Ministry @ MTelus▪

Tonight feels like one of those “Expectation vs. Reality” reels you see on social media. Having never seen industrial metal titans Ministry before, I expected a show filled with dry ice, leather, and a hefty dose of dirty, churning beats. So when the band arrive on stage in sequined blazers and cowboy hats, it’s a big surprise—it looks more like a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes show!

The reason for the colossal departure from the norm? There’s a clue right there in the Wikipedia description: “Originally a synth-pop outfit, Ministry evolved into one of the pioneers of industrial rock and industrial metal in the late 1980s.” In March, the band released The Squirrely Years Revisited, which contains exclusively re-recorded songs from their synth-pop era, and tonight’s main set draws exclusively from that new record. So visually, the two backing singers in biker leathers at the back of the stage are the only thing that resembles the Ministry show you would normally see.

Still, when frontman Al Jourgensen arrives on stage and asks if we are “ready for some old sh*t,” the roars that answer him suggest that the crowd absolutely is. Al’s vocals are still the same gravelly, distorted sound you recognize, and whether the crowd knew what to expect or not, they lap up every minute of the 70-minute show, setting out their stall with an ear-splitting “WOAH!” every time Al points the mic at them on set opener “Work for Love.”

One metalhead tries to get a pit going on second song “Here We Go”; definitely looks like he didn’t get the synth memo! Still, the blazing light show and screen projections that accompany the song instead are a sensory bomb that more than offsets the lack of a moshpit.

It’s kinda fun trying to pick out the synth/electronica similarities in each song of the set from other songs of the same timeframe. “I’ll Do Anything for You” and “Just Like You” have those squelchy Depeche Mode synths, though with guitars that are unmistakably more Ministry. “I’m Falling” sounds like it could have come right out of the catalogue of A Flock of Seagulls. Other songs sound unmistakably more Ministry, such as the pummelling beats of “Same Old Madness” and “We Believe.” “Effigy (I’m Not An)” even sees a couple of crowd-surfers get airborne!

Both “Revenge” and “(Everyday Is) Halloween” are introduced with “you might know this one!”, which leads me to believe these are regular fixtures of their normal set (disclaimer: it’s my first time seeing Ministry, so I don’t know for sure), and they get big singalongs.

Still, the set is not without its missteps. “All Day” is unashamedly ’80s synth, and I have no problem with that, but those cheesy sex moans that the backing singers bust out are a little cringeworthy. It was pretty controversial when Donna Summer did it in 1975, but surely by 1986 it was kinda passé; it certainly sounds lame now.

And for all the awesome visuals the show has, the sight of animated squirrels krumping and skeletons doing the Macarena during “I’ll Do Anything” is a bit juvenile for a Ministry show, regardless of the era being toured. Or maybe I just have no sense of humour… it’s been a long day.

It seems a fitting end to a slightly bizarre show that, with such an enormous catalogue, the encore would consist of two covers! In fairness, “Ricky’s Hand,” released by British electronica artist Fad Gadget in 1980, sounds like it could easily have been a Ministry song, but the other? The last song to end the night? The ridiculous “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” by Rod Stewart. Again, maybe there’s an in-joke I’m missing; like I said, it’s my first time seeing Ministry. But it’s a joke I certainly don’t get.

All in all, it’s a strange show—not at all what I expected from a Ministry gig. Not great, not bad… mainly just confusing.