Ghost Tickles Ottawa’s Taints

Halloween came a week early to Ottawa as Sweden’s Ghost and their Ultimate Tour Named Death stopped in at the Canadian Tire Centre.

As the lights went dark, over the P.A. came a very eerie and creepy version of the old nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosie“. This quickly drew the crowd’s attention and within seconds the atmosphere got creepy. The intensity grew until the Nameless Ghouls busted onto stage into thunderous shots of some very heavy chords. This lasted only a mere seconds before they fired up “Rats”  off the band’s latest album ‘Prequelle”. As one may expect the audience went bat shit crazy with excitement.

The band’s lighting and stage set up is badass, Reminiscent of an evil church,  with a grand staircase that leads to a tall riser where the drummer and keyboards are situated. Large banners mimicking stained glass windows are donned in the background with images of Papa Emeritus on them.

From the opener, they went directly into “Absolution” off of ‘Meliora’ and “Faith” also off of ‘Prequelle’.  Taking a momentary pause Cardinal Copia asked the audience if they would like to hear a “Papa” song, which received a very loud response.

Having seen them before, I knew that Cardinal Copia likes to talk a lot and engage the audience with his stage banter. It seems this time around though the night was about playing the music. Except of course when he asked the crowd if they were ready to have their “taints tickled”. If you’re not sure what this means, you’ll have to go see them too find out.

Ghost performs at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. Photo: Renée Doiron

The set was filled with all bangers, ” From the Pinnacle to the Pit ” and “Mummy Dust” off of ‘Meliora’ which are two of the bands more heavier tracks, to “Year Zero” off of ‘Infestissumam’  which had intense pyro that went along with evil opera-like choruses. Their new track “Kiss the Go-Goat”  sounds like something straight out of the Blue Oyster Cult camp.  And of course, finishing the night off with their big hits “Dance Macabre” and “Square Hammer”. From start to finish, the set was phenomenal.

I’ve heard a lot of people over the last while ask what is Ghost?  Are they Heavy Metal?  Are they Rock? or Theatre?  Realistically they are all the above. Going to a Ghost show is really about letting loose and having fun, forgetting about what is going on in the outside world and enjoying yourself. They don’t need to be classified as any one thing. Remember there are no rules in “rock n roll”. That’ what makes “rock n roll” “rock n roll”. So go, enjoy yourself, have fun. I took my 14-year-old daughter this time and she had a blast. So if she can, you can too.

Nothing More performs at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. Photo: Renée Doiron

Nothing More out of Texas opened the night. These guys are off the hook crazy. A definite huge surprise of the night. Having never heard them before they got my attention right off the hop. I look forward to seeing these guys on their own one day.