MINISTRY & PYTHIA
LONDON FORUM 27/05/08
Let’s face it a support band opening for the mighty Ministry is pretty much irrelevant as far as the group’s fan-base is concerned (unless you are Raging Speedhorn perhaps and the bottles start flying toward the stage). This was my first encounter with Pythia and although a somewhat strange choice having a female fronted Gothic metal band opening, they certainly held their ground to those that had come in early to watch them. Featuring members of Descent in their ranks, musically they were in a different ballpark although the forceful nature of the group did come across in the thrash laden instrumental workout that ploughed out the speakers. The Forum has recently upgraded its sound system and boy could you appreciate it here, without losing myself in the technicalities of this all I can do is put things in layman’s terms and tell you the sound was ‘shit hot’.
As far as Pythia were concerned all eyes were no doubt on the rather lovely singer Emily Alice (of both Mediaeval Baebes, Celtic Legend) dressed in stripes bows and ribbons as her vocals literally hit the rafters. This was only the bands second gig, their first was supporting Tarja so talk about being thrust into the limelight. Numbers such as ‘My Pale Prince’ went beyond twee female fronted operatic crooning due to the instrumental bombast. The classical trained vocals may have Within Temptation being cited but one can never imaging Sharon den Adel declaring that one number was about an ex boyfriend who was a “right cunt”! A song possibly called ‘Army Of The Damned’ romped along with a bodice ripping heaviosity and Pythia, proved that they are a band I have a feeling we are going to be hearing plenty about in the future.
I should explain that getting in to the show tonight was a mission and many thanks to those that made it possible. Photo passes were gold dust and only five were issued so I was surreptitiously snapping from the audience. Ministry were playing on this their last C U LaTour shows from behind a fenced off mesh reminiscent of the In Case You Didn’t Feel Like turning Up shows and were also on strobe overload so the Alien was well buried from shooting range.
Considering this was it allegedly, we did not get a crowd pleasing set from Ministry, certainly no greatest hits package going on here. I guess we can blame Dubya for this and the bulk of the set was culled from The George W years material and the stuff that Al has proclaimed will be the last; once the idiot is replaced his job is done (although we can but wait till the next idiot is elected). Jigged about to RevCo’s ‘I’m Not Gay’ the band steamed on and Al grabbed his devilish stand as they romped into things with the very apt ‘Let’s Go’.
Thankfully band members did loom out the gap in the mesh on the right hand of the stage where I was going deaf next to the speakers, Tommy Victor, Sin Quirin and bearded monolith Tony Campos all obliging a few photo opps. The jack hammering of the instrumentation was literally insane and against the visual backdrop of riots and nuclear explosions we were in a whole world of sensory overload. To say this was heavier than a very large and already blown up brick shithouse would be one hell of an understatement. The clown responsible for this vitriolic frenzied onslaught could be clearly heard sampled for posterity, ‘The Great Satan’ thankfully not quite destroyer of worlds but all so nearly. The relevance of numbers such as ‘The Last Sucker’ is not being questioned in the slightest but by now we were hungering for some old songs. The O Fortuna whiplash behind ‘No W’ summoned us into the ‘Houses Of The Mole’ era and they sure played a rapid slew of numbers from it. Waiting was the highlight it seemed and it really made the pit seethe, mind you it hardly calmed down by ‘Wrong’ which had everyone seemingly bellowing along on the chorus.
Sticking to the recent we were next off to ‘Rio Grande Blood’ material and emphasis was still very much on that certain asshole (how the FBI have not shot Al is beyond me). This was akin to mainlining angel dust a packed one fuck of a powerful punch. I have to admit I was surprised that they carried on up the ‘Khyber Pass’ sure it sounded good, simmering and twisting like a snake uncurling but let’s face it ‘Scarecrow’ or ‘The Fall’ would have been so much more welcome.
After a break and a 10.30 they came back for some of those much hungered for greatest fits, we instantly recognised the scything fuckattack of ‘So What’ and raised hell as the projector fired out fractals to match the speed of this nihilistic hate anthem. This was what we wanted and the first 75 minutes of the show was somewhat redundant. Following up with N.W.O. we were sucker-punched right between the eyes and bodies tumbled in its wake. No surprise that Al managed to drop in that this was one about the first Bush! ‘Just On Fix’ had William S beaming beatifically from the screen and then ‘Thieves’ delivered a strobetastic overload that saw Ministry at their best and in my opinion illustrated material that live, simply cannot be bettered!
Coming back again I was guessing what would be next and as far as I was concerned the final encore and the final song possibly London would ever witness from Ministry simply HAD to be ‘Stigmata’. What a disappointment, we got some covers from their new ‘Cover Up’ album. This was the first time I had actually heard them rattle Jim Morrison’s corpse and ‘Roadhouse Blues’ rocked but the final ‘What A Wonderful World’ had me cringing and came across like a Manson/Burton sort of number buttfucked by The Dickies. What an awful way to bow out.
That aside we can but keep our fingers crossed to catch a proper greatest hits tour in our twilight years; if Al can make the party I am sure I can in my 50s’ and I have not dismissed the idea of trying to catch them somewhere in Europe. Until then cheers Ministry it has been a fucking blast.
Pete Woods
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