Head Coffin

April 11^th marked the fateful day, when Ministry would again arrive in SLC. The last time they came was to DV8 some time ago, before it burned down.

It was a life goal of mine, to see Ministry live. One that I thought would never come to fruition due to the fact that they hadn’t bothered to put Utah on a tour date since the “In case you didn’t feel like showing up” tour.

Then top that with an album that was seriously drugged out and was not the greatest work they ever did. I’m talking about Filth Pig of course. The album, to me, was an ominous sign of what I could expect from this childhood favorite of mine, crap. I’m not afraid of saying it, even about my favorite band, the album was crap. However Bad Blood came out (showing up on the Underworld soundtrack, and the Vampire Masquerade PC game) a chance of something decent was viewable. Yet it took tell they released Rio Grande Blood before that ever happened. Rio Grande is a great album, and is second only to their latest stuff, The Last Sucker. It re-vitalizes what it was about Ministry that made me love their music. Hard core industrial rock metal, synthesized voice and effects, and serious guitar riffs followed by heavy drum beats that leave no question in your mind that this is a kick ass band.

So what was I expecting from this show? Well to be honest, their last was a bit less rocken then I had hoped for. It was in the tiny cramped club of DV8, which sadly burned down a year ago, and like all shows at DV8 was filled with smoke and bad audio. While still a great show, it didn’t leave me overly wanting to see them again. This is why it took me until 3 days before the show to finally buy my ticket.

Well that and it got moved to “In the Venue” (Formerly known as Bricks, the most rundown ghetto hole ever to exist) which I had seen Dresden Dolls there and the club was actually setup worse than DV8. With a Tiny stage in a corner, and large pillars throughout, if you could see anything, it was only if you where exceptionally tall or standing on someone’s shoulder. I could just imagine getting bashed into those pillars as the tiny cramped space swelled in the impromptu “mosh pits” that follow any rock show. Throw on top that the Alcohol was located in the back, as far away from the show as possible, and the only perk about being 21 is removed. I don’t drink when I see these shows, but it’s nice sometimes to get a better view of things in these clubs due to my age.

Anyways, this isn’t about that show. In the Venue apparently got a management change, moved the stage to the back room, and elevated it.

The area’s a lot bigger then DV8’s, and never once was I gasping on smoke filled air, choking down my own bit of cancer. Right off seeing this, I could tell this was going to be a much better show.

The opening acts where Hemplock, and Meshugga. We missed Hemplock, due to the worlds slowest waitress at RedRock, who after giving us our bill waited another 10 minutes before checking up on us. We did see Meshugga, and like most Nordic death metal, they blew.

Why is it that these folks feel the need for every band member to be playing their own song?

Seriously it was like listening to one song from the main guitarist, some completely unrelated beat from the drummer, who knows what the bassist was doing as it was all drowned out, and the singer, if he was singing, was singing about something that had nothing to do with what everyone else was doing. I like the occasionally death metal, it just has to sound good, which is perfectly possible. These guys don’t.

One nice thing, was that they were selling Earplugs at the souvenir stand. Official Ministry Earplugs for a measly $5 dollars. One may think “Holy crap? Five bucks for cheap stupid earplugs that you can get 20 for 5 from any grocery store?” To which I reply… yepp. Course if this was a Nascar event instead of Ministry, it would have been 25 bucks instead. 20 bucks cheaper wahoo. I find that I pretty much have to have earplugs now a days to enjoy shows anymore. I hate the 3 day ringing that usually follows after going to a show, and after a bit, it’s so damn loud you can’t even tell you have them in, it’s still that freakishly loud.

Course it helped to have the earplugs then chant “lalalallallalal” while Meshuga was playing… yeah they where that bad.

Now I had brought my ridiculously expensive phone to the show to steal some pics and video, which are scattered throughout this. It would have been nice if they had turned out well, but one can only do so much in near pitch black and almost no focus or white balance. Plus it’s not like I can dink with my phone trying to get the settings working while Ministry is playing

I mean come on, it’s Ministry. While nice when I was using it, it made me nervous when I had to hand it off to Mike or Aaron for safe keeping, while I slammed my why in the pit. Each time I figured they didn’t have a good hold of it, or they’d get bashed in the pocket killing the screen, or drop it, or I would drop it, all sorts of terrible possibilities played through my mind. Which I realize is probably cause I’m old. When I was much younger I didn’t even own a phone, let alone care what happened to it, or how it’s pictures would turn out.

Heck, back then I had a cordless that I had stolen from a Thrift store that could pick up other conversations when the base wasn’t plugged in. Yet here I was at a Ministry concert, one of the toughest, all time greatest metal bands of my youth, freakishly terrified that I would drop it every time I got hit.

But I wasn’t alone. Every shot I would take, I’d see about a dozen other people with phones snapping pictures or recording video.

It was weird to see. When I would see show’s regularly, they would do exhaustive searches for any video equipment and prevent you from taking it in, (as well as chain wallets…tards) where as now it was so common place the band didn’t even say a word about it. I figure the advent of youtube, these bands get a lot more exposure through this media then they could ask for. It’s gotta be a good thing to plaster every virtual web presence you have with your favorite bands right?

When I wasn’t snapping pics or recording videos,

or just trying to catch my breath, I was hitting it hard in the Pit. There was really only room for just one pit, a sad reality with changing from Salt Air to In the Venu. Still it was a strange experience from what I expected. I’ve been in pits where I was a bit afraid for my life, yet still loved the rush of pounding into people and getting the snot kicked out of me back. While everyone has always “saved” the guy that falls down, jumping around to get him back on his feet as quickly as possible, this pit seemed extra polite. It was strange. After every jamming song, the fellow Pitters would congratulate each other, shake hands, smack backs and generally give a good vibe about how awesome the show was. Not only that, but there were a lot more ladies in the pit then I’ve ever been in.

Is this cause we all started listening to Ministry since the 80’s and now are all old men? Are we all just to old to beat the crap out of each other, just not interested in it yet loving what it was like? Or are Pit’s just different then they used to be? Mosh pits virtually vanished by the time I started going to concerts, morphing into “Slam” pits, so maybe this is the next evolution. Or maybe I just expect a lot worse then I got. Still, it was a good pit. Sabin got his nose bashed in, and I got pummeled in the lip causing quite a bit of blood to gush out. And that was what we both considered a mild pit.

Ministry played a lot from both the Last Sucker, which I’ve only listened to a bit, and Rio Grande. It was incredible. An absolute great show. When they came on for the second set, playing some of the more classics like So What, and Theives and Liars, the lead from Fear Factory Burton Bell, handled the vocals.

Al picked up the guitar and did backup vocals instead. Weird at first, but Burton did awesome. The guy can rock, obviously from any Fear Factory album, and fit right in with Ministry. He knew the songs real well and looked as if he had always played with Ministry.

The final set they did songs off their April 1^st album,

Cover UP, all covers of classics, but done in the Ministry style. The thing that I love the most, when a band covers a song but does it in their own style, their own flavor

When they ended the last set, the longest band swag give out I’ve ever seen went on for a good 10 minutes. They where chucking everything, pics, sticks, set lists, whatever swag they had lying around out to the crowds. While it’s not unusual to have the drummer toss a stick or two, or the guitarists to chuck their pics, they where chucking everything they had that was small and tossible. And it went on and on, they just kept throwing them.

I got a quick snap of the stage and the Mic stand,

we left and it was awesome. If they ever come again, I will not have any second thoughts about seeing them a third time. This show restored everything that I loved about the band, and was nostalgic in remembering what it was like when I first discovered Minsitry.

I’ll post a link to a video gallery in a bit as well.