Date: August 26th, 2023
Venue: Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheater
The Freaks On Parade Tour hit Tampa Florida like a hurricane. The concert featured Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Filter, and most importantly, to me, Ministry. I’ve never shied away from the fact that Ministry is my favorite rock band of all time. I was one of the young punks who used to climb the chain link fence at their shows back in the day. And though I’ve seen Al and company many times over the years, this show was definitely something special. Like the old saying, Ministry came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum…and they were all out of bubblegum.
The addition of Monte Pittman on guitar is a fantastic fit for the band. If you don’t know his name or his work already, look him up. He has an incredible resume. Also along for the ride, this time is Paul D’Amour, whom you might remember from Tool, Cesar Soto, Ray Mayorga, and longtime member John Bedchel.
The setlist was a Ministry fan’s dream come true with the band opening with “Thieves” and then following it up with three great songs from “The Land Of Rape And Honey” album “Missing, “Deity’ and “Stigmata”. Then back with the crowd favorites “Burning Inside”, “N.W.O.”, and “Just One Fix”. Closing out the set, Al played “Revenge” from the 1983 album “With Sympathy” which Al Jorgensen refused to play live for many, many years, but has recently embraced his more electro-pop past by performing it again. I’m one of those people who likes each morphed version of Ministry’s sound and it was exciting to see the band play this classic live, albeit with a little harsher vocals, which actually fit the song nicely.
The band closed out the show with their latest single, “Goddman White Trash” from the upcoming album “Hopiumforthemasses” to be released in 2024. Ministry is “what punk used to be”. Al Jourgensen doesn’t mince words or pull punches on how he sees the world around us. If you’re a fan of his opinion, great! If you’re not, or if you’re offended, at least he made you think for a minute whether you agree with him or not.
You can never go wrong getting tickets to see Ministry perform live. And, it was clear from the crowd’s loud reaction that they were all in on Ministry’s show.
See more tour dates for Ministry at https://ministryband.com/tour.
