Review: Ghost With Mastodon And Spiritbox In Saginaw

Everyone’s favorite goth-pop-rock-metal band from Sweden, Ghost, made the Michigan stop of their 2022 North American Tour in Saginaw on a Monday night. You wouldn’t know it was a work or school night by looking at the crowd though. Felt like Saturday. To be expected, the fans came dressed up in their darkest best and the feeling of excitement was as thick in the air as the black lipstick and eyeliner on their faces.

Ghost is joined on this tour by Canada’s Spiritbox and the groovy dudes from Atlanta, Mastodon. Lead vocals of Spiritbox, sung by Courtney LaPlante and the heavy hitting sounds of the rest of the band were an excellent introduction to a dark and fun evening.

Mastodon followed, putting on a great show, but choosing not to play some of their more familiar bigger hits such as Jaguar God or Sultan’s Curse. Mastodon did however play through tracks off of their latest album including Pain With an Anchor, Teardrinker and More Than I Could Chew. The band finished up their 11 song set with Mother Puncher.

Finally, when thoughts of losing sleep for this concert started to creep in, the white curtain dropped and with a loud bang Ghost took the stage. Ghost began their show with an instrumental from the Nameless Ghouls playing Imperium, then leading into the booming vocals of Papa Emeritus IV for Kaisarion. Next up was the pop-rock hit, Rats, with full participation from the crowd. Ghost quickly helped everyone forget this was 9:30pm on Monday night.

Ghost played for another hour and half covering their biggest hits such as Dance Macabre, Square Hammer and their new Billboard Top 100 hit, Mary on a Cross.

One of the more amusing moments of the show was during Miasma, about midway through the set, where Papa Nihil was revived on stage only to be thrown a saxophone and wander around Weekend-at-Bernie’s style jamming with the band. Ghost certainly aims to entertain with spectacle as well as rock solid musicians and showmanship.

Between Spiritbox, Mastodon and Ghost, everyone who chose to stay out late on a Monday night and wake up Tuesday tired was rewarded with a great show. Hopefully it’s not too long before Ghost makes a return because this is definitely a concert to see again.

Written by Brandon Nagy for Folk N Rock