ConcertsLive

Ghost + Dead Soul – La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France, 02.02.2016

The Laiterie in Strasbourg is  a very  well established live venue, but for whatever reason I have never managed to attend a concert there before. The colleague in my company is a local, and the next stop on the current Ghost tour would be the Batschkapp in Frankfurt which would be a much longer journey. Laziness wins.

The support for the Swedish spirits on the tour is Deadsoul, whose current release “The Sheltering Sky” has already been discussed elsewhere on this website. Dead Souls is actually a duo, yet appear  here  as a trio, still missing bassist and drummer. The two guitarists operate alongside synths and drum machine. I must say that I consider such stripped-down performance always as a somewhat-rip-off, but well, it’s  “only” the support band. I cannot say that their music would have been really bad, however apparently nobody – including me – really cares, despite a full house. The style was somewhere between Joy Division, Depeche Mode and Western Gothic flair. No more than polite applause. 

“Miserere mei, Deus” introduces the unholy exhibition of Swedish Ghost and then transforms into the opener “Spirit”. You begin to feel that it is indeed a sold out show, it’s getting tight. After the older songs “Con Clavi, con Duo” and “Stand by him”  the now third Papa Emeritus changes from formal Habit to a more informal outfit, which gives him more freedom of movement. Two young ladies disguised as nuns enter the stage, armed with cups and wafers, in order to celebrate this unholy communion with the front rows. Before they are allowed into the pit, Papa Emeritus warns the audience to keep their hands off – moreover, they have their own “monk” with a flashlight as bodyguard; it seems something has gone wrong with this stunt in the past. 

This third Papa seems to be much more entertaining  than  the predecessors, because  you can hear laughter during his philosophy monologues  more than once. I don’t remember whether the nuns distributed snacks during  Per Aspera ad Inferi or Body and Blood, does not matter anyway. Those one and a half hours playing time with sixteen tracks are rather entertaining and find, punctually at half past eleven, after Monstrance Clock, the Ghost homage to the female orgasm, their conclusion. What should be mentioned here also are the astronomical prices for Ghost merchandise, a few shirts for twenty-five, the majority for thirty to forty-five and the Hoodie for 55e. Nobody has to buy that stuff, of course, but still holy shit! Still the evening was absolutely worth it – we definitely got entertained.

Photos in Flickr gallery by  Björn Schmiterlöw 


Setlist:
Intro: Miserere mei, Deus
1: Spirit
2: From the Pinnacle to the Pit
3: Stand by him
4: Con Clavi, con Dio
5: Per Aspera ad Inferni
6: Body and Blood
7: Devil Church
8: Cirice
9: Year Zero
10: He is
11: Absolution
12: Mummy Dust
13: If you have Gosts
14: Ghuleh/Zombie Queen
15: Stand by Him
16: Monstrance Clock (Encore)

Björn Schmiterlöw

bjorn@stalker-magazine.rocks - - - Reports, reviews, photos - - - Favorite genres? - - - Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Doom Metal, Death Metal, Punk, Hardrock - - - Favorite bands: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Slayer, Anthrax, In Flames, Kreator, Exodus, Candlemass, Carcass, Reverend Bizarre, Ahab, Orne, Down, Grand Magus, Atlantean Kodex

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