Rialto Theater,
5th April 2024

Can’t argue with a line-up like that. Three icons of the electronic music scene, with over a century of experience between them? Even though, oddly, the tour’s only stop in Arizona was the second city of Tucson, it was an easy choice to make for a road-trip. Front row balcony tickets secured – we are at the age where sitting down is now preferred, especially when there’s a full night of concert to attend – we headed down the I-10, for our first Tucson trip since OMD in 2019. The world was literally different then, and so were we. But what about this trio of industrial giants, all now eligible for AARP membership?

Front Line Assembly

• Debut: 1986
• Lead singer age: 57

The relative kids on the tour, though singer Leeb performed as a teenager with Skinny Puppy, another industrial icon, before founding FLA with Rhys Fulber. They’ve released seventeen studio albums, with 1992’s Tactical Neural Implant generally regarded as the best. That title gives a good idea of the attitude here: military-industrial cyberpunk. Previous live performances have not been without their share of controversy. At the 2002 Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival, they tried to use a stand-in for Leeb, the infamous “Soy Leeb”. It didn’t go unnoticed, though brings to life the title of Ministry’s live album, In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up.

No such issues on this occasion, the genuine article being present, along with Fulber on keyboards, plus a drummer and a guitarist. I’d have happily watched a full show, but they were limited to forty minutes here, which meant just eight songs (they tend to be long). On the plus side, this meant “all killer, no filler”, with what was effectively a greatest hits package. Mindphaser was probably the best of the best: for me. It’s up there alongside the likes of Headhunter or Du Hast as an industrial anthem. Great video too, using footage from Gunhed.

Setlist

• I.E.D.
• Vigilante
• Neologic Spasm
• Plasticity
• Deadened
• Killing Grounds
• Mindphaser
• Millennium

Gary Numan

• Debut: 1979
• Lead singer age: 66

Virtually the first comment on my FB post about the show was, “Is his friend still electric?” Almost 45 years and twenty-one solo studio albums later, you could make a case Numan’s career peaked with that song, though in the US, Cars is much better known. That made it into the set here, while Are ‘Friends’ Electric? did not, despite appearing on ten (!) live albums by Numan. I’d never actually seen him in concert before. Nor did I own any Numan CDs. My main exposure to his music of late had been a local tribute band, the wittily-named Numan League, but they play almost all early stuff.

So, despite a hurried playlist on the way to Tucson, I only recognized three of the dozen songs: vintage ones Cars and Metal, plus the relatively recent My Name is Ruin, which I’ve heard played by several Twitch DJs. The two decades after The Pleasure Principle were entirely absent – perhaps skewing toward the more guitar driven recent tone, given their tour partners. But it did feel as if the sound in the performance felt muddied. Numan and his band were likely as loud as Ministry, but they sounded considerably crisper, with the individual instruments standing out more. Numan felt more like a wall of sound. Not being familiar with the originals, it’s hard to tell, but I got the sense the songs might fare better in the studio versions.

I don’t think Gary even acknowledged the crowd once during the entire set, not even a token “Hello, Tucson”. Not having seen him before, I can’t say if this was normal, but it wouldn’t surprise me. There’s always a sense of alienation and disconnection about his music, which would fit a distant on-stage persona. But I can’t criticize the level of energy he displayed, and despite the mix, the songs interested me enough to consider digging into his back catalogue. A good number sounded like they would fit onto the soundtrack to Furiosa, possessing a grimy, post-apocalyptic feel to them. I hope his friends can now run on solar power, because I think the grid might be down…

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

Ministry

• Debut: 1981
• Lead singer age: 65

I first heard Ministry when Stigmata appeared on the soundtrack to Hardware in 1990. They’d already been going for close to a decade, beginning as a synth-pop boy band, a phase lead singer Al Jourgensen now detests (though some fans miss it, using the tongue in cheek slogan, “Make Ministry Synth-pop Again”). They might be the heaviest band I like, though their output since the Psalm 69 LP has been hit-or-miss for me (their cover version collection, Cover Up, is great). I’m just impressed Jourgensen is still going. He’s basically the industrial version of Keith Richards: particularly famed for his heavy drug use, including crack, methadone and 20 years of heroin.

But in 1995 his recording studio was also raided by federal agents, and Ministry have had more farewells than Elton John – their first “last album” was seventeen years ago He has frequently been kinda political, and that’s a factor in my inconsistent reaction. Did we really need three albums telling us George Bush is bad? Listening to the latest release, Hopiumforthemasses, large chunks feel like being yelled at by an angry old hippie. Memo: I’m probably not going to take political advice like “Just Stop Oil” from someone who was clinically dead on three occasions (two overdoses and a burst ulcer), had all three forms of hepatitis, lost a toe after stepping on a broken syringe, and almost lost an arm due to a spider bite. “Just One Fix” on the other hand? You have my attention, and I will defer to your experience.

However, in contrast to Gary Numan, I felt the new songs sounded better live than on the album. The band were tightly crisp and the mix powerful: volume-wise no more decibels than Numan, but it felt like the difference between “spicy” and “hot”. Ministry had flavour, rather than just being loud. And to his credit, Al knew the new songs were not why the show had been the first on the tour to sell out. He front-loaded those, then thanked us for not throwing bottles at the band during them, before getting into what he called the “doggy treat” section of the set. This focused on the Psalm 69 era, and really: you can’t go wrong there.

After initially chastening the crowd for being a bit quiet, by the end of Thieves, Jourgensen expressed pleasure at the enthusiastic mosh-pitting (which thoroughly amused Chris). Really, Uncle Al seemed remarkably chill: the face piercings which characterized his appearance for the previous decade gone, and a genuine sense that he seemed happy to be here, even if it was the final show on the tour. Jesus Built My Hotrod – another sharp contrast to Just Stop Oil – barnstormed its way to a blistering end of the main set, before a three-song encore, finishing off in, of all things, a cover of Fad Gadget’s Ricky’s Hand. But as noted, Ministry’s demolition jobs of other people’s songs are equalled only by Devo and Laibach in my opinion.

This probably won’t be the final Ministry tour. But Jourgensen does appear to be working on an exit strategy, planning one more new album, reuniting with Paul Barker, and also intends to rework their debut, With Sympathy. Though I imagine those forty-year old songs will sound just a tad different, perhaps Al’s career will end with Ministry being made synth-pop again. I might just pay to see that…

Setlist

• B.D.E.
• Just Stop Oil
• Goddamn White Trash
• Alert Level
• Broken System
• N.W.O.
• Just One Fix
• The Missing
• Deity
• Stigmata
• Thieves
• Jesus Built My Hotrod
  Encore
• Burning Inside
• So What
• Ricky’s Hand