RITUAL AND REVERENCE: GHOST OPENS 2026 WITH AN EPIC SKELETOUR PERFORMANCE
Kicking off 2026 with GSM, I had the opportunity to cover Ghost on their Skeletour World Tour — a monumental way to begin the year.
The night also marked my first time shooting at the Intuit Dome, and the state-of-the-art venue proved to be the perfect cathedral for what unfolded. From the moment the house lights dimmed, it was clear this wouldn’t be a typical arena rock show. It was a fully realized theatrical production — immersive, dramatic, and meticulously constructed.
This tour was a phone-free experience, a bold but refreshing decision that immediately changed the atmosphere inside the building. Without the sea of glowing screens, the audience became present — locked in, engaged, and unified. The energy felt communal rather than fragmented. Every cheer, every gasp, every synchronized clap felt organic and shared. It was a reminder of what live music is meant to be: collective, immediate, and unforgettable.
Visually, the production leaned heavily into Ghost’s operatic grandeur. Towering cathedral-inspired set pieces framed the stage, while layered lighting design bathed the performers in deep reds, royal purples, and stark whites. The band didn’t simply perform songs — they presented movements, each one flowing into the next like chapters in a dark, theatrical opera. Costume changes, choreographed staging, and dramatic pacing elevated the concert into something cinematic.
From a photography standpoint, the night was both challenging and inspiring. The scale of the venue demanded wide compositions to capture the enormity of the stage design, while the dramatic spotlighting created striking high-contrast moments perfect for isolating Papa and the Nameless Ghouls in powerful silhouettes. The lighting cues were intentional and rhythmic, offering perfectly timed bursts of intensity that translated beautifully through the lens.
Musically, the performance was tight and commanding. The band balanced their heavier, riff-driven anthems with melodic, almost liturgical passages that reinforced the operatic tone of the evening. Every transition felt purposeful. Every crescendo landed with authority.
Covering Ghost for Get Some Magazine as my first show of 2026 set a high bar for the year ahead. Between the grandeur of the Skeletour production, the discipline of a phone-free audience, and the experience of shooting inside the Intuit Dome for the first time, the night felt less like a concert and more like a ritual — epic in scale, immersive in execution, and unforgettable in impact.
If this is how 2026 begins, it’s going to be one hell of a year.
