Ministry, April 29, TLA

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Ministry, April 29, TLA

POSTED: Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 9:50 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass | Music Last Night

Photo | John Vettese

I hope they realize this is their last goddamn chance...

Pity the poor South Street goth. No longer is there a gum tree for them to deface, nor is there Philly Deli for obtaining cheap cloves, nor is there Digital Ferret retailing music and wares (though, really, we all know that place has been in decline since it changed its name from Digital Underground). And, after this Tuesday evening, nor is there Al Jourgenson shrieking up a storm and turning the TLA floor into a mob scene. Supposedly.

As we watched the Poconos crowd mix with the Passional regulars, my friend Jeremy posited the theory that Ministry's "farewell" tour would be no more final than any similar claim Kiss has made. At first I was skeptical - it's not like Jourgenson brings his epileptic industrial-metal through town so regularly that it would seem that odd for him to quit the road. But as the show went on, top-heavy with ho-hum material from the band's more recent offerings ("This song is about the fuckin' Patriot Act! And how we sure don't want them spying on our conversations..."), I began to see his logic.

Photo | John Vettese

The stage was wrapped in this Gitmo-esque fence. The main set, an hour and some long, evoked Iraq, Hussein, Bin Laden, middle America and a lotta lotta anti-Bush rhetoric. Jourgenson, a Texan himself, ain't too fond of Dubya. He beat that drum into the ground over the course of the performance - which, thankfully, improved a lot from "Watch Yoursef," that Patriot Act number - and the obvious became even more clear through the smoke and strobes. Ah, yes, I see, It's not a farewell Ministry tour, it's a farewell *Bush* tour. Ba-dum-bum.

Photo | John Vettese

Perhaps. Or perhaps the dude who screams about geriatric fuck fests in "Thieves" is feeling a bit geriatric himself, and needs to just stop. Whichever the case, it left us fucking shit up to classics like "So What," "Just One Fix" and "N.W.O." (which was nicely balanced by the more recent "No W", the best of the new numbers) like as if it wasn't going to happen again.

Photo | John Vettese

Photo | John Vettese

Jesse D

Posted 2008-05-01 20:51:06

I'm as skeptical as the next metal fan, but after hearing Al Jourgenson's withering voice and reliance on guest vocalist Burton Bell for the most ferocious songs in the set (Just One Fix, Thieves), I have to believe that the last angry man really is retiring.

Posted by john vettese @ 9:50 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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