Ghost finally returned to Vancouver so I got to go to a ritual, I think I started listening around the time they were last here (7 YEARS AGO) so I missed that chance. Valentine's Day in the pit was so special! which was already a dream come true but I was so heartbroken when it was over that my partner and I drove to Portland to see them again a couple days later (didn’t think fast enough for Seattle). 6h road trip journey each way - incredibly worth it. best two nights of my life.
I’m writing down all the stuff I don’t want to forget, since both rituals were just different enough of an experience
Vancouver ritual:
incredible energy in the pit. I was near the front (not barricade sadly) centre stage. the phone ban made me feel like every single person in that pit with me was 100% present and engaging back and forth with the band and I was just like -
the whole time mesmerized by Papa's glittery outfits
that was good and bad because I missed a lot of ghoul action (not the keytar solo tho holy shit)
I DID see Sodo/Dew smack Phantom's ass as he walked by once though ;)
and Phantom and Rain reaching out for each other
Phantom WRITHING on that amp jeez
guitar ghouls being silly and not getting out of Papa's way and holding notes too long and refusing to stop etc
not one but two lacy undergarments picked up by Papa that were thrown on stage... and the way he made a big deal about giving them to the security guy at the barricade. iconic
Papa flicking his tongue at us like a gremlin and hitting the yoinky sploinky
seriously I was not expecting him to do a bunch of bits especially with his voice while singing V's songs
but singing my heart out and jumping and throwing the devil horns up and raising my hands up to them all was like as close as a religious experience as I will get haha. I just love the ghouls so much. I think Vancouver was especially energetic because we have waited so long, thank you Papa for apologising even though we know you're a liar <3 ("do I look like a guy who would lie to you?" crowd in unison: "YES" and his stunned face lmao)
sorry Portland but Vancouver showed UP for that concert. The outfits were incredible, 10/10 effort, so much skull paint and full costumes, people seemed mostly dressed "normally" in Portland by comparison lol
also some guy directly in front of me raised his wife up so she could flash the stage near the beginning and then they bolted somewhere else in the crowd. and I watched security drag someone else out from the barrier (maybe phone use?). so that happened. plus people using lighters to wave around without phone flashlights.. I feel like I got the whole 80s rock concert experience.
plus I got a mummy dust $ note from a kind person at the barricade when the show ended :')
Portland ritual
I got AMAZING seats for not too expensive of a price?? and last minute?? I was to the left of the stage a couple rows back from the front so for this show I was actually high enough up to be level with the stage and not just stare up in awe. I was close enough that I got all the really lovely interactions with Phantom and Rain when they were working my side, and I got an amazing view of the ghoulettes. absolute queens I love them so much
Haze and Cirrus vibing with each other and dancing/blowing kisses was mesmerizing. at one point Cirrus stuck her tongue out at Haze and it caught me so off guard cause it looks so silly coming out of the void of their faces
and them skipping gleefully with the tambourines over to Aurora to dance around Rain together was fucking adorable.
I really enjoyed watching the details like the instrument switches - phantom fist bumped the crew member who handled his guitar handovers each time it was so sweet. also how is that man so bendy.
we disappointed Phantom on our side by cheering instead of booing after Sodo/Dew was working the other side.. he was shaking his head and it was so funny because i knew what he wanted but everyone's (understandably) just like WOO GUITARS YEAH
I think at one point Sodo, Rain, and Phantom were all jorkin it too
also want to point out the absolute power of hearing an american crowd in portland scream "the dark facist regime WILL BE GONE" during The Future is a Foreign Land. really cool to feel that energy that obviously isn't the same in the Vancouver crowd -- (even though Papa was making a lot more direct political commentary between songs in Vancouver!)
We GOT ELIZABETHHHHH and Ritual I feel so blessed. Elizabeth sounds so different live! I wanted to hear Faith pretty badly but I will take this. (we got Satan Prayer in Vancouver and I still can't decide if we fumbled the words or knew them very well) The moment I saw the lights go into a colour I didn't remember from Vancouver I started vibrating with excitement
ALSO I WAS ON THE BIG SCREEN during the Square Hammer encore apparently, I didn't see it cause I wasn't watching the screen but the guy in front of me was rocking TF out (as was I) so we got screen time. I wish that was immortalized somewhere.
