Ministry, Revolting Cocks – 7/1/06

Saturday night, the former Lady Combustion and I went to the House of Blues to see Ministry, Revolting Cocks, and Pitbull Daycare. This was the first of two nights these bands were playing there. After taking the L train to the show to avoid traffic and hefty parking fees, we got to the club right when the doors opened and found a good place to view the show. It was fortunate we got there when we did because prime viewing real estate in the House of Blues is pretty minimal for as nice as that place is.

It is interesting to take note that the last time I saw Ministry was 1989. At that show they played inside a steel cage and were an 11 piece “super band” that featured like every industrial music superstar you could want to be in one room. The last time I saw Revolting Cocks was a pair of shows they did in 1990 when Beers, Steers, and Queers came out. The first one had the distinction of having the Mentors be the opening act! Both bands have changed a lot since those days, but I’ll get to that shortly.

Pitbull Daycare

Pitbull Daycare

Pitbull Daycare

Pitbull Daycare were the first band and the only one, obviously, that I never heard of or have seen before. They kind of reminded me a little bit of Evil Mothers, however with way less industrial flavor and more heavy on the nu-metal. They weren’t bad for the short set they played, though they didn’t do enough for me to entice me to fancy buying their records someday. As far as opening acts go though, they were fine enough.

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

After the removal of the Pitbull’s gear, it wasn’t long before Revolting Cocks took the stage. The size of the crowd also had magically doubled at least since the first band were on stage and suddenly there wasn’t much room to move around anywhere. Now the last time I saw Revco, they had Chris Connelly singing most of the songs as well as a plethora of people both past and present partaking of the fun. This time out, we had Al, Phildo (who goes back to the Beers, Steers, and Queers album and sang that song), a smokin’ hot female bass player, and some unfamiliar faces on guitar, keyboards and drums. They opened with a great rendition of “Beers, Steers, and Queers” which damn near instantly erased any skepticism I had about this new Revco being any good. After that song, they brought out founding member Luc Van Acker, and since I wasn’t aware that he was touring with them, I was totally surprised and happy to see another old schooler up on that stage. They did “Attack Ships on Fire” and it too was excellent. Luc was running all over the stage.

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

At this point they brought out another new member who handled much of the vocal duties from this point out, including the ones Chris Connelly used to sing (often in tandem with Phildo and Luc). They played “Something Wonderful” and “Stainless Steel Providers” and while I would have preferred Chris Connelly singing the latter, this guy did a respectable job and the crowd were loving it. The only low point was their covering “Dark Entries” by Bauhaus, which was just a bummer to me. After this they busted into the newer songs, but the ones they chose were the “party songs” such as “Do You Think I’m Sexy” and they threw in “Let’s Get Physical” for good measure. The crowd pretty much ate up every minute, including the newer songs. It was a fun and light hearted setm just like I remembered the Revco shows of the past as being. So while the faces on stage may have changed, the spirit of the Revolting Cocks of the late 1980s remained intact and these guys exceeded my expectations.

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

This only left Ministry. The career of Al Jourgensen/Ministry is a long and quite unique one. Ministry started pretty much as a synth-pop band, evolved into an industrial dance band, then an aggressive industrial rock band with meaty guitars (my favorite era), and now into something more of a political themed speed metal band with samples that has more in common with Slayer these days than Skinny Puppy. I can’t think of any other band that has endured some 25 years and has evolved so much over the years where they have less than zero resemblance to how they started, and have even changed so much since the half-way point of their existence. While for me personally I wish they were still doing records like The Land of Rape and Honey, their new records each still have a few songs on each that I really enjoy.

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

So after a long wait, the lights dimmed and Ministry took the stage. They opened with, “Fear is Big Business” which is off their latest album, Rio Grande Blood. After this, they proceeded to play material mostly off the latest two albums. In fact it seemed like they played about half of each of those two before Al said to the crowd “OK, I hope you don’t mind if we play an old song and the opening of “N.W.O.” started. At this point the portion of the crowd that weren’t already hyper from the new stuff went crazy. That intro got a huge pop from the crowd and they were loving it. I will also say the song was played beyond perfection. The sound was super loud (Ministry shows are legendary for this) but with my earplugs in, the sound was exactly perfect, including the mix. In fact it was one of the best sounding shows I’ve been to in a very long time. After “N.W.O.” they kind of went backwards from there in terms of the age of the songs. They played “Just One Fix”, “Thieves” (which easily got the single biggest pop from the crowd, the entire place was jumping up and down and singing along to the samples!), and then they closed the set with “Khyber Pass”, which is one of the standouts on Rio Grande Blood and sounded amazing live with the Egyptian-like samples.

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

For the encore they came out and did “So What” and “Stigmata”, both made the crowd go crazy and the latter being one of my personal favorites and one I was praying they were still playing live. They ended the show with “Psalm 69”. The one glaring omission from the set list was “Burning Inside” which I thought for sure they would play seeing as it was a big song for them, and that really stands as one of only two complaints, the other being I wished they would have mixed the old and new stuff up more in the set list rather than playing so much new material and saving the old stuff for the end, though one could argue “you always save the best for last”. I will say that the new stuff sounded great live, far better than on the albums, and it actually made me want to go back and listen to the newer ones more because it gave me a new appreciation for those songs. They have some talented people playing in this version of Ministry and I found myself marking out for not only the older songs, but for the fact that they had Paul Raven from the legendary Killing Joke playing bass.

So while this Ministry wasn’t the “super band” I saw in 1989 (they could never replicate that even if they wanted to now), this new Ministry is still a pretty phenomenal live band that more than delivers the goods live. They are a powerhouse of sound and its pretty amazing just how good a Ministry show still is. I think that much like the last time I saw them, I’ll be remembering this one for years to come.

After the show and a late dinner, I dropped of the former Lady Combustion, said goodbye to her and my dog, and drove home and went to sleep. Unlike the last time I saw Ministry, this time it wasn’t with hearing damage and ringing in my ears because I was smart enough to wear earplugs (something I’ve done without fail at every show I’ve been too since seeing Ministry the last time)! The show gets a huge thumbs up, it was a great way to spend the evening.

Please note while there was tons of available light on stage for Revolting Cocks, Ministry played in near darkness half the time. This made for some difficult shooting and thus the reason for having twice as many good shots of Revco.

LOTS more pictures after the jump, click below! I’ll also be doing a second entry later tonight with even more photos.


Pitbull Daycare

Pitbull Daycare

Pitbull Daycare

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Revolting Cocks

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry

Ministry