MUSIC MONDAYS: MINISTRY H.O.B. HOUSTON
POWERED BY
I have seen Ministry many times in my youth and as an adult. Numbers, Lollapalooza, Revention Center, White Oak Music Hall, NRG, just to name a few venues/music festivals where they have played in the Houston area. Just to put this into perspective I went to all three of their farewell tours in the early 2000s. Al Jorgensen and company are pioneers of industrial metal/ industrial rock/ synthpop whatever you may call it. With solid records such as Twitch, The Land of Rape and Honey, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and Psalm 69 have all established them as an act that transcends the generations.
The House of Blues was packed with a mixture of parents with their kids, cool goth kids, scene heads, and a bunch of old and new friends alike. In true Ministry fashion, they did not go on stage at the normal time. The stage was set up with crosses, strobe lights and metal cages. The lights went low and there in all his dreadlocked glory was none other than Al Jourgensen, Growling into the cluster of mics set up for him on the stage. I had not heard any of their new material.
Thursday evening’s show was the 30th anniversary of one of their best albums, well at least in my opinion, The Land of Rape and Honey and they were going to play cuts from that album which they had rarely done on past shows. (mention at what point of the show they played this) “Words” was the first of 7 new songs off the album AmeriKKKant . Each song sounded really good and was a reminiscent of the early Ministry, with political undertones. Twilight zone, Victims of a Clown, Wargasm, Antifa were all solid efforts but this tour was special.
When the set of the new songs was finished Al thanked their fans for putting up with his political statement songs and proclaimed that he had something special in store for us. He rolled right into the Land of Rape and Honey sending everyone into a possessed state of nostalgia. As if we were all transported to a decadence or power tools on the dance floor, moving and gyrating as if our youth had suddenly returned in full force.
Moving right along into the Missing, Deity, Stigmata, Just One Fix, N.W.O, Thieves and So What had the crowd wanting more, but sadly that was the end of the set and the end of the dance session. Thank you Ministry for all the good memories.
