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Live Reviews

Ministry – Live

Ministry – Live
Forum – London
Wednesday 2nd August 2006

The Forum – London
Wednesday, 2nd August 2006

The venue is packed to the gills, and as I stand at the bar after waiting in 3-deep rows of tattoos my cold pint is poured in front of me and then as it floated towards my hands from the barman, a charge from a rampant fan steals the beer and legs it into the crowd! Welcome to a Ministry gig!

The last time I saw this band I was at the Brixton Academy 14 years ago tripping out of my head on acid and holding onto my best mate for cover, it was a proper kickin’ like never before! Tonight will be no different (but minus the LSD) and i’m glad to see that the the visual element to their live sets has not disappeared; fresh political content by the reel is lined up delivering some home truths: WAR, TERROR, RELIGION, AND DEATH….

Al Jourgensen is a master at providing Ministry with as much ammo as he can muster up, and these days Joey Jordison smashes the drums from Slipknot, Paul Raven drives the bass, from Killing Joke, and Tommy Victor cranks out the vicious guitar whose career includes the mighty Prong and Danzig. This collection of established heads could have been a nightmare to some but it seems as though Jourgensen has built the finest army to launch tonight’s aural assault.

Kicking off with ‘Fear (Is Big Business)’ the atmosphere is as big as the expectation and the juggernaut begins to roll, pushing out new tracks from their latest album ‘Rio Grande Blood‘ merging them with well known numbers as the crushing ‘N.W.O.‘ and the incendiary device that is ‘Thieves‘ (one of the best Ministry songs ever written?) – and how fitting that George Bush’ punchable face is plastered all over the screens mixed with DESTRUCTION, RIOTING and CORRUPTION as ‘Lies Lies Lies‘ blasts out of the speakers that are barely dealing to cope with such a forceful array of sinus splitting outbursts of razor sharp beats and noise.

Corrupt American bureaucrats and mindless patriotism fuel the projected charge of ‘Rio Grande Blood‘, it oozes into your brain cells like liquid napalm amongst the ghostly shouting voice of Jello Biafra that can be heard throughout ‘Ass Clown‘ from the new record, but you can’t beat the classics from Psalm 69, thankfully Jourgensen recognizes this but decides to leave out party track ‘Jesus Built My Hotrod‘ as we wait to the end of the set through the encore.

Ministry revisited the UK in style forcing a burning torpedo through ear canals across London…it’s just a shame this show could not be shown on BBC1 at 9.30pm so that they could plant the fact that political hypocrisy, greed and inhumane behaviour is about to finally kill our entire planet as countries turn on each other and others fuel bloody battles.

Two things to remember today kids, Ministry fucking rock and Bush is another word for Cunt.

Chuck Bangers