Long before they were playing huge arenas and embroiled in complicated lawsuits, Ghost were just another European metal band trying to make it big on the underground circuit, albeit with a lot more attention to costume detail and theatrical presentation. Tobias Forge had only posted the first-ever Ghost songs online seven months before and the band's first album, Opus Eponymous, was not even a week old when the band made its live debut at a small German festival. A Nameless Ghoul told Metal Hammer in 2016 of the gig, " It was shaky, I would say. We had rehearsed a little, for a month or two, but we hadn't really been a band for a long time. And it was a little bit odd playing in costumes — we'd never really done that together before."
The band followed the gig up in quick fashion, dashing off to London for the Live Evil Festival set seen above the very next night. The Ghoul recalled that this performance "was definitely a bigger happening for us. There was a small festival at the Camden Underworld, we had a really late-night slot, and there was a lot of excitement there," the Ghost musician explained. "That was our first show where we really felt, 'Wow, this can become something.'"
In the clip, the small, dark club is seen filled with curious onlookers, all of whom seem to revel in the appearance of the then-new act. Papa Emeritus' makeup and outfit are already quite elaborate, but the Nameless Ghouls are cloaked in fairly low-budget–looking black robes and masks. Though the band weren't used to playing in costume quite yet, that inexperience barely gets in the way of the obvious talent and work they'd put into the songs. Blazing through early hits and using a cover of Eyes Wide Shut soundtrack linchpin "Masked Ball" as their ominous intro, Ghost showed Londoners that night just how much potential they possessed.
