Everyone has had a moment where they’ve wanted to take a photo or two during the show, maybe a small snippet of a song – but, there’s a difference between those who take the photos and put their phone away, and those who watch the show through their phone screens. And there’s nothing more infuriating than when those kinds of people are on barricade.
Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge understands the sentiment given his recent announcement that Ghost‘s world tour would not allow phones, and would be using Yondr magnetic pouches to secure the phone away while remaining in the owner’s possession.
“I’m just saying that when it comes to the actual live show, my calling, my reason for being there is the connection between myself and everybody that I brought with me that are working in tandem to give you an experience, that experience is completely decocked if everybody’s just filming. Am I wrong? Am I right? I don’t know,” Forge explains to Audacy.
“It’s an experiment.” But, it’s an experiment based on other previously successful experiments – artists like Bruno Mars, Jack White, and Alicia Keys have also introduced the use of Yondr magnetic pouches at their gigs. The pouches lock away phones, smart watches, and other communication devices during the show, using a magnetic system to keep the pouch sealed.
At shows that use Yondr, there are usually safe zones throughout the venue where you are able to open the pouch to access your devices, but once you leave these safe zones, your phone must be secured.
With countless artists voicing their distaste for the use of phones during shows, it was only a matter of time before these pouches became more widespread.
For Forge – it’s not to crack down on illegal filming of their sets, but to remove a device that disconnects people from their surroundings: “I swear that the experience of shows and the making of memories, the making of magic, was much more powerful [before phones]. Some of the best shows I’ve ever been to, I have maybe not even seen a picture from that because they all live here [in my head]. They live in my core. That’s the memory I have of that.”
Ghost‘s new record, Skeletá, comes out on April 25th. You can pre-order it here.
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