GHOST: Rite Here Rite Now
GHOST: Rite Here Rite Now
Blog Article
More than 12 months have passed since Ghost completed the North American leg of the tour, known as Imperatour, which was crowned with two excellent shows at the notorious Kia Forum in Inglewood California. The Ghost fandom was aware that it would be a memorable rare occasion, with advance notices that no phones/photography would be allowed from the audience and there would be video recording throughout the shows.
LA’s ‘Rite Here Rite Now’ is the first feature film from Ghost, a title that summarily encapsulates the essence of the band’s new film. The theaters of the world have been filled for the weekend with Ghost’s followers who were dying to participate in the event and see the unique ceremony.
The concerts from these two days are used to put together the feature, commencing from the arrival of the band at the venue and the applause they receive when they are headed for the stage. The opening riff of ‘Imperium’ is heard and as the curtain from the stage is raised, the flash/bang pyros go off and the band starts “Kaisarion” as the Ghouls rush the front of the stage. Another raw from the crowd occurs within moments of Papa Emeritus IV debuting, the figure that all’ attendees worship, unquestioned.
The initialtime of the concert resembles the latest album of the band –‘Impera’ which many regard as the best that they have ever done, but it is in their transition to the song “Rats” that the energy inside the arena builds even further. 15,000 fans belt out the song from the ‘Prequelle’ album and the band progresses on to ‘Faith’.
The movie makes a cutaway of backstage right from the start. These segments or skits are present in order to advance the storyline of Papa Emeritus IV, which explains the lore of the magic on stage. The nonsensical layout matches that of the clergy within the church and what would be their back room. Papa receives help for costume cuts out in this space and interacts with Sister Imperator (his mother) and, naturally, Ghost Papa II Nihil (his father).
There are concert segments for people who haven’t seen the tour in the first place (really who was not there?) so that they get an idea of what it was like, and how ‘Ritual’, ‘Con Clavi Con Dio’ from the band’s first album offers such nostalgia because not all of us who did go to the tour saw either one or both of them as they rotated the set list.
Let’s get back to the storyline segments. Papa is now tormented by the fact that: he is no longer needed as the band’s singer. With each new rut in an album If there’s a Papa who is leading the outfit, he replaces the existing one. Not including, of course, the elder dude who’s the present day leader for the band – who’s already released two cds: the first as a Cardinal Lois Copia and the second one after he got promoted to a papal position.
‘Cardi’, like he prefers to be called, does not want to finish the performance as he feels that the end is near, showing his fragility. And while he is obscured within a flight case during relocation in the building, the ghost of Nihil tries to reason with him.
As the show resumes, Papa’s voice is now resting on a smaller stage towards the back of the auditorium, accompanied by two cellists and a pianist, all dressed in black. The orchestrated performance of ‘If You Have Ghosts’ was absolutely on a different level, another one of those unique segments in the entire tour that not everyone will have witnessed. We see him further in a ‘Rocky’ montage where he is buried in kimonos and boxing gloves while his servants dress him and walk him back to the main stage much like Rocky Balboa’s iconic swagger.
The show goes on with ‘Twenties’ featuring a team of Skeleton dancers, ‘Year Zero’, ‘He Is’, and the instrumental of ‘Miasma’ that, predictably, sees Nihil resurrected again for his sax solo.
The resounding end of the body set is marked with ‘Respite on the Spitalfields’ and although live it would have been quite a disappointing way to end, in terms of cinema release it would have been quite a dramatic way to end the performance. Papa had the same impression too as when the band was leaving the stage in a different skit they poked fun at Papa, asking “Are we doing an encore?” to which Papa answered “No” and ran away from the stage, much to the annoyance of Sister Imperator.
But there is an encore in which Papa looks like he is ready to go for broke – these indeed may be the final moments. In the chilling ‘Kiss The Goat’, the energetic ‘Dance Macabre’ and the absolute crowd pleaser ‘Square Hammer’ ever hit what one may describe as a perfect ending to an outstanding concert experience.
However the film does not come to an end there, Papa flies off in a hot air balloon from the venue as if it is the most normal thing to do, and waves goodbye to Sister Imperator. Paps seems to have had some flashbacks and tries to reconstruct his life, there appears to be something resembling a twin before Sister Imperator dies and this pushes Papa Emeritus IV into grief.
The last part of the storyline gives us a glimpse of Papa with the ghost figures of Nihil and Sister Imperator, Papa up to that point has been elevated in the cergy and now holds the title of ‘Father Imperator’ and so we are left excited waiting to meet who will be the new member joining the band. What happens now in the Ghost lore is anyones guess but for sure there is a lot of anticipation on that.
Ghost steps out for its first theatrical release with flying colors as well, The Imperatour concert series was one for the books (as we attest to here) and watching it on a massive screen was quite remarkable. Nonetheless, a film with the style of Spinal Tap or the Foo Fighters ‘Studio 666’ would be an ideal future development in the movie career.
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