Arts & Culture
‘Rite Here Rite Now’: A Band’s Paean to Life, Rock and Satan
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“Are your taints tickled??” cries Papa Emeritus IV, AKA Copia, to a sea of cultishly enthralled fans, his sequinned blue blazer resplendent under kaleidoscopic stage lights in Los Angeles’ Kia Forum. To those not familiar with the Swedish hard rock band Ghost, which was thrust into the mainstream with their 2019 hit “Mary On a Cross,” the band’s flamboyantly satanic theatrics seem a bit absurd. What do you mean there’s a rock band with a satanic pope frontman and mask-donning “ghoul” musicians frolicking onstage in front of fans belting out their pledge to the devil? Over the summer, Ghost’s popularity culminated in the worldwide theater release of their highly-acclaimed concert film Rite Here Rite Now, featuring footage from their two-night performance at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles in September 2023, interspersed with a continuing narrative. When Ghost first appeared in the hard rock/metal scene in 2010, no one knew what to make of their debut album “Opus Eponymous” with catchy gothic riffs and the phantasmagorical sight of Papa Emeritus I with his cloaked musicians performing eerie tunes.