If Al really wants to make money, he could have those 3 rehearsed but not played songs (or others determined by fan vote) available at each venue, if fans at each venue raise enough revenue for him. He has said he doesn’t want to be a human jukebox, but would the extra dollars do it for him? He could possibly raise thousands at each show. In this world of “extras” available to fans, would anybody participate in that? I agree with everybody else, show us your spontaneity Al!
Ah the old “don’t wanna be a human jukebox” excuse…this reminds me a little of Perry Farrell whining sometime around 1992 that “a painter doesn’t have to keep painting the same painting over and over again” (and yet the difference between a Jane’s Addiction setlist from 1991 and 15 years later is not very noticeable).
When he complains about being a “human jukebox” he makes it sound as though he really wants to break out and do something really radical, but the cultural conservativism of his fanbase is holding him back. A fairly dumb stance to take if you’re a musician who is all about the “99%” and presumably some sort of participatory democracy, and who likes to rail on centralized authority having all the decision-making power.
Well then DO something radical, I say…plenty of other bands from the Grateful Dead onwards have already figured this out: get a setlist with some level of consistency to it that keeps you happy, but work within the known songs to create new sections, new improvisational flourishes etc. That way you can keep your sense of spontaneous artistry and still give people mostly what they want to hear.
And if the idea of Ministry as a ‘jam band’ sounds preposterous given Al’s limited song-writing abilities, well…if completely untrained musicians like Throbbing Gristle could pull off this same concept, I don’t know why A.J. and company couldn’t. Get out there and run the instrumentation through some interesting software patches, get more creative with the sampling…there are other ways out…
“I’m Al Jourgensen! I do what I want and I don’t care! I’m not some human jukebox to play your song requests for you. I’m uncontrollable and radical and wild! I’ll do what I want, when I want, and I’m going to play what I want!!!”
“And what do you want to play?”
“Well, the same exact set list from as before, actually.”
“Which was?”
"The same setlist prior to that . . . and the one prior . . "
AL JOURGENSEN – Doing what he wants . . . every time . . . for 10 years straight.
Exciting.
One thing I always liked about Jello was that, when some of his songs would become dated or politically obsolete because of the particular targets . . . . he’d at least change up the lyrics and make them relevant again.
How’s that campaign against George Bush going, Al?
Even Skinny Puppy who has a stage show that demands they have the material in the same order each time out does the honor of changing out the encore and every tour has a new mix of material, some of it very old.
Nine Inch Nails are the kings of keeping the set list fresh each night.
Al’s just what he always prayed he wouldn’t be, a worn out old washed up has been who would be lucky to be navigating his golden years half as well as his perpetual target the Stones (I don’t want to be Mick Jaggar singing Satisfaction at 60, he said on numerous ocassions).
“I’m Al Jourgensen! I do what I want and I don’t care! I’m not some human jukebox to play your song requests for you. I’m uncontrollable and radical and wild! I’ll do what I want, when I want, and I’m going to play what I want!!!”
Most miss the point here. Ministry hasn’t existed as an actual band for more than a decade. I doubt the current lineup can play more than the 12 or 15 songs they rehearse before touring. It’s not like they have the ability to play anything that’s not already been fed into the samplers and pre-programmed. The “I’ll do what I want, when I want” is nothing but camouflage.
[reply]“I’m Al Jourgensen! I do what I want and I don’t care! I’m not some human jukebox to play your song requests for you. I’m uncontrollable and radical and wild! I’ll do what I want, when I want, and I’m going to play what I want!!!”
Most miss the point here. Ministry hasn’t existed as an actual band for more than a decade. I doubt the current lineup can play more than the 12 or 15 songs they rehearse before touring. It’s not like they have the ability to play anything that’s not already been fed into the samplers and pre-programmed. The “I’ll do what I want, when I want” is nothing but camouflage.[/reply]
But members of the band are saying they’ve rehearsed and prepared songs they don’t use. For that matter, many of the touring guys have been on multiple tours. I think it’s more an Al thing than a band thing.
Also the samplers have to be a lot less necessary as you can use ableton on a Mac and have pretty much every loop or sample necessary on a Mac. Nine inch Nails certainly seems equipped to play a wide range of music each night and they’re no less sequencer/keyboard based (also they have a revolving cast of live players).
Most miss the point here. Ministry hasn’t existed as an actual band for more than a decade. I doubt the current lineup can play more than the 12 or 15 songs they rehearse before touring.
It’s not like they have the ability to play anything that’s not already been fed into the samplers and pre-programmed. The “I’ll do what I want, when I want” is nothing but camouflage.
Hasn’t existed as an actual band? Uhh, actually, like it or not, many of the members of the past 10 years have had longer runs than prior seat-fillers.
Sin has been a fan of Ministry since long before joining and knows tons of non-setlist songs. Cesar Soto, the newest kid on the block, had to get up to speed on ALL the songs of the setlist in a VERY short time since he came in as a sub (post Monty). And ALL of the band members have other bands and projects outside of Ministry.
