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11/19/20

MINISTRY EVIL DOER TOUR {Sept 19, 2004 SLC}




Last night MINISTRY beat the living hell into all of us. 
 The line outside of Xscape was so long that I missed openers My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.
That was the 1st time I ever saw MINISTRY live and boy, was it ever worth it. 
 The pits were so much fun that after a few songs I couldn't just stand there looking on, 
so I went back to the coat check and got rid of my cellphone, keys, wallet, & glasses. 
 Then I went back and had the best time slam dancing w/everyone on the floor. 

  MINISTRY was relentless, the new stuff was just exactly what you'd expect 
or want from them, and the old stuff sounded better than ever live and in our face. 
 I feel reborn. One of the more surreal aspects of the evening was when I 1st arrived @Xscape, 
the line that went around the block passed by these gathered militant Jerks for Jesus, 
holding up all manner of banners printed w/legends about burning in lakes of fire, etc, 
and there were a slew of cops standing around laughing their asses off, 
and it wasn't long before it became evident, amidst the screams and sarcastic hollers of "Jesus Saves!" from the line of goths & MINISTRY fans, that these militant Christians were actually from Pennsylvania and were picketing against the Mormons! 
  It made the whole scene all the more hilarious. 
 To know these jerks were protesting the Mormons and not MINISTRY!  

  Once inside the venue, the really surreal part began. Halfway through MINISTRY's set 
when their video camera crew was on the ball enough to go out and film the Jesus Jerks 
picketing outside amidst the gathered crowd of losers who couldn't get into the sold-out show. 
 There was one militant-for-Jesus Jerk in particular that they focused the lens of their videocam on, and whose familiar face was blown up onto the backdrop screen behind the stage inside the show amidst all this superimposed rapid-fire imagery of War, Death, & Civil Destruction while MINISTRY cranked out one of their industrial anti-gospel parodies. That was one of the high points of the show, it was just wicked seeing the real-time, live picketing going on outside w/ their protest signs featuring badly spelled messages about sinners being purged in the flames of Hell.
 
    All the while MINISTRY cranked out their merciless industrial assault for us. 
 It was like suddenly the lines separating music videos from reality / 
moshing sinners dressed in black / from camo-wearin Jesus Jerks / 
and MINISTRY themselves / from all the rest of us attending the show, 
were completely erased in one legendary frenzied performance that brought everyone together 
somehow in a cathartic exorcism of all the madness consuming the planet today.



Our savior Al Jourgensen conjuring ritual sonic magick to dispel evil spirits gathered outside.


~this review was Rescued from the Archives today when Thornswrath received an email from Yahoo stating I had until January to log in if I wanted to keep that old account going. Good thing I did, because inside I found a treasure trove of saved documents, including this one which I'd assumed had been lost forever to the ravages of time. This was definitely one of the best concerts I ever went to.