Ghost: Skeletour World Tour 2026

Phantom Light Media
Feb 21
4 min read

The Swedish rock band known as Ghost is truly a wonderful example of what happens when something “weird” penetrates the musical mainstream because people realize that in this case, the “weird” is actually really good 80s-inspired goth-ish stadium rock. They’ve headlined festivals around the world, played on Jimmy Kimmel’s TV show, and even released a literal movie of their own creation. To call Tobias Forge a creative mastermind is kind of an understatement at this point. But because I am forever cursed with a bad case of “missing-the-tour-itis,” I hadn’t seen Ghost in any of the five years I’ve been following them. So naturally, when the second leg of their ongoing Skeletour dates were announced and included a Portland stop, my friends and I basically made a blood pact to make it to that show by any means necessary. And naturally you can understand my shock when I got an email telling me that Ghost, one of the most exacting and high-profile rock bands of the modern age, had approved a photo pass for me. First review gig of the year and it’s a packed Moda Center for a band I’d followed for half a decade? Yeah, “excited” didn’t even begin to cover it.

There was no opener for this leg of the Skeleta tour, which honestly I’m still a little conflicted on. As much as I love Ghost, I’ve grown accustomed to openers at basically every show I’ve seen, and I’ve always appreciated having at least two different sounds to take in throughout the night. Ghost’s track record of openers has also been really good lately so maybe that factored into my disappointment a bit. But that disappointment vanished rapidly when we were led onto the arena floor and greeted with an enormous black curtain made of some feathery material plucked straight from a fallen angel’s wings, as choral hymns floated over the still-assembling crowd. I saw costumes and jewelry and masks aplenty - every era of Ghost’s enigmatic Papa frontman was well-represented, along with other lore-based characters (Sister Imperator was one particularly memorable sight) and even some of the band members. However, all my wonder was soon drawn to the stage as the lights went down and the intro to “Peacefield” (Skeleta, 2025) rang out to deafening cheers.

Tobias has stated in an interview with Consequence that he wants Ghost shows to feel like “you’re going to church on Sunday, just with a bit of a devilish twist” and the description could not be more apt. The lighting rig was shaped like a giant inverted cross, the band were dressed in skintight black bodysuits with slightly demonic features, and Papa V Perpetua himself reigned supreme with all the subtlety of Ozzy Osbourne in his heyday (that’s very much a compliment). Everything I’ve heard about Ghost’s live shows was proven true before I even left the photography area, and you could tell the crowd had been ravenous for a ritual since the band’s last visit in 2022 on their coheadlining tour with Volbeat. New songs and old songs alike were roared back at the Nameless Ghouls with equal fervor, and every second of crowd interaction was met with collective joy and general chaos. Personal highlights for me included the surprise presence of “Ritual” (which wasn’t on previous setlists), the amazing interplay between Papa V and his keyboard backers, the inevitable “Dance Macabre” in the encore (my favorite Ghost song), and some general guitar Ghoul shenanigans halfway through the show that I can only describe as a full-body hand-waving contest where they contorted themselves as ridiculously as possible in order to make their side of the crowd cheer louder (it was a tie, by the way). And that’s to say nothing of the incredible visual effects - the feathery curtain was revealed as a gigantic screen halfway through the set, which shattered to reveal demonic stained-glass murals for “Ritual”. That mural would also then shatter to reveal a stunning night sky (“He Is”) before plunging the audience into Hell, literally, during “Rats.” I will fully admit I thought it to be just a curtain at first and the reveal made my jaw drop.

My one single gripe with the show is that I was not sated by just two songs from Prequelle, my favorite album - the majority were from their 2015 masterpiece Meliora, with Skeleta gaining fair representation. With 22 songs in their set and 6 albums to pull from, I wasn’t expecting it to skew so hard to the earlier material - but I loved it anyway. There were some deeper cuts (“Majesty”, “Elizabeth”), fan favorites (“Year Zero”, “Monstrance Clock”, “Kiss the Go-Goat”) and plenty of new songs (“Peacefields”, “Lachryma”, “Umbra) as well as the absolutely amazing (and now classic Ghost) closing trio encore of “Mary on a Cross”, “Dance Macabre”, and “Square Hammer.” My thirst for Ghost sated, my friends and I reunited in the cold night air and proceeded to complain about how we’d have to wait at least another year or so for them to come back. If your only complaint post-show is that you have to wait for another show, you can safely say that the band absolutely killed it…no pun intended.

PS: listen to Ghost’s cover of “Jesus He Knows Me” (originally by Genesis). It’s probably one of their best works, they haven’t played it since 2023, and it makes me sad.

Ghost setlist: