Ministry at Terminal 5

Al Jourgensen

Alejandro Ramirez Casa was born in Havana, Cuba, but shortly thereafter moved with his mother to the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.  She remarried and her son became Al Jourgensen.  While in college, Jourgensen started as a club dj, and then in the late 1970s he played guitar in Special Affect and Silly Carmichaels before he formed Ministry in 1981. Ministry originally performed melodic new wave synth pop band, then electronic dance music, but soon its style grew harder and heavier, and Ministry evolved into one of the pioneers of industrial metal in the mid-1980s, with certified gold and platinum albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Ministry split in 2008, but Jourgensen revived the brand in 2011 with a new lineup. Now based in Los Angeles, California, Ministry presently consists of vocalist/guitarist Jourgensen, guitarists Sin Quirin and Cesar Soto, keyboardist John Bechdel, bassist Jason Christopher and drummer Derek Abrams. Ministry's 13th and most recent studio album is 2013's From Beer to Eternity (2013); a new album, AmeriKKKant, is due in 2018.

During the intermission at Terminal 5 tonight, Ministry fans applauded when stagehands inflated two giant balloons that looked liked golden-coifed chickens with anti-fascist symbols across their breasts. Once the live music began, Ministry's music was bristling with defiance and rebellion. Rather than focus on the band's most successful albums from 1988 to 1992, Jourgensen instead s;ected songs from various eras but focused for a while on political and social commentary. Older songs "LiesLiesLies," a commentary on post-9/11 conspiracy theories, "N.W.O.," a protest of the Persian Gulf War, and "Señor Peligro," a critical look at then-President George H.W. Bush, remained part of Ministry's revelry, and the two new songs, "Antifa" and "Wargasm," similarly were blunt and angry statements on contemporary politics. The accompanying music fit the message, with coarse, shouted vocals and massively crushing guitar riffs with a bombastic undercurrent as a foundation. The concert sounded like the soundtrack to a new American revolution.

Visit Ministry at www.ministryband.com.

Setlist:

1. Let’s Go
2. Punch in the Face
3. Antifa
4. Rio Grande Blood
5. Señor Peligro
6. LiesLiesLies
7. Wargasm
8. Bad Blood
9. N.W.O.
10. Just One Fix
11. Thieves
12. So What

Encore:

1. Gates of Steel (Devo cover)
2. Unknown (solo mix by Ministry's turntablist)