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| Al Jourgensen of Ministry @ the Warfield (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
I was 16 when I first saw Ministry at Lollapalooza in Scranton, PA back in 1992 and since then, I've been lucky enough to see this legendary band countless times at venues all across the country -- including last nights show -- at least my 3rd time seeing them at the Warfield... But I was too young to catch the original The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste (spotify) tour back in 1990. Luckily, that tour was immortalized with a video/CD release called In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (youtube) and this current tour was originally meant to be the 30th anniversary of the Mind album. Unfortunately, this tour was delayed 3x over the past couple of years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But after seeing the show last night, the delays were well worth the wait! I'll be honest, my memory of Ministry's 'best' show is fading and blurring amongst all the times I've seen them, but last night's performance has to stack up against the most memorable.
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| Al Jourgensen of Ministry @ the Warfield (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
If you're not already familiar with Ministry, this is a band that was formed in the mid-80's by Al Jourgensen, a man who's become synonymous with 'industrial' music and Chicago's WaxTrax! record label even though Ministry was signed to Sire/WB throughout most of their early career. However, while on Sire, Al worked with a plethora of other musicians and created side projects through WaxTrax. Projects included Acid Horse, Lard, Revolting Cocks, 1000 Homo DJs, and Pailhead among others. I bring this up for two reasons, not only to reinforce the Al's sheer creative output, but to step back in time to that original 1990 tour that included songs from Al & Ian McKaye's collaboration Pailhead, and Al & Jello Biafra's Lard. With Jello being a Bay Area native, I was optimistic that he'd be a special guest at some point during the evening, and indeed, Jello was in the audience so I remained hopeful throughout the night -- especially considering Jello sings vocals on "Sabotage is Sex" off Ministry's most recent album, Morale Hygiene (spotify).
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| Al Jourgensen of Ministry @ the Warfield (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
However, before I get to Ministry's performance, I'd be remise not to mention the openers Melvins and Corrosion of Conformity -- two bands that although I respect, I've never been able to get into their studio releases. That said, both were solid and got the sold out crowd ready for Al & co. later in the evening, and both bands were good enough that I need to go back and revisit their catalog.
Back to Ministry though, for this tour, Al's assembled Roy Mayorga (drums), Paul D’Amour (bass), Cesar Soto (guitar), Monte Pittman (guitar) and John Bechdel (keyboards). Roy is just a tour de force on the drums. He sat in on the last couple of songs during the Melvins set, accompanying Dale Crover, and it was amazing to watch!
As for Ministry's set, the band took to the stage at about 9:30pm with a chainlink fence set-up at the front of the stage to protect them from the frisky bunch that had assembled in the Warfield's pit -- this was reminiscent of the fence they took on tour back in 1990 in support of the Mind album and my excitement began to swell with the potential of not only a 30th celebration of the Mind, but a recreation of that amazing 'In Case You...' tour film. With the lights down, the Ukrainian anthem played with a message of support emblazoned on the giant screen at the back of the stage. As the anthem ended, the opening of "Breathe" began -- just like from the 'In Case You..' tour. This was really happening! The only, and I mean only, thing that was missing was the dual drummer set-up from the '90's tour. Back then, it was the late Bill Reiflin (one of the best drummers ever!) and Martin Atkins on drums, but Roy did an admirable job playing the part of two -- and he gave us a peek of his co-drumming skills back during the Melvins set.
For us diehards, what an opening! As Breathe ended, I wondered, could we have "The Missing" next? Yes! Yes, we could! Just like that original '90s tour. It was really happening. Al was missing his cowboy hat, but his voice and the band sounded fantastic. Roy & Paul (Tool's original bassist by the way) pounded out the rhythm on the drums and bass, while Caesar and Monte provided that wall of sound from the guitars that Ministry's known for.
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| Al Jourgensen of Ministry @ the Warfield (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
The show's intro began to diverge from the original '90s setlist and the Mind album after their 3rd song of the night, another bombastic rendition of "The Deity", but what came next was possibly Ministry's most popular song, "Stigmata", off their 3rd studio album, The Land of Rape and Honey (spotify) and the pit went nuts.
This next section of the setlist moved away from the Mind album, but may have improved upon that original tour. Al & co. blasted their way through Black Sabbath's "Supernaut" as originally covered by Al's side project 1000 Homo DJs, then hit two Pailhead tracks, "Don't Stand In Line" and "Man Should Surrender". For fans of the 'In Case You..' album, you wouldn't be wrong to say that those weren't part of that tour film, but Ministry actually did cover two Pailhead songs and one from Skinny Puppy during this section of their original tour. I'm guessing that Sire/WB didn't want or wasn't able to negotiate the rights to include those tracks for the live film/cd release.
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| Al Jourgensen of Ministry @ the Warfield (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
After the Pailhead tracks, the band got back to the Mind album with "Burning Inside" and essentially closed out their main set with their greatest hits: NWO, Just One Fix, and the ultimate closers, Thieves and So What. Talk about a power-house of a setlist!
Everyone in attendance needed a break after what we just heard, including the band, so they broke for a short breather and the giant screen onstage played a video spanning Ministry's history with an in-memorium section at the end for all the bandmates who had passed over the years. When the band returned, the fence was removed and they launched into 3 tracks off Morale Hygiene. Unfortunately, "Sabotage is Sex" wasn't one of those tracks, and so Jello Biafra never appeared on stage.
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| Al Jourgensen of Ministry @ the Warfield (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Ultimately, this night wasn't only celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Mind album, but a homage to that incredible 89-90 tour in support of that album. This was by far, a greatest hits journey over Ministry's career and I feel fortunate that I was able to make it to the show. Unfortunately, for any of you reading this outside the Bay Area, the band only has one date left on this incarnation of the tour up at the Showbox in Seattle. But let's hope that Al continues to bring something close to this on the festival dates they have sprinkled throughout the rest of the year for those of you reading outside California. Here's a link to their upcoming tour dates. Don't miss them if you have the chance!
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