{"id":6952,"date":"2024-03-16T11:26:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T16:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=6952"},"modified":"2024-03-16T15:15:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T20:15:32","slug":"tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=6952","title":{"rendered":"MINISTRY The Aragon Theater Chicago IL 3\/14\/2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
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review by Alex Zander<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 5PM I would leave my home office and head directly to the Aragon Ballroom for the 2024 North American MINISTRY Tour With GARY NUMAN And FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, and the line had already formed. The temperature had dropped significantly from the days before and I was not Eagle Scout prepared. I popped into the Uptown Lounge to warm up as the line would shrink. I then entered the massive venue and began connecting with old and new friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7:00 PM Front Line Assembly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8:00 PM Gary Numan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9:30 PM Ministry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a brief set from Industrial music legends Front Line Assembly and as the Aragon began to fill with bodies Gary Numan and his band (same lineup as\u00a0\u00a0at the\u00a0Park West, show March 21, 2022). As a pioneer in electronic pop music they delivered a full set of material spanning\u00a0his near 5 decades career that\u00a0was not only groundbreaking once upon a time but served as inspiration\u00a0for countless acts to follow. We’ve covered Numan and his tours since\u00a0 around 2001 and his set becomes\u00a0better with each outing and he’s comfortable up there in front of a legion of adoring fans. One has to ponder\u00a0where music\u00a0would have been in the\u00a080’s if not for his impact\u00a0and a resurgence that followed with the popularity of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson in the\u00a0mid 1990’s.\u00a0The Godfather of electronic pop music continues to record new material and tour now based out of his home on the west coast. You can view a neat little film on Prime titled “Gary Numan: Android in La La Land ” and if you’re hungry for more there is “Gary Numan – Resurrection”. A 2022 feature length documentary charting the life of synth-pop pioneer Gary Numan and his emotional return performance to Wembley Arena some 40 years after his final concert at the venue – for the comeback of a lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GARY NUMAN SETLIST

Everything Comes Down to This

Halo

The Chosen

Metal

Pure

Love Hurt Bleed

Is This World Not Enough

Cars

Haunted

Pray for the Pain You Serve

My Name Is Ruin

A Prayer for the Unborn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


At 930 PM it was time for the main event and…..they were on time. Now I’ve personally been covering all aspects of everything MINISTRY all the way back to my first gig writing for STAGE Magazine in Columbus Ohio in the late 80’s. Touring I’ve covered nearly every MINISTRY Tour since they were on Lollapalooza in 1992 and I’ve witnessed it all when it comes to each and every incarnation of the band live. There have been over the top 100 % loud and great performances and I’ve seen a few that didn’t leave much to report on because I refused to give them a negative review. Sometimes they come on very late, a few times not at all and for the record that never happened at a show that I attended.  They would clearly make up for it on the next visit or not. For the last decade since they have been consistent at delivering spot on shows and this night at the Aragon in their hometown they were tighter than they’ve ever been. It seems like the wine is absent from their leader Al Jourgensen’s diet these days but that hasn’t mellowed in the least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out in support of their latest, the politically fueled “Hopiumforthemasses” on Nuclear Blast Records the six-piece outfit used the entire space of the stage to perform the sixteen song career spanning setlist. This would be the very first time I saw old friend ex Prong\/Madonna guitarist Monte Pittman with the band and he commented that he is very happy in this place. And he’s a natural alongside Cesar Soto who I last saw on the “AmeriKKKant” tour at the Riviera and  a previous performance at The House of Blues and the both players deliver a helluva jackhammering metal plated twin guitar sound that is heavy, steady and very loud. Make no mistake MINISTRY is still all about volume. Always have been. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“CRANK IT!”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With new songs at the start of the show it was natural to go backward and sadly omitting anything from my favorite “Filth Pig”, and jumped right into Psalm 69 singles and earlier material which was embraced enthusiastically by a hometown audience of l old and new fans. Yes, somehow a younger generation has discovered MINISTRY and they were sprinkled about the massive venue as well as the merch booth. “So What”, “Stigmata”, “Burning Inside” and “Thieves” were crowd pleasers and have held up remarkably well over the decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guys would close with not one but two encores and I went home with ringing ears and fell face first into bed. LuckilyI live in the same neighborhood as the venue and since I can’t physically hang out late anymore I was exhausted the entire next day at work. Worth it? Yes, it is always worth the sonic assault of the Industrial Metals Masters known as MINISTRY.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to publicist Selena Fragassi for the accommodations<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n


MINISTRY SETLIST<\/p>\n\n\n\n


B.D.E.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just Stop Oil<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goddamn White Trash<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aryan Embarrassment<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Religion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alert Level<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broken System<\/p>\n\n\n\n

N.W.O.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just One Fix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stigmata<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thieves<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus Built My Hotrod<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encore:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Burning Inside<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encore 2:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The Light Pours Out of Me (Magazine cover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ricky’s Hand (Fad Gadget cover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al Jourgensen \u2013 vocals\/guitar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cesar Soto – guitar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monte Pittman – guitar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul D’Amour – bass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roy Mayorga – drums<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Bechdel – keys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

review by Alex Zander At 5PM I would leave my home office and head directly to the Aragon Ballroom for the 2024 North American MINISTRY Tour With GARY NUMAN And FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, and the line had already formed. The temperature had dropped significantly from the days before and I was not Eagle Scout prepared. I popped into the Uptown… Read More »MINISTRY The Aragon Theater Chicago IL 3\/14\/2024<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6952"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6967,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6952\/revisions\/6967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}