Ministry

Live at Club Nokia

Los Angeles, California

June 21st, 2012

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

The moment a band announces a farewell tour or retirement, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will in fact resurface if they don’t die first. Ministry’s main man, Al Jorgensen came close to the latter but luckily he pulled through his tribulations and has unleashed at least one more recording upon the face of the earth.

Relapse marks an even dozen full lengthers from the Ministry camp and fittingly ushers in yet another politically charged environment sitting on the brink of the apocalypse. This album is not quite as full of political venom as what I call the Anti-Bush trilogy of previous records, but it still puts its finger on the pulse of the world and cries foul where corpses rot and rallies the troops where needed.

The “Defibrillatour” represents a small six-date showcase of Al and company back in action across the USA, and those of us fortunate enough to see one of these handful of shows are treated to an hour-forty-five of high octane industrial metal from the one who started it all.

As the lights went down and the fans cheered, the large video screen at the back of the stage came to life with a swirling vortex of yellow and red. Al’s face appears and begins the monologue that starts off the new record’s opening track, “Ghouldiggers”. With this song Al addresses the music business’ hangers-on and the ghouls that cling to artists and milk them for all its worth and then quadruple those efforts once they have passed from this earth.

Al takes the stage in top hat and flashlight specs, his eyebrows replaced by rows of piercings all of which accompanies a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. With dual guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, the band filled the room with a blast of electronic-tinged metal destruction as they tore into the set. “I’m not dead yet, I’m not dead yet, I’m not dead yet!” goes the refrain and leaves little doubt… No, Ministry is not dead yet. Not only are they alive and kicking, their kicking everyone’s ass!

My own personal speculation of what kind of set list will form from the mass of material recorded over the last twenty-five plus years always abounds, but in recent years Al has usually saved the classic material for encores so I was pretty sure the set would stick to later recordings.

They worked in threes for the most part, doing three songs from each of the albums making up the Anti-Bush trilogy and then three from the new record. I will get to the encore when appropriate but that worked in threes too in a sense.

“Ghouldiggers” gave way to “No W” off of Houses of the Molé which worked into the title track off of “Rio Grande Blood”. Both of these Bush slamming songs are awesome, even with him out of office for four years; we are still reaping his legacy. I still laugh every time I hear the reworking of quotes from Bush’s speeches… “I am a dangerous, dangerous man. I am a terrible dictator. I am an asshole”.

Maintaining the Rio Grande Blood mentality, they did “Señor Peligro” next and went straight into “LiesLiesLies”, both off of that album. The latter was an awesome sing along with everyone in the audience belting it out together.

Al said he took acid and was tripping his brains out which garnered roars of cheering. He said, “Don’t cheer yet, it might not work out that well”, then added, “Go easy on me or I might end up eating someone’s face off.”

Al announced the next song was going to be from the new album. “99 Percenters” is all about the Occupy Movement, which had Al and the bassist going back and forth with the chorus count down and chanting sections. This song had everyone’s fists in the air in response and I enjoyed it much better live than on the album itself.

“Well it looks like the new album went over well; let’s try one from the previous album...” was Al’s introduction to “Watch Yourself” off of The Last Sucker. They were experiencing intermittent keyboard problems but got it fixed for good on this song, bringing the signature mechanical sampled percussion pieces to life at just the right moment.

The tell tale riffs on the opening of the next song let everyone know “Life is Good”, also off of The Last Sucker, was up next. This song was so awesome live; it was definitely one of my favorites of the main set. Tripping or not, Al was in fine form tonight with energy and smiles behind his ornate mechanical mic stand that featured an illuminated base, metal skeletal bat wings, and a human skull to top it off.

Ministry returned to Houses of the Molé for the next two songs, doing “Waiting” and “Worthless” back to back. As I predicted, no classic material yet in the main set. Al was back and forth over the Anti-Bush trilogy and rounded out one last song off the new record with the title track, “Relapse”. This is, in my opinion, one of the strongest songs on the new album and was great live: “I feel it coming, a total collapse!”

Returning to The Last Sucker to complete the trilogy of songs off of the previous album, they did the title track. Throughout the many songs dealing with the Bush administration, Al would rework the wording to reflect changes since he left office which was cool.

Middle Eastern themes introduced the set-closer “Khyber Pass” off of Rio Grande Blood, adding a fourth song off of this album which is the only album that saw more than three songs played. Al danced around with his arms making serpentine motions to the ethnically influenced keyboard pieces. This song built and shaped while images of Bin Laden being assassinated flashed on the screen behind them.

Al said goodnight once the last vocal verse of Khyber was sung, jumped off the stage and shook hands with the front row fans and then climbed back up on stage, waved goodbye and then headed off. The band churned on, ending with a cool bass solo and a blast of distorted feedback.

After some serious chanting, the band retook the stage. “Hope you are not done yet, because we have a few more songs this evening, fuck the curfew!” Al puffed on a huge joint, the entire venue taking on the smell of killer chronic.

The encore began with the tell-tale samples from the title track off of Psalm 69. This is an awesome song and one I have not heard live since maybe the “Sphinctour” supporting Filth Pig years and years ago. The choral samples, the child’s voice “My heart has been touched by Christ”…. this is the stuff Ministry is made of. It was a great song and the pit came alive like never before with subsequent smaller pits breaking out on other tiers of the venue (which I have never seen happen before).

As I said, Al worked in threes for the most part and the encore followed suit with two more songs off of Psalm 69. They broke into “N.W.O.” which flowed directly into “Just One Fix”. I have been a Ministry fan since 1987 and remember each release as it came out and loved Psalm 69 so much, it was great to hear these classic songs live. This was at least my fifth time seeing Ministry live and I have loved every show over the years, this one no exception.

There are just too many great classic songs to choose from, but I knew we were most likely down to the last song. Al confirmed it and said, “Alright, now it’s time for a little song called Thieves.” So the final song of the night traced all the way back to the opening song off of The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, which was my favorite record for years at the time of its release. It was very fullfilling to see it live again and wish they could have done a few more off of this record as well.

The band all set down their instruments and hugged each other and high-fived. Al waved at the crowd and said that LA was awesome. Someone threw a mangled cowboy hat on stage and he yanked it on so the brim tore loose and hung around his neck. He then put it on his guitarist and they all smiled, waved goodnight and left the stage, the entire room was left stoked from the positive energy and awesome performance.

All in all, it was a great experience. A good set list mostly covering songs from the last four releases. I would have loved a few more from Mind and of course always wish for Land of Rape and Honey material but I know Al likes to do his newer stuff live so anticipated the material pretty accurately. They did seventeen songs in total which was amazing, a fittingly long set for what might be the last time they play Los Angeles… but as this tour will show you, never say never.

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