Ghost at the Webster Hall (05/01/2011)

A friend from college told me about the band Ghost (from Sweden), and as soon as I checked them out in youtube they got my attention. I first listened to their most famous song “Ritual” and I was hooked. I had to listen to the whole album, and I did quickly. The album Opus Eponymous is a rock masterpiece that I recommend to every rock music fan out there. The lyrics are satanic, so if you’re religious you might not like them, but if you can overlook the content of the lyrics and focus on the music and singing you will see that this is an amazing band with great potential to be huge.

Thanks to last.fm I found out they were playing in NYC and I HAD TO go see them play live. These guys know how to put on a spectacle when they play live. The whole band uses costumes that don’t reveal their identity. I will refrain from trying to explain what they look like because a picture can do a much better work than words from a guy with a bit of a language barrier haha (pictures link at the bottom). The tickets actually sold out so a bunch of people expecting to buy tickets at the entrance ended up probably disappointed or pissed off.

Now onto the show… Natur and Sabbath Assembly opened the show. Natur was alright. I enjoyed their set, even though it was a little bit long (40 minutes , which is 4 minutes more than the Ghost album itself haha) for an opening act. It was noisy, and fast paced, which was what I needed being in first row. Sabbath Assembly on the other hand was a little bit slow paced and kind of dense. While it was a fitting opener, the pace of the music made me a bit impatient. I will check out the studio recordings of both bands anyway to see what they sound like not-live. One funny thing from when Natur was playing was that a guy was going crazy for the band and he even attempted to jump into the audience from the stage… nobody wanted to receive him so he had to jump on his feet lol.

Finally it was Ghost’s turn to kick ass on stage. They entered the stage from the side instead of the back and they had incenses on the front stage amps (which could not be seen by people who were not in first row probably).

The set list was as follows:

1. Deus Culpa
2. Con Clavi Con Dio
3. Elizabeth
4. Death Knell
5. Satan Prayer
6. Stand By Him
7. Prime Mover
8. Genesis
9. Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles cover)
10. Ritual





I was glad they played their “Here Comes the Sun” cover since it will probably become a rarity if they don’t record it on a studio (they actually recorded it, do a search on youtube :P). And as you can see they pretty much played the whole Opus Eponymous album (which will make this performance very special if they release more albums). The performance was great overall and thank god (haha yeah right) for being on first row. Thanks to being there in the front I got my hand grabbed by the singer for a second during one of the songs and at the end of “Ritual” he ended up feeding me a communion wafer and also gave me a sip of wine. Also I got a guitar pick from the lead guitar player and also picked up a wafer that was on the floor of the stage. We got to shake hands with some of the band members while they were leaving too.

It was a pretty kickass concert. I really hope they become bigger and their next album is as good as or even better than Opus Eponymous. And I also hope they come back soon to the US They are coming back to the US as an opening act for Enslaved on September 25th.

Links:

Pictures from the concert
Video 01 Band entrance and incomplete “Con Clavi Con Dio”
Video 02 “Here Comes the Sun”
Video 03 “Ritual”