SO funny to me that one of the official photos features the guy holding his sock up over his head in the pit (Papa said he'd rock our socks off after saying he'd tear us new assholes)
also the group dressed as rats in the pit jumping around was so funny
watching Phantom pick up someone's handmade bat plushie and flap it around at Rain was the sweetest - he put it off to the side by his stage exit so I am assuming he kept it
at the closing bows I cried :'( when everyone else cleared out around us the punk dad in full metal getup next to me gave me a handmade screenprint patch.. I almost cried again because that was so sweet and I'll never forget it
then of course I had to break into my friend's house in seattle at 2am after driving for 3 hours after the portland ritual because he was asleep and his door keypad died
-someone gave papa a bra, and then another girl gave him a thong and he said she had nice underwear and was also confused and impressed she got it off in the Pit
-during KTGG rain was facing Haze and as she moved her arm around he followed as if he was hypnotized
-also during KTGG when papa sang "hes the guy you wanna do" Phantom And Dew both pointed to rain for 3 in a row
-Papa was blowing kisses to the sections of the crowd but didnt blow any kisses to the pit and rain wiggled his finger at papa and pointed to the Pit and papa gestured like 'really??? Even them????' But gave in and blew the pit a kiss
-Papa said he was sorry he had to disappoint us as a valentine because it was simply too cold to go out to the parking lot together 😔
-ghoulette shenanigans, chasing eachother around at the back of the stage
-Aurora and Rain played with their backs together and then jumped around!
-phantom laid with down on an amp and writhed around and played his guitar until papa shooed him off
-Rain, Dew, and Phantom all stood center stage and wouldn't move over for papa
-we got all set list songs! No swap outs!
-during embra when Cirrus and Dewdrop were doing the solos Phantom was watching the jumbo screens and pointing at them all co fused like at their flirting
-also during umbra, Aurora was sitting on her platform facing the crowd and kickin her little feeties
-papa fingered himself on stage and gave a little "ooh!" And jumped after
-RainDrop cuddles- but also LOTS of Phantom/Rain cuddles
-Papa called us all Perverts and that he was gonna give us all a new asshole
-at the end of DATHOML during the big finish, all the ghouls and ghoulettes were facing mountain!
-right before Futer is a Foreign Land, Papa said he hadn't been to Vancouver in 7 years, and that was too long, and then said 'Three years is still pretty long too, but who knows...🤷♂️"
-I blew kisses at rain and he blew kisses back at me!!
-papa jackin' off during mummy dust
-papa was shimmying all over stage- and boy does that little creature run!
-phantom was right near us and held his hand out and Papa came up from behind him and tickled it
-Papa asked us If we wanted to be lied to and we said Yes and he was flummoxed. Then he asked if we thought he was lying to us about it being the end of the show and we yelled yes and he was like.....'well. I did. I did lie to you. So there!'
-there's gonna be a clip of my party in GTV!
-people threw love letters and Valentines on stage at the end and the ghouls collected them up!
you guys really should start doing your eBird surveys. i’m realizing that participation in citizen science may be a lot of the only work happening for conservation studies in the U.S for the next few years
Add a little-guy-holding-a-shiny-thing patch to an item of clothing. You will not regret this. Bonus points if the little guy has a whole nest of shinies.
reblog and put in the tags the earliest songs you remember actively liking as a child (asking adults to play them for you, learning the lyrics, being excited when they came on the radio etc.)
#take some acetaminophen and get to explaining because this sounds genius
ok well it maybe could be genius if I had a physical copy of the book I could flip through for exact references ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
so I remember on my first read I was thrown off by the number of twists the story takes; the threat changes a few times based on new information revealed, and there are several times a character or thing dies only to be not-quite-dead or transformed in some way. it feels like the first third or so is one book, and then it exponentially gets twistier and our understanding of the laws of this world shift a little.
(what is a person? a relic? an archive? a consciousness? they're all the same and not the same depending on what point in the plot spiral you're at)
These moments are paced closer and closer together toward the end of the book - which is usually how tension works in a good story lol but I specifically mean these acts are driven by little "spirals" of flashbacks and introspection we get that explain something about present Sunai and push his story forward - which ends where he began, physically and maybe spiritually).
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