Ministry’s concert on Wednesday, August 25th, in Phoenix, Arid-Zona was probably THE strangest and wildest show I’ve ever attended. First off, this was Ministry, one of the best bands I’ve ever seen play live, headlining at a small venue and they didn’t sell it out. I drove in well after the opening band was playing, got a gated parking spot close to the door, bought my ticket without waiting in line, and walked up to the barricade--front and center. (Just try doing that at any concert in Hollywood.)
Second, the venue was not exactly the most congenial setting for a metal/industrial show. The Celebrity Theatre, which is located in a. . . . shall we say Third World-esque section of town, is a “theater-in-the-round.” For those unfamiliar with such a setup, it entails a circular seating area with a motorized circular stage that can rotate to let all the seats have an excellent view. This setup works well for a solo artist or a sparsely set play; however, the three bands’ stacks of amps meant the stage couldn’t rotate and half the auditorium was blocked off, which cut the capacity to 1300. As Al Jourgensen said at one point, “What a fucked-up little stage, man.” In addition, the “pit” was all of five feet deep, which effectively meant no moshing--not that that’s entirely bad, since I’m well over 6’ tall and am damned well sick and tired of stupid crowd surfers bashing into my head from behind with their Doc Martens.
Third, I was surprised at the makeup of the crowd. I saw an unusually high proportion of women in the crowd and there were more relatively normal-looking people in attendance than the usual freaky types who gravitate to industrial shows. I didn’t see any girls dressed in patent leather or being led by a dog leash. Nor were there more than four or five guys wearing fishnet shirts and sporting various combinations of nipple, nose, and eyebrow piercings. And I even saw a Black fellow in the crowd. That’s unusual to me, anyway--the only other Black man I’ve seen at an industrial show was also at a Ministry concert on the Filth Pig tour. Hmmm. . .
As far as the bands on the bill, this is how they stacked up. The first group was a local band whose name I don’t recall. Methinks it was N17 or something of the sort . . . the only thing which I recall clearly is that the lead singer had a mostly shaved head with some major long-ass dreads hanging from the crown. I can’t say much about their music since I got there at the end of their set. What little I heard didn’t suck, though, and the crowd was enthusiastic, which may be a good sign. They also said something about their CD being released very soon, so you may want to check them out if you have some loose change burning a hole in your pocket.
The second band was L7, of whom I’m not a fan. The ladies certainly weren’t a bad band--I tapped my foot to the beat and mostly enjoyed their set--but I don’t harbor great affection for their particular brand of fuzz-metal. It just isn’t my thing. Most of the songs seemed to follow a similar structure with similar sounds and they tended to blend together after a while. Of course, those fans who were already familiar with the band’s oeuvre rocked out the whole time but, since the only song I knew was “Pretend We’re Dead,” I saved my head bobbing for that. Overall, L7’s set was a professional, well-done affair--nothing mindblowing but still a good, hard-rockin’ show.
And then it was time for the mighty Ministry. Oh, my God, they blew the house down. The absolute first thing that happened was Al Jourgensen stepped on stage, saw the monitor setup and said in an aggrieved tone, “What the fuck is this?” For some incomprehensible reason, the monitors were halfway back on the stage so that there was at least 10’ of empty space up front. Well, Al, he didn’t like this and started kicking the shit out of the monitors with his boots, bashing them into the places where he damn well wanted them as roadies scrambled to connect cables that his pounding disconnected. Rock on! This set the tone for the whole evening--technical and logistical problems leading to maximum musical aggression.
All of the songs that Al, Paul, and the other boys blasted through were from The Mind . . . onward and were generally crowd-pleasers, including a full-length version of “Jesus Built My Hotrod” and, for their encore, “Supernaut.” The handful of songs from their new album, The Dark Side of the Spoon, got a more subdued reaction than their better-known tracks but were entirely respectable live. “Bad Blood,” which has a riff that actually dates from The Land of Rape and Honey era, sounded particularly good and its roots in that album are even more evident live than on the recording.
Something unique that I really appreciated was the addition of a live saxophone player to the lineup. He was practically inaudible for the first few songs, which is unfortunate, because when the techs finally got him properly miked and amplified, the sax made an oddly appropriate contribution to well-known Ministry songs. For example, on “N.W.O.” the sax played the repeated wailing guitar solo in the chorus as Al and the two other guitarists played the chugging main riff. That was cool.
The only things that I didn’t appreciate were a) the volume was really really really high and b) the security guys didn’t have their shit together. Regarding the volume--if I’d brought earplugs, I would’ve been just fine; however, I didn’t bring any and suffered the consequences. The sound was so loud that I occasionally had a hard time picking what song’s riff the band was playing. Even “Thieves,” which is distinctive, was a toughie at first. My ears were literally ringing for three days afterward. Regarding the security weenies—their setup was poor, they were the smallest bouncers I’ve ever seen, and they didn’t seem to understand the nature of the crowd. This is Ministry, kids, not some teen idol that little girls want to kiss. You need some major burly dudes, not just average fellows you find at the gym. They were overwhelmed; I’ve never seen so many crowd members get up on stage. At one point, security followed two fans onto the stage and Ministry actually walked off for a few minutes before returning to finish their set. Talk about approaching the edge of chaos!
Overall, Ministry put on one hell of a show that I’ll remember for a long long time. Check out their tour even if you don’t like their new disc--Ministry seriously rocks and you’ll get your money’s worth, especially if they’re playing smaller venues. Just take some earplugs when you go.
Review by Jonathan Arnett
9/99
©Satan Stole My Teddybear 1997-2001