Music

Ghost B.C. forced to reschedule show because of Pope Francis

by Jeremy Mersereau

Turns out the dark power of Papa Emeritus III is no match for the Vicar of Christ.

Swedish occult metal outfit Ghost (or Ghost B.C. as they’re known in North America) never miss a chance to poke fun at the Catholic Church, but now it looks like a golden opportunity will have to be missed.

Hearing that Pope Francis, a.k.a. “The Dope Pope”, planned to attend the 8th annual World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, Ghost B.C. immediately scheduled a September 26th show in the City of Brotherly Love expressly to coincide with the pontiff’s arrival. Unfortunately, the band didn’t count on the intense security measures that will be in place; Much of Philadelphia will be locked down during the Pope’s stay, including the intended venue.

Promoter Sean Agnew made it clear that the timing wasn’t just coincidental: “The band wanted to get really creative, and have their own Ghost motorcade where the singer would go around the city. We had these great ideas to create an alternative to the Pope. But more and more stories started to come out about the lockdown. We had to scale back,” he told Loudwire. The show will go on as planned, just on September 29th instead of the 26th, after Pope Francis has traded the rough-and-tumble streets of North Philly for the safety of the Holy See, a neighbourhood with significantly less drug corners.

The World Meeting of Families is the world’s biggest non-Juggalo celebration of family, in which Catholic households from around the world come together for a week-long cavalcade of prayer and catechesis. Sounds, uh, super fun! I’m sure that convention of pure entertainment couldn’t have been livened up by a band of masked goofballs playing cheesy riffs.

Ghost B.C.’s new album Meliora is due out August 21st on Loma Vista. Will Pope Francis make it up to the band by delivering a hot feature on “Devil Church”? You gotta admit, if it was gonna happen, this would be the pope to do it.