Al Faiths Ministry

Sometime in 1989, I was listening to 91.3 FM WBNY, the cool college radio station from my hometown that transmitted in mono, when I heard a promo for one of the student DJ’d shows.  “Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-neee, Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-neee” voices mimicked snyth/ guitar sounds and the DJ, taking up a robot like voice, began doing a promo for his hour (or two) long radio show.  I didn’t know it at the time, but this, technically, was my first introduction to Ministry, and their song “Stigmata.”

A few weeks later, when I actually heard The Land of Rape and Honey, I was blown away, plus hearing THE ACTUAL version of Stigmata gave me a little chuckle; but after the song “Golden Dawn,” interest in the album waned, as I was much more Slayer than I was Depeche Mode, or whatever electronic stuff, at the time. Thankfully, that was pretty much side one of the cassette, my preferred format at the time. When the album A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste came out in 1989, there wasn’t a single person I hung out with that didn’t absolutely love it. Hell, I even had a Chain of Strength show on video where my friend Ryan is wearing a “Taste” shirt. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, loved that record. Ministry shirts were abound, though I’m pretty sure most were bootlegs.  I loved playing the riff to “Burning Inside” on my guitar and dreamt of having a band that punks, metallers and hardcores alike all dug- how could anyone write a record so loved? I never cracked that code, but Ministry did it again with their next release.

My old roomate wearing a Ministry shirt, early 90's

Around Thanksgiving 1991, I had saved up enough money to buy my first CD player, which, at the time, were incredibly expensive.  CDs, also, were pretty expensive, but CD singles were generally under $10. The first two CDs I ever bought were NIN “Head like a Hole” and Ministry’s “Jesus Built My Hotrod.” A year later, Psalm 69 came out a pushed Ministry into the stratosphere garnering a platinum certification and mainstream attention, thanks to an appearance of videos for the songs “N.W.O. and “Just One Fix” on Beavis and Butthead.

Shortly after, I was pretty much only listening to (and buying) new Death Metal and Hardcore records; records by bands outside that realm just didn’t register. I’ll tell you though, I never stopped listening to In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up- all the heavy hitters from Land and Taste featured live- but not really sounding live, and maybe it really isn’t, but top shelf from start to finish- and features Jello Biafra and the guy from Rigor Mortis in the home video release- so cool.

In 2005, Dead Hearts played a REALLY weird show with Rigor Mortis on tour in Atlanta, and I had every intention of asking Mike Scaccia about Ministry and The Revolting Cocks, but with the vibe being very much theirs and 0% ours, I figured punishing the guy with a million questions about Al Jourgensen was probably a bad call, so I refrained.  Now that he’s passed, I kind of wish I had, but at least those guys were chill when we did briefly chat.

Ephemera from the collection of the author

In the past 5-6 years, I’ve found myself listening to more and more Ministry. I think collectively, people are becoming more interested in industrial music again, with the Industrial Accidents documentary and with the overall “buzz” I see online, I think the genre is having mini-resurgence.  When I saw that the aforementioned doc about Wax Trax records was screening in SF and that tickets were available for free on record store day with purchase of the sound track, I tried my best to get to the city to get a pair, but failed, as I live north of the city and traffic was GARBAGE all the way down. I then forged a plan, and emailed Ministry’s PR direct. After a couple emails I got to the right person and the following was in my inbox, “Hi Jeremy, thanks for reaching out! I currently have you on the guaranteed entry list - do you need a +1 or a photo pass?” and with that, I was in!

 The movie was informative, I liked that it was more a story about the owners of Wax Trax than the bands on the label, per se, though the bands were featured prominently. There were some really tear jerker moments, considering both owners passed away from AIDS- related complications. After a Q&A where Jello Biafara (go figure) talked for too long, we were lead out of the venue to line up for the show. After coming back in, Cold Cave played a set, but really lost me after 3 songs- it’s not that it was bad, it just became terribly uninteresting and once they lost me, they were never able to get me back. A guy standing behind me expressed the same to his friends after their set concluded.  Then the evening’s real treat took the stage- Ministry performing an all “Wax Trax Era” set, exclusive to these screenings.

Jello joins the band on stage for The Land Of Rape and Honey, much like the "In Case You..." VHS

From the onset, my friend Mat (my plus one) and I could tell this was going to be a set for the history books- Al was clearly in a good mood and the band sounded better than any expectations held. The Missing/ Deity/ Stigmata/ Jesus Built My Hotrod/ Just One Fix/ N.W.O./ Burning Inside/ Thieves/ So What/ No Devotion/ Supernaut/ The Land of Rape and Honey/  (Everyday Is) Halloween. I mean, look at that setlist- Incredible. I cannot stress how good of a performance it was, and I don’t throw this around lightly, after seeing thousands of bands and thousands of shows in my 30 years of attending gigs and touring, it was undoubtedly a top ten showing.