GHOST - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 3rd October @ Qudos Bank Arena, Syd NSW
GHOST
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney NSW
October 3, 2023
Support: Southeast Desert Metal
I should have bought shares in black eyeliner, fishnet stockings, pink hair dye and nun dresses ahead of last night's show.
It’s an hour before doors and you’d think, given the doom and gloom attire sported by the thousands of Ghost fans conjuring outside of Qudos Arena, that they’d be a miserable lot. But after striking up conversation with a handful of them, you’d have to excuse me for thinking that I’m actually talking to a bunch of Swifty’s decked out in black dresses and corpse paint. This long line of mostly young women are beyond excited to be here and their dedication to Papa Emeritus IV and his group of Nameless Ghouls is to be commended.
While waiting for the ample security to let us in, I talked to the front group in the queue and discovered they’d been here since 5am. A few of them actually got here last night to line up but were shooed away by security and told to come back at 6am. Without the means to front for a hotel room in Sydney at short notice (an expensive venture to be sure) the girls opted to sleep in the park opposite the arena on what was, by all accounts, a nice warm night. Does it all sound mental? It absolutely does, but such is the passion these young fans have for this band and their music.
After finally getting inside, I grab a beer and head to the arena floor to watch openers Southeast Desert Metal. Touted as the most isolated heavy metal band in the world, this proud aboriginal band from Ltyentye Apurte, Northern Territory headed out onto the massive stage, lay the aboriginal flag out behind the drums and hit the ground running. With heaps of low end and a shed load of volume, these guys get a rousing applause from a massively excited crowd. They have a bouncing chug in their guitar that reminds me of Iron Maiden. Let it be known that these blokes can shred as shown during the song ‘Spirit Woman’. This very excited crowd get right behind the lads and one tall bloke in an Airbourne shirt bunkers down and starts headbanging like it’s 1985. They go to finish up before being faced with a sea of “one more song” chants because let’s face it, they have been unreal. They rip in and it’s fair to say that Southeast Desert Metal have earned themselves a few more fans today.
On the way to the bar, I notice that there are a LOT of kids walking around with their parents. There are dads who lined up all day with their teenage daughters in the beating down sunshine who wished that they’d brought an esky with them. It fills my heart to see heavy metal become a generational activity. Take Frankie for example. She’s 8 and this is her first show ever. I ask her dad Aaron, 33 if his folks ever brought him to a rock show? “FUCK NO!!!” replied Aaron, before apologising to Frankie for his language.
I also meet Elliot, a 4-year-old who is camped out at the front of the pit with his mum and dad. Elliot’s favourite song is ‘Zombie Queen’ and he also likes Metallica. Then I run into Daniel Silk from local legends Red Bee. He is here with his young daughter who, despite not even being 10 yet, is an old hand at this whole live music thing. Then when I think the kids can’t get any younger I spot a bloke walking about with a newborn strapped to his front. I could have brought my 3-year-old son and also won parent of the year alongside all these stone-cold legends passing down the brilliance of heavy metal.
It also occurs to me that despite having travelled down under on several occasions for music festivals, this is Ghost’s first full headlining full stage tour and given the NSW Government's restrictions for music festivals to be strictly 18+, this is the first chance that most have these fans have had to see this mob live. The growing popularity of this band is also exemplified by venue upgrades at all three of their Australian shows.
A big white sheet covers the front of the stage as Gregorian-styled vocal chants ring through the speakers and I got flashbacks from my Catholic upbringing. The lights dim and the largely female audience squeal with the volume of 10,000 corpse-painted Taylor Swift fans. I look down and see a 9-year-old who can’t see the stage for shit and I suggest to her dad to put her on his shoulders. Turns out that security have banned that as well, under penalty of being thrown out.
‘Imperium’ plays through the speakers as the big white hankie drops and the Nameless Ghouls emerge playing the opening riffs to ‘Kaisarion’. The kids in the pit go berserk as Papa Emeritus IV emerges and says “Hello Australia”. The whole arena collectively loses their minds as they rip through ‘Rats’, ‘From The Pinnacle To The Pit’ and ‘Spillways’. It’s only early in the set and there are already a few bodies being carried out by security. I just hope it’s not my mates that have been here since 5am. It’s a long wait to hear only 3 or 4 songs.
This stage set is incredible. The backdrop alone resembles the front of an old gothic European church with all the grace of what Notre Dame used to have, with changing stained glass windows that have some of the coolest visuals I’ve seen on any stage. With the huge drum riser protruding from the centre of the stage, the insane light show and the interactions between Emeritus and his Nameless Ghouls, this production carries all the weight of something like Phantom Of The Opera but with a way better soundtrack.
All eyes are locked on Papa himself as he prances about the stage looking like the The Joker from The Batman ’66 TV series, only dressed in a silver suit and slathered in corpse paint. Despite not being the wildest frontman I’ve ever seen there’s no denying the presence he has on stage as he rips through belters such as ‘Cirice’, ‘Absolution’ and ‘Ritual’
But that’s not to say that the nameless ghouls are a bunch of statues on stage. Despite not saying a bloody word, these guys are hilarious and their body language is killer. As they tear through a 16-song set including ’Year Zero’, ‘Miasma’ and Mummy Dust’, they absolutely SHRED and as they close out the main portion of the performance with ‘Respite on the Spitalfields’ it all becomes clear to me. As a casual listener of Ghost, I never understood the extreme fascination a lot of their fans have, but now, after seeing them live in this capacity, I absolutely get it.
One fake encore later where Papi negotiates with the punters on hand the number of songs that will be played in the encore, and Ghost destroys with ‘Kiss the Go-Goat’, the try-not-to-boogie-along-witchu ‘Dance Macabre’ and their massive closer ‘Square Hammer’. Big Papa Em struts around like Christopher Walken cosplaying as a silver-clad corpse-painted Elvis and I wish church was like this growing up.
The band farewells the audience with explosions of gold confetti and falling fireworks and Ghost’s first ‘real outing in Australia’ finishes with a bang. There are smiles on every dial as we all leave and only a small handful of kids that are asleep on their parent's shoulders. A monumental night. Well worth the wait to see this full Ghost production.
Gig Review by Duane James @duanejames666
Photo Gallery by Mick Goddard. Insta: @mickg_photography
Please credit Wall of Sound and Mick Goddard if you repost.
Southeast Desert Metal
GHOST
GHOST – Australian Tour 2023
with Southeast Desert Metal
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Oct 7 @ Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Bris
