Ministry hit Portland, Oregon on March 1st, 2024, the release date for the band’s latest offering ‘HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES’ released via Nuclear Blast. Al Jourgensen spent last summer supporting Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper alongside Filter. It was a successful run, so much so that they’ll be doing it again later this year, but I’m getting ahead of myself, Ministry has some headlining shows and this one at Portland’s Roseland Theater has been sold out for months. In support was Front Line Assembly and Gary Numan.
Front Line Assembly kicked things off, they took the stage and tore through their 35-minute allotment, which went incredibly fast. Featured prominently were their hits “Mindphaser” and “Millennium,” which closed out their set.
Up next was Gary Numan who hit the stage and went through tune after tune in his set seamlessly, without saying so much as a word until the end of the set when he thanked the audience graciously and exchanged pleasantries with the crowd. His band was tight and precise, and he looked to be ageless, sounded fantastic and still in top form. He balanced out his set nicely, making for a great retrospective of his work, he added “Cars” and “Metal” from his breakthrough album ‘Pleasure Principle,’ which pleased diehards and casuals alike.
There was a brief intermission after Numan left the stage and Al Jourgensen appeared with his band of freeway bandits. The band consists of Cesar Soto & Monte Pittman on guitars, Paul D’Amour on bass, John Bechdel on keyboard/synths, and the mighty Roy Mayorga on drums, this has stayed consistent in the past couple tours…you can hear it in the way that they are dialed in with one another. There is a chemistry and charisma that you hear from song one of the set. Al Jourgensen seems to be channeling himself from the 90s wearing the ‘gothic’ cowboy hat and black western attire. Al Jourgensen and Co are doing something that is unheard of currently, they are performing 7 new tunes in the set! Not only are they performing the 7 tunes, but they hit you with them on the front end! ‘HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES’ was just released earlier that day, and most haven’t had much time to check out the album in its entirety.
While there were some that perhaps weren’t familiar with “B.D.E.” and “Just Stop Oil” and afterward wandered to grab another drink or check out the merch table, most of the audience soaked up every single note and lyric. Ministry always have great visuals, this time it was a little scaled down, we had the screens playing footage in the background of ‘hot button’ topics. The standout of the new material on ‘HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES’ is “Goddamn White Trash.” The others could become favorites, but I think that by the time Ministry hit the road again with Cooper and Zombie “Goddamn White Trash” will be the sole representation from ‘HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES’ it’s just that damn good. I’d love to ask Al about “Stop Oil” because he was riding in a fuel powered tour bus and I also picked up the ‘HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES’ that night which last I check it oil based?! Wrapping up the ‘HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES’ songs of the set was “Broken System” which was a great transition into the hits. Ministry ended things on a high note with hit after hit that started with “N.W.O.” followed by Portland’s theme song “Just One Fix” followed by “Stigmata,” “Thieves” and “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” before the left the stage and surfaced again for their encore featuring” Burning Inside” and a cover of Magazine’s “The Light Pours Out of Me.” All in all a good show, good on Al and Ministry for taking the gamble on performing seven new tunes in the set and sacrificing material from ‘Houses of Mole,’ ‘Rio Grande Blood’ and ‘The Last Sucker.’ Material from those albums was sorely missed.