Ghost at the Joint at the Hard Rock, Saturday Nov 17, 2018

A number of months ago we were sitting around feeling bored and somehow came across the band Ghost. They looked pretty entertaining and we were looking for something different to do, so when we discovered that they would be playing in Vegas, we bought some reasonably priced tickets for this show at the Joint, still not knowing very much about them, other than what we had read on line.

We learned that they had recently won a Grammy - and we had never (knowingly) seen a Grammy winner before - so we wondered what the audience would be like. It turns out it was very diverse, with lots of people our age or older mixing with the younger doom metal crowd and even younger teenage, dyed-hair cliques and Wednesday look-alikes and still younger toddlers in face make up!

We had hoped for a spectacle of some sort and it certainly was, although with plenty of surprises. A big stage set-up and faux-stained-glass backdrop was accented with a fabulous light show and the backing musicians ("Ghouls") were all anonymous in black outfits and masks while the singer Tobias played MC and donned numerous costumes throughout the set. There were innumerable rock cliches (purposefully) dropped in and countless chants of "Vegas! Are you with us?!" right from the start, so we soon realized that this was not going to be an overly serious outing, despite lyrics referencing "idolatry", "suffer the little children", "sacrifice", "ritual" and other demonic rants.

Musically, it was somewhat heavy, although cut with keyboards (2 female players whose sounds ranged from church organ to synths), but with 3 guitarists - 2 up front and one in the back helping with backing vocals - and bass and drums (the drummer was the most proficient musician). The were an immense amount of choral-like vocals, which was reminiscent of both horror movies and queen, which when added to the keys gave a grand effect.

Visually, they were a LOT sillier than we ever expected with one of the guitarists acting a total cut-up throughout the entire show, Tobias standing next to the guitarist when he would do a lead and asking the audience to applaud, a completely goofy guitar "duel" and several monologues by Tobias acting the MC and comedian (one intro he started talking about taints!). He was also a terrific front man, with moves that reminded us of Bob Fosse (All That Jazz and Cabaret) and costumes that ranged from a pseudo tux to an incense-swinging cardinal to a Dave Vanian cape.

There was an acoustic segment, a decked-out sax-man appearance, confetti and an appropriate Roky Erickson cover - "If You Have Ghosts", although it wasn't as good as Roky's, unfortunately. 

Especially considering how little we knew about the group before the show, and the fact that the show was over 2-1/2 hours (with an intermission!), we had a terrific time and were highly entertained. The Joint is set up well with good sight-lines and our balcony seats had a great view. I know a lot of people cannot deal with the fact that Ghost mixes genres, but since we're not big doom metal (or whatever) fans, that didn't bother us at all. I would highly recommend this fun and funny show!