Tomorrow night, we have our Patriots going up against James Clemens at the Madison City Stadium. At the same time, there’ll be quite an interesting performance held at the Von Braun Center. Ghost’s North American “Imperatour” will be coming to Madison City! For students who don’t plan on attending the game and want something fun to do, I definitely recommend going to the concert.

Now, what is Ghost? Ghost is a Swedish hard rock/metal band with an odd appearance, and their songs typically have dark undertones. Whoa, now, let me explain! It appears as though people are turned off by the idea of this type of genre due to the stereotypical ideas surrounding it. I surveyed several students about their thoughts on hard rock concerts, and I’m surprised at the mixed results.

While most students seem indifferent, there are a few fans in the mix. Junior Sophie Ingram said, “I absolutely love them and wish I was able to go to more.” Of course, with hard rock, there will always be the good and the bad. Freshman Eddie Igiede simply stated, “They are terrible.” Yikes! Harsh, much? According to the survey results, 10 out of the 34 respondents would consider going to this odd event, and the majority of students surveyed seem to hold a negative opinion on hard rock as a whole. But, hey, you can’t judge a book by its cover!

With Ghost, you can enjoy melodic guitars, keyboards, and even keytars accompanied by angelic vocals. Their style of music resembles that of church music because of the use of organ-like instruments and piano-esque notes. Their albums also have different music styles, as their first had started out like metal from the 2000s, yet their newest sounds more like hard rock or glam rock from the 80s. Ghost is very open about experimenting with different music styles, and I think it’s fun to hear different styles, old and new, in a modern band!

The lead singer’s persona is known as Papa Emeritus IV and the members who play instruments and do backing vocals are called the Nameless Ghouls and Ghoulettes. Scary sounding, yes, but they are quite the goofy characters. It’s common to watch the ghouls onstage goof around, as well as Papa Emeritus cracking jokes and being hilarious.

 So, if you’re interested in checking out this unique band and want to do something fun this Friday night, definitely check out Ghost! They’ll be performing at the Von Braun Center at 7 pm, with guest Mastodon and opener Spiritbox. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com and sell out by tomorrow morning at 10 am. I do hope to see some of you there!