Ministry performing during the Moral Hygiene at Emo's Austin in Austin, Texas on May 26, 2023, with John Bechdel, Monte Pittman, Al Jourgensen, Roy Mayorga, Paul D’Amour, and Cesar Soto. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)
Ministry has been the lifetime passion project of founder Al Jourgensen, considered to be the pioneer of industrial music. In its early days, Ministry was identifiable by its heavy synth-pop material in line with the new sounds and technology that were being developed in the ‘80s. Ministry’s output began with four 12” singles on Wax Trax!
Records in 1981 before the first LP With Sympathy in 1983 via Arista Records. As time progressed however, so did Ministry, quickly developing a harsher, and more stylized sound that the band soon became infamous for on seminal albums Twitch (1986), The Land of Rape and Honey (1988), and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste (1989). With the release of Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and The Way to Suck Eggs (1992), Ministry hit an all-time high in the mainstream musical realm and received its first Grammy nomination.
In total, Ministry has been nominated for a Grammy award six times. Eight more albums would follow before an indefinite break in 2013, only to be unearthed again in 2018 with AmeriKKKant, continuing to reflect Jourgensen’s views on the frightening state of society and politics. Ministry continues touring and recording with the brand-new 15th studio album Moral Hygiene.
Ministry process why they are the kings of industrial metal. They were amazing live. Front Line Assembly was also fantastic. I just wished their set was longer than the 30 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised by Gary Neumann. I was not familiar with much of his stuff. He put on a great performance.Setlist for the show at Emo's Austin
I took my youngest son, 19 years old, to the show. I wasn’t that familiar with Front Line Assembly. They put on a great show. Great sound! Fun to watch. Gary Numan blew me away. He sounded amazing, looked amazing and had this amazing stage presence and energy. Fantastic! Oh and Ministry! Absolutely full throttle the entire show! Great background images to go along with the music! Three great performance by all three bands! I would absolutely go see if again if I had the chance!
They played great and played all the hits, the opening show was Gary Numan was just a great.
High energy, starting with Front Line Assembly, they were really good for a very young local band. Gary Neumann is an old favorite from the 80's and I heard stuff that seemed to have new life, his whole team was on point. Ministry has been an industrial icon that I never got to see until now. They were driven and I could not keep still. There is a reason our generation had the strongest necks! The couple of things that stood out was the lighting was blinding to the audience, I would really like to see the show without spots in front of my eyes. The other is the insistence that the bands insist on wearing black with black backdrops. Can't see them or they look like they have floating heads. Not enough spot lights.
What a great show! Front row the whole time. Overall the venue is a great space for concerts. Lots of room, crowd was not shove-y (until So What, but that's to be expected!). All three bands still got it! I hope they can all tour for many years to come!
- Alert Level
- Good Trouble
- Disinformation
- Search and Destroy
- Believe Me
- Broken System
- Goddamn White Trash
- N.W.O.
- Just One Fix
- The Missing
- Deity
- Stigmata
- Thieves
- So What
Ministry was the main act at the Emo's Austin with guests Gary Numan and Front Line Assembly. They continue across the United States with the last stop at the Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre in Phoenix, Arizona on September 24, 2023.
Ministry
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Photos by Ralph Arvesen
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