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Al Jourgensen Of Ministry Returns Home With Headlining Show Bringing Industrial Leaders Gary Numan And Front Line Assembly Along
By Cesar Glanville
Chicago is and always will be Al Jourgensen’s hometown no matter how many years he lives in Texas or LA. He has contributed so much to the history of music in the town he deserves a street named after him or one of those big ass keys the mayors give out.
So the hometown hero returned home to absolutely blow the roof off of the ol ‘Aragon Brawlroom’. If memory holds correct the last time Ministry played the Aragon was the ‘Sphinctour’ supporting the ‘Filth Pig’ record on a 2 night stand. I was at both of those shows as well. And I’m not sure what improvements they made but the sound in the room is eons better than it was back then. They even brought out @therealfilthpig, the original model who did the album cover to introduce the night. But enough about that lets talk about THE SHOW!
Ministry’s touring band is beyond pro. Monte Pitman formerly of Madonna’s band (guitar), Paul D’Amour formerly of Tool (bass), Roy Mayorga formerly of Soulfly and Stone Sour (drums) along with longtime band solid members John Bechdel on keys and Cesar Soto on guitar. Special guest artist, Leni Von Eckardt, joined the band on a couple songs kicking off the show in a silver spacewoman suit providing the female backing vocals and samples from the new album.
The band was tight, and crisp as hell – the sound was monster. They opened with a string of songs off the new album ‘Hopiumforthemasses’ and new’er’ album ‘Moral Hygiene’. These songs follow similar formal that leans more on industrial metal in the more metal sense. Yes still littered with key stabs and samples, but just more of that rock vibe. The new album has some solid tracks and they do translate well live, the standout track from that ‘half’ of the set is definitely ‘New Religion’ which does have some of those classic Al bellows that just grab you in your gut.
Ministry almost served as another opener for themselves because when they flip the switch to ‘the old stuff’ (that I would call more industrial than rock) it certainly does tick the energy level up just a little bit more. They fired a double barrel shotgun out of the gate with ‘NWO’s blasting, melodic, churning, military like march. ‘Just One Fix’ got the pit to really start to break free then ‘Stigmata’ oiled it up for the all out pit favorite that is ‘Thieves’ – the song was built for destruction and destruction it brought. A nice surprise of ‘Jesus Built My Hotrod’ which seems to have been missing from the setlist for years get the energy flowing as the regular set came to a close.
I had been keeping an eye on setlist.fm for what treats we might be getting in the encore, and there was some cool stuff: ‘Burning Inside’, ‘So What’, and the fantastic covers ‘The Light Pours Out Of Me’ (Magazine) and ‘Ricky’s Hand’ (Fad Gadget) – well this is Chicago with a packed Brawlroom so Al came through and did 2 encores treating us to all 4 of the songs. It’s always absolutely fantastic when ‘Burning Inside’ gets a play in the set and dusting off ‘The Light Pours Out Of Me’ after what seems like 20 years was quite the treat. Fad Gadget’s ‘Ricky’s Hand’ is an excellent rendition and showcases Al’s very nice voice, yes when the Eventide’s are turned down there is a great voice there.
I’ve seen a lot of Ministry shows and this was a standout performance. Hat tip, to Al and the boys.
Need to make a quick mention of the always punchy Frontline Assembly and give a big nod to Gary Numan – his set was tight, melodic and surprisingly heavy. Numan showed why he is the godfather of the electronic/new wav/industrial genres and deserves all the credit artists like Trent Reznor get. Hear him play Metal live 40+ years later with this band he has now and watch out – it will slap you in the face. Fantastic set.
For more on Ministry, click here
For photos of Ministry at Aragon Ballroom, click here
For photos of Front Line Assembly, click here
For photos of Gary Numan, click here
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I can’t believe Ministry ignored their wonderful album “Twitch”! In my opinion it is their best album along with Everyday is Halloween. It was the last time their music sounded like music, not just a bunch of NOISE & screaming which is what they have been doing for years now.