Photo: WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — When Swedish heavy metal band Ghost announced its 2025 world 'Skeletour' last year, band members said the tour will be a phone-free experience.
Band front man and primary songwriter Tobias Forge said banning cellphones at their concerts is designed to create a more immersive and engaging experience for both the audience and the band.
Ghost's recent concert at the TD Garden on Monday night was the first time cell phones weren't allowed inside the venue during a concert.
There has in the past been phone-free comedy shows at the Garden including Dave Chappelle, Joe Rogan, and Kevin Hart.
Before being allowed inside the arena on Monday night, fans had to have their phones placed and locked inside a Yondr pouch by staff members who sanitized and secured the phones before giving them back.
Fans, who either carried or wore their phone pouches on a lanyard, could at any time go out to the lobby to use their phones in designated phone-use areas, but the phones had to be re-secured before being allowed back into the show.
After the show, staff quickly unlocked the pouches at all exits, and the empty pouches were dropped off at bins on the way out.
When asked what they thought of phone-free concerts, people on the Boston Common had mixed opinions. "As a fan, if you're in that crowd and someone is holding a phone in your direct line of vision and you're trying to see the stage or whatever, I mean, that's annoying," said one guy.
Tom said his daughter would be lost without her cell phone at a concert. "I have a teenage daughter, and she goes to concerts and sits there and films," he said. "That's how she enjoys it."
Tom added that while he likes the concept of phone-free concerts, he said it's all his daughter knows. "This is the technology she grew up with."
Meanwhile, another concertgoer was adamantly against the rule. "I don't think they should be telling people what to do."
In an interview with Planet Rock, Forge said the whole point of not allowing cell phones during the band's performance is to promote engagement. "This has nothing to do with copywrite control, or that we don't want people to monetize their videos," he said. "But I have to go back years in time where I've seen a fully engaged crowd where everybody actually watches the band."
He thinks that loss of engagement is because of cell phones.
Ghost's 2025 Skeletour currently lists 29 confirmed shows throughout North America and Europe with the possibility of adding more shows.
Meanwhile, whether or not phone-free concerts catch on beyond Skeletour remains to be seen.
WBZ NewsRadio's Jim MacKay (@JimMacKayOnAir) reports.