They’re all professional musicians, Dude, not the Rock-A-Fire band at SHOWBIZ PIZZA.
And, yeah, on several occasions, songs were rehearsed and then cut (by Al) from the setlist.
I’m not sure what point we’re missing, but the point I’m GETTING from you seems more about being bitter and pissy that this band still exists in ANY form than actually saying something of relevance.
I’m not sure what point we’re missing, but the point I’m GETTING from you seems more about being bitter and pissy that this band still exists in ANY form than actually saying something of relevance.
It’s got little to do with how long this member or that member has been with the band. It has more to do with whether or the the band as a unit can play the back catalog. The Cure has had a revolving cast over the years but it doesn’t stop them from playing 4.5 hour, 50 song sets that span 4 decades. Now that’s professional.
It’s got little to do with how long this member or that member has been with the band. It has more to do with whether or the the band as a unit can play the back catalog. The Cure has had a revolving cast over the years but it doesn’t stop them from playing 4.5 hour, 50 song sets that span 4 decades. Now that’s professional.
Yeah, someone already mentioned The Cure. Good for them.
Several of us have also mentioned that the rest of the band has stated (sometimes in interviews, other times directly to us in person) that they WANT TO (and can) play other classic songs. Now, Al calls the shots, obviously, but if it were up to the rest, we’d be getting more older songs (no, not “Work for Love”).
[reply]“I’m Al Jourgensen! I do what I want and I don’t care! I’m not some human jukebox to play your song requests for you. I’m uncontrollable and radical and wild! I’ll do what I want, when I want, and I’m going to play what I want!!!”
Most miss the point here. Ministry hasn’t existed as an actual band for more than a decade. I doubt the current lineup can play more than the 12 or 15 songs they rehearse before touring. It’s not like they have the ability to play anything that’s not already been fed into the samplers and pre-programmed. The “I’ll do what I want, when I want” is nothing but camouflage.[/reply]
I would think that with the amount of storage available now they could feed all of the samples from every song ever recorded into the samplers and still have space left over. So preprogramming and samples is still kind of a “not excuse”
Sorry for the rerun post. Posted this before i saw green death’s post. Easier to add than it is to delete on my phone
[reply]Does any professional rock band regularly play songs that they didn’t know they were going to be playing before the show began?
Bands add old songs at soundcheck, or maybe work them in over a couple of soundchecks.[/reply]
He was actually asking about songs added AFTER the show has started.
For “professional” rock bands (i.e. not the local punk rock gig), this is very rare.
Despite “that one guy” (who is often me, admittedly) screaming his requests at the stage, the band has a playlist decided before the show starts and that’s what they stick to.
The only time I’ve seen them go off course on their own was at a Danzig show with Grumpy about 3 years ago. He finished up the set and said, “Well, that’s all we had on our setlist. Is there anything else you guys want to hear?” And after picking out some of our screams he was like, “What’s that? Snakes of Christ?” [looks over at his band and nods at them] . . . “Yeah, we can do that!”
Man that danzig show was the coolest. Danzig must’ve taken 3 or 4 reqests from the audience. I absolutely love band and audience participation. After one of the requests (london dungeon) glenn said yeah we can do that. After they got done he says “told ya we knew it.” And yeah snakes of christ was decided by applause as one of the encore songs.
OT
Got the skeletons cd. Love the everly brothers cover and the for some reason the elvis cover reminds me of ju ju bone. Decent release though. Gotta say i like the live version of NIB better than the studio cover. Also i think the biker songs are the weakest on the album but still good.
Got the skeletons cd. Love the everly brothers cover and the for some reason the elvis cover reminds me of ju ju bone. Decent release though. Gotta say i like the live version of NIB better than the studio cover. Also i think the biker songs are the weakest on the album but still good.
The opening of Find Somebody is almost identical to Juju Bone. I’ve been giving it a lot of play in the past few days, great album. When i saw the tracklisting i didn’t expect much from it, but i love it.
[reply]
Got the skeletons cd. Love the everly brothers cover and the for some reason the elvis cover reminds me of ju ju bone. Decent release though. Gotta say i like the live version of NIB better than the studio cover. Also i think the biker songs are the weakest on the album but still good.
The opening of Find Somebody is almost identical to Juju Bone. I’ve been giving it a lot of play in the past few days, great album. When i saw the tracklisting i didn’t expect much from it, but i love it.[/reply]
Yeah, its nice to have some new danzig tunes even if it is only a smidge over a 1/2 hour. One thing that throws me a little is danzig’s attitude towards covers, he says make it your own or dont bother. Thats a good healthy attitude towards covers. One that i may or may not necessarily share but still, i get it. But a few of those covers are not his own. its the same arrangement note for note renditions. If there is any variation its not readily noticable. For example NIB sounds like everything is exactly the same only danzig singing. I dont really care just thought i’d point my finger towards that bit of danzigness.
Yeah, i was kinda dreading NIB, because i don’t care for people covering Sabbath sometimes, but it turned out well, maybe a bit slower than the original but pretty faithful.