Three incredible bands under one roof!
Walking yesterday into the Aztec Theatre was like stepping into a post-apocalyptic movie with Front Line Assembly, Gary Numan and Ministry’s songs being the soundtrack of it.
Ministry, along with their two opening acts gave us an intense, powerful, rageful night that melted our faces from the very beginning.
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY
The night started with Canadian industrial-ebm pioneers, Front Line Assembly .
They were supposed to tour with Ministry back in 2020 but the tour got canceled due to the pandemic. So now they’re on the road and they’re our kickstarters for last night’s show.
With a 40-minute set consisting of seven songs, Front Line Assembly’s performance was the perfect spark to ignite the evening. The band took the stage to the strong beat of “I.E.D.”, which led the band to play some of the fan’s favorites like “Mindphaser”, “Millenium”, and even a cover of Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus”.
GARY NUMAN
Minutes after Front Line Assembly left the stage, the lights went down and band members took their places. Steve Harris and Tim Slade, on guitar and bass respectively, walked into the stage with some dystopian-looking outfits much in the style of Mad Max. From the moment Gary Numan walked onstage up until the end of his non-stop energetic 60-minute set, the audience jumped and sang along to Numan’s set.
Numan’s show was absolutely incredible! His set included a good mix of his earlier work and some from his latest material. Something that stood up from the show was the light show and visuals. The lights on stage, the fog, and imagery on the back screen, mixed in with Numan’s music puts you in this trance that makes you forget you’re in a venue here in San Antonio.
MINISTRY
By the end of Numan’s set, the audience was already pumped up and ready for the final show. A few minutes later, the lights went down and Ministry was received with a loud roar from the crowd as they walked onto the stage. Al Jourgensen walks to his cross-shaped stand and sets off the concert with “Alert Level” from their latest album Moral Hygiene.
The audience was swept off their feet by Ministry’s energetic, rageful, and passionate setlist. Their set had a mix of their classic songs from Psalm 69, The Land of Rape and Honey, and The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Hate, but also adding some songs from Moral Hygiene and a cover of Fad Gadget’s “Ricky’s Hand”.
In comparison to their previous tour, this stage didn’t have a chain link fence, but it still gave a pretty industrial feeling with the steel cross-shaped stand from where Al would read lyrics from time to time making it feel like he was preaching to a roaring crowd.
Strong drums, crunchy guitars, deep basslines, immersive synths, and powerful vocals were the main takeaway from yesterday’s performers. Overall, Ministry’s show was an experience that every industrial-music lover cannot miss. It was an exceptional show that I’m pretty sure fans won’t forget soon.
Thank you so much to the team at The Aztec Theatre for their continuous help and support to cover these amazing shows!
THS Team
