Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Ghost: A Pale Tour Named Death

Last night, my wife and I went down to Omaha to see Ghost.  This is the third time we have seen the band.  The first time was a headlining tour of smaller venues with Tribulation opening up for them.  The second time they were the opening act for Iron Maiden in large arenas.  This time, they were playing on their own, which was a little surprising.

The venue was the Orpheum Theater, which was another surprise.  That theater is most often used for more theatrical, performing arts-type events such as plays.  It was a very sophisticated, upper class venue for a rock concert.  Between the venue and the fact that the tour was listed as a two-act performance, I kind of expected a big, theatrical production.  That was not quite what we got.

When Ghost took the stage, it was immediately apparent that the Nameless Ghouls have multiplied.  There were seven of them on stage.  Tobias Forge's character is now Cardinal Copia, retiring yet another Papa Emeritus.  The mannerisms are mostly the same, though he runs across the stage and generally moves a lot more, and of course the costumes are less elaborate. 

The setlist did not hold too many surprises, other than the acoustic version of "Jigolo Har Meggido", which was certainly an interesting choice.  They played close to 25 songs, so most of the better-known songs were played.  If I had one complaint, it would be that they did not play "Prime Mover", which is still one of my personal favorite songs by the band.  My wife would have liked to have heard them play "Deus in Absentia".  The highlight of the show was the trio of closing songs: "Dance Macabre", "Square Hammer", and of course the encore "Monstrance Clock".  The songs were performed with a lot of energy and that fed the crowd as well. 

This was probably my favorite performance I have seen by Ghost.  There are not many bands I have seen that many times, but due to the impressive live performances, and the fact that my wife loves the band, I probably will keep going out to see them.

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