Concert review: Swedish metal band Ghost camps it up at Xcel Energy Center
In their largest local show to date Swedish metal band Ghost turned in a positively slaytanic performance Saturday night at St Paul s Xcel Force Center Led by -year-old singer songwriter majordomo Tobias Forge who right now uses Papa V Perpetua as his stage name Ghost kept the crowd of about deeply under their spell thanks in part to a mobile phone ban that kept all eyes on the stage Concertgoers had to keep their phones in a secure sleeve that was unlocked at the end of the show And Ghost gave the audience plenty to see They perform in full costume and masks dressed as demonic rocking skeletons Forge and his eight-piece band who are known collectively as the Nameless Ghouls go deep into Satanic imagery on stage as well as in their lyrics The backing vocalists wear bat wings and one of their the greater part warmly received songs Saturday night was called Satanized It s all tongue in cheek of program and comes off as campy not spooky much like KISS and Ozzy Osbourne And Forge has a delightfully twisted sense of humor and a certain rakish charm Early on he solicited the cheering crowd Are you going to show us what love means Are you going to knock us up Ghost is also much more than your average metal band Yes there are enough loud guitars and headbanging to qualify for the genre but Ghost aren t afraid to expand beyond their boundaries to include everything from s arena rock to show tunes Their songs are often reminiscent of the late Jim Steinman the theatrical songwriter best known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler Call Me Little Sunshine The Future Is a Foreign Land and Cirice all flirted with doomy alt-rock with a side of Pink Floyd The aforementioned Satanized and He Is sounded like Queen at their grandest and poppiest Oh and the audience cheered for the cowbell that fueled Umbra one of the numbers from the group s sixth and the greater part latest album Skelet While often ridiculous the two-hour concert was also a heck of a lot of fun It helped that Forge and company aren t afraid to lean into sheer goofiness in a way the bulk acts at the arena level rarely do All that plus it wrapped just after p m giving the fans the chance to get up early Sunday morning and not go to church Related Articles Stevie Nicks moves August show at the X to November due to shoulder injury Longtime Minnesota Orchestra board member Nancy E Lindahl efforts down as chair donates million Kenny Chesney Wynonna Judd and Steve Earle added to Farm Aid bill A solo Daryl Hall replaces Steve Miller Band at Minnesota State Fair Grandstand White Bear Lake beach concert to raise money for hunger
