Just came back from seeing Ghost at The Armory here in Minneapolis. The band as usual was on fire. They get more and more entertaining each time they pass through. So much fun to see. It was great seeing them live with a bigger lighting rig, pyro, smoke, explosions, etc. It added to the overall show.
Here's some videos I took. I'm no cram, but I do okay with my shots:
Dance Macabre/Square Hammer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzrqRZs03kIYear Zero:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9GFo9yTf-wThe one thing I gotta say, and I knew this was going to happen with a bigger venue, and the fact that the band is getting bigger, but the crowd tonight....Every previous time I've seen Ghost, and it's a lot, the crowd is quiet throughout. I mean, they cheer and everything when it's an energetic song and give him a response when he asks for a loud cheer--normal concert stuff. But when the parts were quiet or the interlude like Spoksonat, Devil Church, the guitar battle before Cirice, the intro/outro to Year Zero, they would just stand there watching what was happening onstage. It was great, everyone was there to watch the show.
The crowd tonight. Talked loudly during the songs mentioned above and would talk over Tobias' talking parts. I knew this was going to happen once they moved into the arenas, but it was awful tonight. It was obvious plenty were there to only see Square Hammer and Dance Macabre. I felt bad for the guy standing next to me because the whole night, he stood against the rail, very respectful guy, would record some songs, but mostly just stood there and watched. During Square Hammer, he's filming it, and this lady behind him (who was loud all night and talked about her 2 year old at home loudly during the Cirice guitar battle) starts grinding up on him and putting her hands over the camera and touching him. It wasn't done in a flirtatious manner, it was done to annoy him. I heard him turn around and say to her to stop. She kept doing it. Why spend money on a ticket to hear two songs and talk through the rest. It's annoying.
I hate fan gatekeeping, but Ghost is way more than those two songs. Respect what came before, there were plenty of us there tonight who have been to plenty of shows and want to hear everything. Just because you haven't heard Zombie Queen before doesn't mean you talk through it. It was just annoying.
Overall though, I enjoyed watching the band and hearing the songs (Zombie Queen is so much fun live as is Satan Prayer). Tobias is quite the entertainer and is so theatrical. Even in the arena, they don't really lose that theatrical nature. I'm looking forward to seeing their stage setup evolve over time. Sadly, we won't see them pass through again until 2021 at the earliest. Looking forward to it!