I had a feeling these pictures wouldn’t turn out so well.  The Mod Club has a rather large stage, and I am armed with a small, relatively inexpensive camera.  Mind you, the shots I took of the opening bands were decent–Ghost was another story.  While they’re not all smoke and mirrors, there sure was a lotta smoke.  Only about one in three of these pics were even salvageable.  I guess that’s part of the mystique…

Alas, if Ghost is a Satanic version of Blue Oyster Cult, then I’d call opening act Ancient VVisdom Satan’s answer to Alice in Chains.  I guess I can see how they’d fit the bill–though many metal heads would probably have preferred the Swedish Ancient Wisdom…

I had the misfortune of standing next to a buncha drunks who were heckling Blood Ceremony throughout their set (no, the guy with the tattooed head wasn’t one of them).  Y’know, cuz their bands are all soooo much better.  Riiiiight.  For my money’s worth, I’d take BC over Ghost, any day.  Of course, their live show isn’t nearly as elaborate, though I thought they acquitted themselves well on the larger stage.  Afterwards, someone said Alia was like a female Bobby Liebling.  Not sure I’d agree, having seen the man in action a coupla times–but hey, take a look at my Pentagram pics from last summer and decide for yourself.

I’ll admit to not being Ghost’s biggest fan.  I don’t dislike them, but I wasn’t one of the kids who knew the words to every song, either.  I had come to see a show, and I’d say they were fairly entertaining.  And man, I gotta say, they do have some catchy tunes, too!  But you can’t really see that through all the stage fog…