Here are some additional details on my experience at the Cruel World show on May 11, 2024.
I arrived shortly before Gary Numan took the main “Outsiders” stage to perform “The Pleasure Principle” with his band. Festival organizers indicated 70,000 showed up for the music festival, and I believe it. It was packed! Fortunately, it wasn’t too hot. Sunny and mid-70s.
After the Gary Numan set, the crowd responded the moment the revolving stage revealed the Ministry setup with the With Sympathy and Twitch logos and fonts displayed on each of the risers. It was a bit surreal seeing the large video screen with the With Sympathy cover art. A variety of roses adorned the stage including the cross on Al’s podium. I guess being adjacent to the world famous Rose Bowl made it all fit together perfectly.
Credit to the festival organizers, as they kept right on schedule with Al and the expanded band (with Charlie, Tina, and Mia) taking the stage right around 4:45pm. The first few notes of the “Work For Love” bass line came next, and they were off and running. Hearing the crowd shout “Work” and “For Love” with Al back and forth was tremendous. The new version worked well, and it seemed to please the crowd. The band launched into “All Day” next, which sounded fantastic. Charlie Clouser appeared to be playing the Caribbean-sounding melody on his keyboard. Then we got three Twitch classics “Over The Shoulder”, “Just Like You”, and “We Believe” in a row. All sounded very true to the originals including Al’s vocals, which were likely helped by a backing track or two. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the set (for me) was hearing “I’m Falling”. It sounded great, and it probably gave Monte and Cesar a little more to play on their guitars. Next up was a down tempo version of “Effigy”, which sounded like something off “Filth Pig” followed by “Revenge” which was largely unchanged from the version they played last Fall. The final track was a great sounding “Every Day is Halloween” which the crowd thoroughly enjoyed and responded to - especially during the “Bop Be Bop Bop” chorus. Al’s family and friends were visible throughout the set just to the right of the stage. His daughter has some fun posts on Instagram from the show. So, we ended up hearing three songs from Twitch, three from With Sympathy, and three Wax Trax! singles.
Based on the buzz generated before, during, and after the set, this was a definite crowd pleaser if not the highlight of Cruel World. It would be interesting to hear how this all went down. One guy I talked to in the clubhouse after the show said the festival organizers paid Al a considerable amount of money to perform this specific set. It remains to be seen if this was a one and done.