A Message From The Old Folks Home...

This started off as a letter to Mark Mohtashemi and then evolved into the following blog blog blog blog blog entry:

If 2004 is looked upon as anything, its a year where the people you least expect to make an impact on you turn around and bitchslap you and say YES FUCKER I AM STILL HERE. The Duran's have done this, the Manics (album of the year, more on that soon) have done this, and Die Warzau has done this. However, if anyone is the Boston Red Sox of music, it has to be my dear old idol Al Jourgensen. Minus his brilliant partner Paul Barker, Al came back this year and delivered a decent album that seemed like a remake of THE MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO TASTE, but we could forgive him for that because he didn't go and remake DARK SIDE OF THE SPOON. In interviews, he seemed very witty and charming and things that we all USED to love him for seemed to be creeping back. Notwithstanding his zombie like cameo at the Skinny Puppy show here a few months back, Al seemed to be "back". This being an election year is never a bad thing for the very political Grandpa Al.

But the first big let down came when the eventual Puppy/Ministry tour didn't happen (for reasons still unknown) and paying 40 dollars twice to see each band as opposed to seeing them together seemed suddenly very ugly (I think I'll be mixing HF tunes when puppy comes back to town). Thus when tickets went onsale for the Ministry show (now with special guests Thrill Kill Kult, which would have knocked me on my ass 12 years ago), I didn't exactly rush to ticketmaster like I did for Kasabian.

However, without my prior knowledge, a directive from Mattagement saw that I would have a ticket for Ministry at easily the WORST venue ever, BB King's. I wouldnt exactly say I was excited. However, I'm in town, Grandpa Al was in town, and there was some vague unexplainable phone tag with Mr. Levi Levi (who I have not spoken to ever except once in a dressing room at the Vic in Chicago some years ago, but regardless blame Jared), so Brandt and I reluctantly set out to see this show.

We arrived to find a very tired looking Thrill Kill Kult playing SEX ON WHEELS. It's still the same formula they have been playing since God knows when. Frankie looked good, but did very little and Marsdon looks like Marsdon, which was cool 15 years ago, but now seems run of the mill gay S&M. LEVI looked like he was having fun, however I didn't care for their backup singer, who I initially thought was pregnant. I feel bad about that. ANYHOW, I think at another venue with a pro-TKK audience this could have been very good as their "oldies" still sounded very fresh.

The wait time was short, thankfully and Ministry finally took to the stage alongside a guy dressed in a suit and cartoony George W. Bush mask. Al then came out and fake beat the shit out of this W impersonator and pretended to ass rape him (which is huge points). Anyway, when Al came out, I was very happily surprised by what I saw. Gone was the near death Jim Morrisson wanna be Al of the Dark Side tour and gone was the bloated and seemingly lost Brando Al of last year's tour. Replacing those charicatures was an extremely healthy and energetic and sharp Al that I have a feeling has been missing for the last 20 or so years. I was shocked. Though a tad too heavy metal looking, his band of young musicians were really tight and really into it. I was impressed.

My only complaint was the setlist which was like the whole new album first (which sounded much better live) and then the "hits". However, its the same hits from the last 3 tours, NWO, HERO, SO WHAT, etc. if anything, he should be preserving his legacy by bringing back older songs like FLASHBACK and BREATHE and side project material like NO DEVOTION and NO BUNNY. He used to do this quite a bit and it made things very interesting. With the recent controversial reissues of the Luxa/Pan material on Ryko (which Brandt, the expert on these things, will destroy I'm sure in an upcoming blog entry), Al should be supporting that as well. Anyway, Al was a ball of energy the whole time, a great frontman who was very appreciative of the crowd and looks very appreciative of the position he's in. He was very inspiring and a there were a few moments where I was wondering where my cowboy hat was and words like "aggression" and "reunion" came to mind (though quickly left when I was back on 42nd street, thankfully). Anyhow...they ended with a ROARING version of HOTROD, and left the crowd very happy (I had actually seen the first time that song was ever played a few years back and it was a fucking disaster).

I bet you 10 bucks, despite being Anti-Bush al secretly prays for a Republican victory next month so he as 4 more years of shit to rail against. Al does his best work when the Republicans are in office! However, if the Democrats win (hopefully) he should bring back the Revolting Cocks (but only with the old gang, not these new kids).

Oh and Levi and I never met up. Next time though, for sure...

Grandpa F