BITE ME! Ministry, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, HUG live

Ministry, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, & Hanzel Und Gretyl

@ The House of Blues, Hollywood

Hello! What a great bill. The only thing that could top it would be Ministry and Skinny Puppy on a co-headline tour. Now that I’d like to see.

Hanzel Und Gretyl led the sonic attack with a high voltage set that included everything from Ausgeflippt all the way up to their latest Scheissmessiah. Even though they are based in New York, vocalist Vas Kallas sings mostly in German. I don’t have a clue what she is saying, but it’s fun to make up lyrics to the band’s hardcore industrial tunes. As usual, Hanzel Und Gretyl delivered an impressive set. Those who were unfamiliar with the band were converted and dedicated fans loved it!

After their performance the members of HUG mingled with the crowd and hung around for Thrill Kill Kult. I had seen TKK when they were touring in support of A Crime For All Seasons and had left that show feeling a little disappointed. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case this time around. Tonight, Thrill Kill Kult’s set oozed with sleaze as the band cranked out their signature tales of sex, Satan, and gore. The group mixed up a little old with the new and even threw in a few sexy dance floor classics, including one of my longtime favs “The Days of Swine and Roses”. After rocking out to HUG a majority of the crowd took this opportunity to get their groove on out on the dance floor, which made me realize that TKK are not really a band to watch live. They are a band to dance to live.

After such a thorough workout, the crowd was warmed up and ready to rock. Feeling the energy, Ministry took the stage with a force and blew the roof off with a mighty opener titled “No W”. A number of venomous tunes followed – all of which were accompanied by satanic images of Dubya, the World Trade Center attacks, and other gruesome images.

The new material from Houses Of The Molé is fuckin’ solid and the audience moshed and thrashed to show their approval. If you love Psalm 69 you’ll eat up Houses of the Molé. Of course, the intensity level was raised a notch when Al & Co broke into “N.W.O.” and followed it up with “Just One Fix,” “Psalm 69,” and “Hero”. Damn! I hope he never gets sick of playing these songs live.

When the encore began Al encouraged all non-registered voters to register and he directed them to a table in the back of the venue so they could sign up. Just then a punk rock veteran, who I think may have been Jello Biafra, came on stage and joined the all mighty Ministry for a couple of tunes, one of which was a smoking hot rendition of “Jesus Built My Hotrod”. However, the biggest highlight was when the band played “Supernaut” from the 1000 Homo DJ’s days (originally by Black Sabbath). Now that was worth waiting for.

After the show the party moved into Ministry’s dressing room. Among the attendees was the man himself Ogre of Skinny Puppy (who is awesome by the way). Al was so happy to see him and he gave him a big ‘ole hug. That picture alone was priceless. -NIN