The First Ministry Show (pics, updated info, tracklist) 40th Anniversary

realmdemagic · January 1, 2022, 5:17pm

Ministry-The First Show 12/31/1981 @Misfits, Chicago IL

40 years ago, Ministry played it’s debut show at the Misfits Club in Chicago, IL. They also played the following evening on New Year’s Day.

The 7 piece lineup performed all of the songs from the I’m Falling/Cold Life EP, a Jimmy Ross cover, and a variety of unreleased songs.

Within a few months the band would narrow down to a 4 piece lineup for the 1982 shows.

The Book of Holy Lies opened for Ministry on both nights.

Setlist:

She’s Got a Cause

Primental

Make Up Your Mind

First True Love Affair (Jimmy Ross cover)

Funkamental

Cold Life

Jodie Foster

I’m Falling

Overkill

Orangotango

Band Lineup:

Al Jourgensen: Vocals & guitar

Stephen George: Drums

Marty Sorenson: Bass guitar

Paul Taylor: Bass Synthesizer

John Davis-Keyboards

Robert Roberts-Keyboards

Audrey Stanzler-Backing vocals

realmdemagic · January 1, 2022, 5:20pm

The first song, She’s Got A Cause can be heard here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgqx1Z3agRA&ab_channel=TheRobSquaredShow

SM_Rollinger · January 1, 2022, 7:32pm

Awesome, I love the early days.

Revco · January 1, 2022, 8:20pm

Revco · January 1, 2022, 8:21pm

First ever live performance by Ministry.
Info on this show came straight from former Ministry tour keyboardist, Bob Roberts: “The first Ministry gig was in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood at a club called Huey’s. Right next to the L stop on Sheridan. It was New Year’s Eve '81-'82. We also played there the following night. I do seem to recall that we had a lot of people join us onstage, background singers and horn players.” He then went on to state that they played “some covers including a Jimmy Ross song called ‘First True Love Affair’” and that they “only knew about 8 or 9 songs”, so it is a possibility this was the amount of songs that were played, though only three so far are documented.

wempathos · January 2, 2022, 12:24am

I made two errors when I made this statement. Allow me to clarify. First…it’s obvious that the first gig was not at Huey’s but at Misfit’s. But, in fact, Huey’s and Misfit’s were one in the same. Most of the time I was familiar with the club it was called Huey’s…then in late '81-'82 it was called Misfit’s. I actually think it went back to being called Huey’s at some point. But it was on Sheridan Rd, just north of the old Granada Theater near Loyola University. Secondly, there was no show the following night as I remembered…but there was a second show on January 7th…just a week later.

Revco · January 2, 2022, 1:17am

Thanks Wempathy

Hedberg · January 2, 2022, 2:51am

The best & most informative post I’ve ever seen here.
Cleopatra vinyl release please.

dicecrusher · January 2, 2022, 5:34am

Yes! Would love to hear the entire show someday.

rev_skarekroe · January 4, 2022, 7:19pm

Jodie Foster?

realmdemagic · January 4, 2022, 7:47pm

I’m guessing the song is about that guy who tried to assassinate Reagan to impress Jodie Foster. That would have been around the same time. Maybe Wemp has more info.

wempathos · January 5, 2022, 2:13pm

I seem to recall that the song was about Hinckley but that’s about it. Guitar-based song that was dropped from the repertoire pretty quickly. A lot of the first songs got axed after the band became a 4 piece.