When I looked at NYE 2016 footage, started feeling nostalgic & the memory of what I experienced in the winter of 1988 at a gothy nite club on Long Island now seems so distant & lost.
Rieflin, Ogre, Barker & Jourgensen (Michael Balch maybe) took the stage of a small nite club filled to capacity w/preps, yups & trust-fund brigaders alike…smidgeon of cretins from other side of the tracks were present & they represented current Ministry transformation: Gothy-Synth-Industrial-House-Core (if ya will).
The affluent bulk of attendees were there for With Sympathy & 12" WaxTrax Comp, obviously & so it made sense that they started leaving halfway thru the show or just sardined themselves into the elevated bar area adjacent to dance floor yet far enuff away from stage.
It was surreal in a good way back then but this current Ministry is sadly to say, totally surreal in a bad way cuz it has no soul…it feels like an empty shell riding on fumes until it finally fizzles out.
Sorry to offend the current fanbase but I am an old fart w/precious fond memories of a Ministry that changed my life when I discovered them in college…then I stumbled upon REM & that’s another head-trip of sorts all together, LOL…
It’s too bad we didn’t have the Internet yet.
Those jaded gothy-dance-preps could have all taken to the boards to cry about what a sell-out Ministry was because they didn’t have their original lineup and wouldn’t play anything from “With Sympathy” or their earlier club-hit 12"s.
It’s too bad we didn’t have the Internet yet.
Those jaded gothy-dance-preps could have all taken to the boards to cry about what a sell-out Ministry was because they didn’t have their original lineup and wouldn’t play anything from “With Sympathy” or their earlier club-hit 12"s.
Now that you mention it, the nuwave radio station of Long Island: WDRE had a field day taking in disgruntled calls from disappointed or confused fans & the DJ along w/special guest were not pleased w/so-called transformation & pretty much wrote off Ministry while they acknowledged the synth-pop catalog to its fullest extent (playback rotation to the gills that entire weekend) as if the “real” Ministry had died or something.
Wish I had recorded that segment or could find it on YouTube…no luck but that went on for a while–right up until Psalm 69 cuz they were forced to play Just One Fix & NWO begrudgingly.
Classic memory cuz I remember DJs constantly dissing the “new” Ministry saying it totally sucked compared to what they were but they still had to play those songs cuz it got popular & then Lollapalooza happened…so funny, I remember it like it was yesterday!
HAHA!!! It’s not even a new phenomenon, actually.
I don’t know if anyone saw the documentary on Bob Dylan from about 10 years back (they played it on PBS a few times) but the same thing happened with him.
He had this loyal fan base who loved him as a FOLK singer/ guitarist. Then he broadened a bit and (OMG!!!) went a bit rock and roll . . . bringing even a drummer and an electric guitar.
The reaction was absolutely vehement and sometimes even violent . . . which was pretty ironic.
“PLAY A MELLOW ACCOUSTIC SONG ABOUT PEACE AND LOVE OR I’M GONNA COME DOWN THERE AND SMASH THAT STRATOCASTER OVER YOUR HEAD!!!”