Light, Deaf & Ministry

By: Cora Linos 

I’ve seen Ministry four times now, and have tickets to see them a fifth in Chicago (hometown show for the band) in October. I’ll go see them as many times as I can. There’s nothing quite like the deafening wall of noise that screams at you from the speakers at a Ministry show. The originators and masters of industrial metal, Ministry make music that is an assault on all senses with an underlying groove of addicting hooks that make you want to drive their songs deep in your brain through your earholes until you’re grinning ear to bleeding ear. Or at least that’s how I feel about them. 

My decision to go see Ministry for the fourth time could not have been made more last-second. I am currently working four jobs, and as the date of the show approached, I doubted my ability to maintain the energy needed to survive a Ministry set. Just two nights earlier I’d been in Milwaukee for another concert, and the night before I had worked security for a show in Madison. I had worked from 9am to 3pm for the past 7 days and every night of that week as well. When I got off work at 3pm the Sunday of the Ministry concert, I had yet to buy a ticket, although I had been tracking their prices carefully, my car was in desperate need of gas to make the trek to the Rave/Eagles Club back in Milwaukee, and the 4 hours of sleep I’d gotten was not cutting it. 

But I love Ministry. 

And singer/founder/songwriter/frontman Al Jourgenson had recently announced that they were only doing one more album and tour (although he’s said that before). With Uncle Al now in his 60s and the ticking clock of limited opportunities to see Ministry live taunting me, I bought myself a ticket and promptly conked out for a 2 hour power nap. 

Awake and (somewhat) refreshed, I pounded an energy drink and went to work on my goth-y makeup and ‘fit. An hour later, I was in the Bluesmobile (my Subaru) and on my way to the Rave/Eagles Club, the place where I’d seen Ministry for the very first time all the way back in 2022 (and for the second time in 2023). 

Ministry headlined Sunday night of the Rave/Eagles Club’s Milwaukee Metal Fest, during which the venue uses all of their various halls and spaces to simultaneously host dozens of bands. Imagine all the stages at Lola, now imagine them all in the same building. Multiple levels of metal and mayhem. 

I entered the definitely haunted former home of the Fraternal Order of Eagles (complete with an abandoned swimming pool!) and headed straight up towards the Eagles Ballroom, weaving through vendors offering everything from hot sauce to hot-to-go tattoos of suspicious sanitaryness. 

Upon arriving in the Ballroom, I wove my way through the gaps in the crowd to a spot decently close to the stage while John Bush (celebrating the music of Anthrax) played. While I didn’t recognize any songs, I respectfully headbanged along. As the set drew to a close, I began planning my strategy to get as close to the stage as possible for Ministry. I eyeballed the gaps and looked for weak links (people who had overindulged). The set ended and somewhat of a mass exodus occurred, as most fans had been there since the first act went on that afternoon and it was nearing 10pm. I made my way up to the second row and was pretty happy with my view for having arrived so late, when miraculously, the people on the rail in front of me abdicated their spot. I jumped into action, snagging myself an ideal spot just right of center where I’d be in full view of the stage and not blocked by Al’s theatrical podium of a mic stand. This tour it’s a rock topped by skulls with a skeletal vulture(?) perched atop (see below). I turned to look around and was shocked by how few people were in the large oval room and began growing concerned that we’d have a rather lame crowd for Ministry’s set. Luckily, these fears were unfounded. 

Mere minutes before Ministry took the stage, the Eagles Ballroom suddenly filled as people seemed to spawn in from the various rooms in the venue, as the other bands wrapped their sets in time for the big headliner. 

It was my first time seeing Ministry again after having read Uncle Al’s book, Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen, and I can’t pretend I didn’t look at him a little differently. I can’t *not* recommend that book enough, but if you’re interested in a drug-addled collection of half-truths and horrific stories told with the casualness of a fishing tale, then it’s the book for you. 

The set started with some hard-hitting classics. Al entered the stage wearing a World War I flying ace-type helmet and the band ripped into “Thieves.” The song’s call to “get up, get on your feet” immediately sent the crowd into mosh-mode. One of their most industrial songs, “Thieves” grinds with the sound of machinery before exploding into double time in the chorus. An absolutely killer set opener. They transitioned into “The Missing” and “Deity” off their 1988 sophomore album with matching intensity. 

The 20-second video I got of “Rio Grande Blood” seemed to perfectly capture the evening, as my phone’s mic is shook by a power cord before being absolutely blinded by a flash of stage lights then panning up at I turned to lift a crowd surfer over the barricade to safety before turning back to the band pounding through the hard-hitting track off their 2006 album of the same title. The intense light show flashed F-150 levels of LEDs right into my corneas in sync with the pounding of the music, really making me regret leaving my sunglasses in the car. They then launched into “Lies Lies Lies” off the same album. 

Multiple attempts were made to remove my earplugs for full immersion, but each was met with the reminder of why I purchased them in the first place, and they were quickly shoved back in my throbbing ear canals. 

They broke out one of my favorites that I’d seen them debut back in 2023 when I’d seen them in the same Eagles Ballroom, “Goddamn White Trash,” off 2024’s HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES. The irony of the room being filled with quite a few of the people who the song was written about was not lost on me, just as it was the first time I heard it. It was followed up by another social commentary, “Alert Level,” off Moral Hygiene (2021), featuring samples of Greta Thunberg’s speech to the U.N. on September 23, 2019 and repeatedly asking “how concerned are you?” Ministry has never shied from being overtly political; it’s one of my favorite things about them. 

By this point, the crowd surfers were coming in violent waves, nearly taking out this kid behind me. Noticing a little space on the rail, I scooched over and offered him a slightly safer spot where I could guard him from the flailing feet and falling bodies from above. I only mention this because the next month at Summerfest his mom recognized me and said hi. It’s the community that makes concerts my favorite thing.  

We then transitioned into the “classics” park of the show featuring all the songs you know and love like “Burning Inside,” “Stigmata,” “NWO,” “Just One Fix,” and fan favorite “Jesus Built My Hotrod,” during which the bassist took a comfortable seat on the drum risers–as he should, my knees hurt and I’m sure his did too.  

By the end of the set, my neck hurt from headbanging and keeping my head on a swivel to watch for the relentless waves of crowd surfers. I managed to secure a setlist and gave it to the young fan I had met riding the rail with me. This brave young fan was at Milwaukee Metal Fest ALONE (not saying I’m judging that parenting choice, but…), so I made sure she got something to remember the show by. Not that I left empty-handed, having caught a pick during the set (rather, failed to catch it and had a nice security guard I had been chatting up pick it up for me) and a drumstick which had been tossed my way and I had managed to snag. 

My least favorite part of any concert is when security tells you it’s time to leave, because the fact that it’s over finally sets in. As I finally moved away from the stage with the slowness of a recalcitrant head of cattle, a tech came back on stage, setlist in hand, and motioned me over. I pulled the “who me?” meme (you know the one) and scurried back to the barricade to accept this offering with great gratitude. 

My only complaint on the whole night is that they always leave you wanting more, although Al is 67, so I’ll give him a pass. Please give me an encore; I’m begging you. I guess I’ll have to wait until October in Chicago. 

Hear Ministry and more concert commentary like this, on Moving in Stereo, Mondays 11pm CT, only on WSUM 91.7 FM Madison.