Recently, I had the pleasure of seeing Ministry live at San Diego’s House of Blues. There was only one opening band HO99O9, pronounced “Horror” and they started the party right. HO99O9 are Hip-hop for people who don’t normally listen to much hip-hop. The band was more hardcore, thrash and speed metal sounding but without any guitars. The audience definitely got into the music. I must say, the sound system at the House of Blues provides for an excellent music experience.
Ministry may be more guitar heavy now than they were when they started out in the ’80’s as more of an experimental/new wave synthpop band; however, the change to industrial metal was the correct musical direction to take and their set at the HOB didn’t disappoint one bit, being a great mix of electronica, screaming guitars, growling vocals, thumping and turbulent drums! The band charged through approximately fourteen songs with hardly a break in-between. I love the guitar heavy backbone that drives the band and believe that anybody who has seen the band recently will agree that the current member lineup seems to be the most succinct and skilled thus far.
They have a discography that now spans over thirty five years so the selection process is complex; yet by the sounds of the audience’s cheers they made the correct song choices. They play with such intensity that the crowd is instantly engaged with the band and the music, and the crowd appears equally content just to watch them perform. The band appeared to be driven harder from the Crowds huge cheers starting with “Punch in the Face”, “Rio Grande Blood”, “Senor Peligro”, “LiesLiesLies” which all kicked some serious ass and the band used this momentum and energy to attack the instruments with even more ferocity. A newer song “Antifa” was next and it had a slower but still hard sound. Most of the songs have political messages and were smartly written.
Ministry have the crowd just where they want them by the time the encore comes and they drop “N.W.O”, “Just One Fix”, “Thieves” and “So What” in quick succession. All three songs just killed! Al Jourgensen’s (Lead Singer) energy was contagious and the audience was going Wild! The encore started with “Psalm 69” from 1992’s album “Psalm69: The way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs” and ended the night with the hard hitting chords of “Filth Pig” from the 1996 release “Filth Pig.” This version of the band that started life as an experimental/synthpop band showed the House of Blues in San Diego that as they are picking up new legions of fans with every live show and their future is looking bright. If you have not listened to Ministry in a long while or have never listened to Ministry, and you love hard driving intelligent music. You need to add Ministry for your music collection.
Band:
Al Jourgensen – Vocals
John Bechdel – Keyboards
Sin Quirin – Guitar
Cesar Soto – Guitar
Jason Christopher – Bass
Thomas Holtgreve – Drums
Ministry – HOB Setlist:
- Punch in the Face
- RIO Grande Blood
- Senor Peligro
- LiesLiesLies
- Antifa
- Waiting
- Worthless
- Bad Blood
- W.O.
- Just one Fix
- Thieves
- So What
- Psalm 69
- Filth Pig