MINISTRY
April 11th 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.