Review - Ministry @ the Fremont Theater, San Luis Obispo (7/22/17)

Ministry's Sin Quirin & Al Jourgensen (Photo: Kevin Keating)

We had the opportunity to catch the godfather of industrial music last night in San Luis Obispo as Al Jourgensen's Ministry wrapped up their summer tour at the Fremont Theater. Yes, San Luis Obispo isn't located in the SF Bay Area -- I know -- but this was a chance to catch them before they hit the Warfield on November 5th with a new setlist and supporting their upcoming release, AmeriKKKant. Tickets for the Warfield show can be found here.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry (Photo: Kevin Keating)

To my surprise, Jourgensen's crew kicked off with "Filth Pig," a classic track from the 1996 album of the same name. I was expecting a show filled with songs from Al's more recent albums, but except for "PermaWar," "Punch to the Face", and a new track, "Antifa," off the upcoming AmeriKKKant album, the concert was a great mix of some of Ministry's best tracks.

Ministry's Al Jourgensen (Photo: Kevin Keating)

Al had a 6-piece band behind him that included two guitarists, a bassist, drummer, keyboardist, and DJ; and the team created a wall of sound that blew all of us in the audience away. It was also great to see Al aim his pointed political views at DJT after years of Bush-bashing. The projected visuals on the back of the stage centered mainly on Trump throughout the night, but good ole GW showed his face a few times too -- for old times sake!

To give you a sense of what the show was like, here's their concert from San Diego one day before the San Luis Obispo show (uploaded by DoubleAdaFool).

And here's the setlist from the night in SLO (below) -- we're already looking forward to Ministry's Bay Area show in November!