gallery saturday.

What can I say about the flask-swinging John Bates? Highlights of the night were the firecracker, sCare-oline, climbing onto her upright bass and their renditions of "White Wedding" and Tainted Love". Bates' live set was enough to turn any newcomer onto hotrod blues - his live show will give you wood, and the general hotness of the Voodoo Dollz will finish the job, making this anti-Valentine cynic one happy pappy.

Live with Los Straightjackets - Richard's on Richards, Vancouver
by Natasha Andrew - BARC Online (Sept 2003)

The Big John Bates band rolled onto the Richards stage with their scantily clad women and hotrod blues-rock last Friday. These stylish cats along with their naughty burlesque babes put on an outstanding stage performance that definitely sits in my top 10 shows of the summer. Described as "sweaty, primitive, raunchy and horny" Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz achieved beyond all expectations, and showed the hungry crowd what hotrod blues was all about.

Big John crooned to the onlookers while stunning upright bassist sCare-oline pulled and slapped her instrument like a minstrel. Also an accomplished belly dancer, you couldn't help but be memorized by the movements and sounds coming from this woman. Stuart Quayle aka L'il Bastard set a charged beat that possessed your feet to move.

The combination of musical talent and sheer eye candy is what made this show stand out. This is just what the city needs to jump start the live music scene again. This performance was not just another gig, but an event. They have achieved the art of creating memorable live performances and should be welcomed into clubs with outstretched arms. Thank you, Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz, for showing us something unique! Keep the music and bustier-clad catfights coming!

Evil Man - Burlesque Rock - EDMONTONPlus SHOW PROFILE
by Steve Sandor (Mar 2003)

Evil man - Big John Bates's bio claims that after seeing him and the Voodoo Dollz perform their punked-up take on the blues, filled with sweat, pyro and scantily-clad large-breasted women, "NO preacher can save you . . . " But in an era when the world is filled with the likes of Creed and Nickelback writing songs about self-affirmation, it's good to see that there are those out there like Bates who want to keep the evil in rock 'n roll.

Burlesque rock - Bates' latest album, Mystiki, is a combination of jump blues, surf and punk rock, with the same kind of shock value of bands like the Cramps (whose singer, Lux Interior, used to vomit on stage for effect) and the Supersuckers (who often write humorous takes about mass murder and drug habits). With a loyal following in Canada, the United States and Europe, where he has played numerous festivals, Bates and the Voodoo Dolls have earned themselves the right to be called the king (and queens) of rock 'n roll Vaudeville. Part burlesque, part shock-schlock, a night with Mr. Bates may not be redeeming, but it sure promises to be fun.

HYPE MUSIC - The Westender Magazine
by Tom Zillich (Vancouver - Nov 2002)

Nothing like a ban to get some publicity. An e-mail from the offices of Bute Street's Devil Sauce Recordings details the banning of The Voodoo Dollz dancers from a Big John Bates show at the House of Blues bar at Mandalay Bay casino in Vegas. Reportedly, the local psychobilly act's Halloween night show was stopped short by bar management after only four numbers. The American hosts "decided that (the Dollz) pasties were nudity and that the burlesque performers wrestling in their latex catsuits equated with 'simulated sex' being performed onstage." HOB let the band play on, minus the Dollz who were banished to the backstage area but managed to scamper into the crowd for a final-song mooning of the room.

LIVE WIRES: The Nerve Magazine
By Cowboy TexAss (Sept 2002)

Psycho jump blues surfrock and a burlesque troupe together at last. A great combination. While Big John Bates and Co. played their asses off, delivering an excellent set of fast, driving whatever the heck it is, his duo of scantily-clad bombshells gyrated and stripped in time, all as one cohesive unit of psycho madness. Big John Bates drew in the crowd, but the girls earned everyone's attention: They blew fire, waved flaming batons, dressed up in vinyl cat suits with whips and had a cat fight. They even dragged some poor girl out of the audience, ripped her clothes off and smeared lipstick all over her face. Now that's entertainment. Mr. Bates brought out the big guns with some cool covers, "Too Drunk to Fuck" by the Dead Kennedys, a rockabilly "Tainted Love" and even an ACDC song, and to even the score out, their sexy stand-up bassist, sCare-oline, came into the crowd and belly-danced. Me and Ms. Dexter coulda sworn we were on a Tex and Dex night out.