Words by Gordon Lamb and photographs by Mike White
Before we even got within 20 miles of The Eastern, I looked over from the passenger seat and told Mike White, whose photos are all around these words, “You know, there’s just one too many bands on this bill.”
And, yeah, I meant Düsseldorf’s Die Krupps. Although, ironically, it is the most authentically “industrial” band on this whole bill by virtue of its 1981 debut album, Stahlwerksynfonie, this night it was all Industrial TM, or rather, its kinder, gentler cousin—and oddly, its predecessor—electronic body music. But the group threw in dashes of metal, too, as it’s wont to do, and dutifully plowed through its popular numbers “Nazis auf Speed,” “Robo Sapien,” “Metal Machine Music,” “Fatherland” and a few others. I dunno, there’s just something corny about both them and their stage presence. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but by the time Die Krupps finished, my assessment of it being the third wheel was correct. No, the band wasn’t exactly “bad,” but unnecessary. Ultimately Die Krupps being on this bill could be summed up by the sentiment, “On the one hand who cares, and on the other hand who gives a shit?”
Nitzer Ebb at first seemed to be hobbled by a third with vocalist Douglas McCarthy absent and the band appearing as a duo of David Gooday and Bon Harris. Since this was my very first time getting to see them in any configuration, I didn’t notice anything amiss and the songs certainly didn’t suffer. Although, as a duo the stage kind of dwarfed them, and as a band it hasn’t released any new music in well over a decade, they still knew their task and pumped out a solid, short set of recognizable and anticipated tracks. The whole mood of the night was “play the hits” so, indeed, they did. From opening song “Control I’m Here” (1989) to reaching back to ‘87 for “Join In The Chant,” Nitzer Ebb is the only larger band in recent memory that I’d really have preferred seeing in a much smaller room.
Now, this was Ministry’s night. Last September I found the band a little hoary, lethargic and trying too hard. This night, one of the dates on its “Squirrelly Years” tour, was the band playing only songs from its long-ignored first two albums, the synth-pop With Sympathy (1983) and the slightly more aggressive Twitch (1986). It had revealed this set of songs back in 2023 and, well, hell froze over a little. The idea that, as he’s colloquially called, “Uncle” Al Jourgensen would ever deign to play anything from With Sympathy, an album he’s routinely denigrated and tried to ignore for decades, was previously a pipe dream. And he’s not playing fast and loose, either. Ministry is playing the exact same songs, in the exact same order, for every show. It’s as if Al said, “OK, I’ve made my peace with these songs and these songs only. So that’s all you’re gonna get!”
Even so, he was relaxed and even, at times, joyful. He came out in a sequined coat that was kinda goofy but a powerful signifier that this was not the Al Jourgensen he’s spent decades becoming, but the one he spent decades overcoming. Opening with “Work For Love,” the crowd sang along as much as it could and, at times through the whole set, Jourgensen would aim the mic at the crowd for encouragement. Some songs were real curiosities even though the set followed, basically, along with the band’s newest album, The Squirrelly Years Revisited. Still, with well-known songs like “I Wanted To Tell Her” missing, audiences should consider themselves lucky for getting “Revenge,” “Effigy (I’m Not A),” “Just Like You,” and “(Everyday Is) Halloween.”
The anticipated—remember, every show is the same set—encore of Fad Gadget’s “Ricky’s Hand” didn’t disappoint and was also the only thing the band has recently recorded—it covered it on the 2024 album Hopiumforthemasses—that was played this night.
Toward the very end, Jourgensen said, and I’m slightly paraphrasing here, “The memory of this night will be as if it never happened. Because we’re never doing these songs again. But you got to see it, we got to play it, and it was fun.” And it was. It was the Ministry I’d always wanted to see but never thought I would and, now, never will again.
Die Krupps
Nitzer Ebb
Ministry
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