Ministry – With Full Force – Ferropolis, Germany – June 23, 2017

Glowing in my Monster Magnet shirt, I am excited to finally be able to shoot my first band at this festival! I just saw Ministry perform at Hellfest, but with only having one song to shoot, I wanted more time, and to compare stages. Their performance there was fine, but something about Ministry’s heavily synthesized sounds being performed at an open air stage didn’t quite translate, so I was hoping to hear better sound this time. At WFF, Ministry had a more confined space to play, and maybe that’s why the sound carried better. They started off with “Punch” to really kick off the set, followed by a couple more classics, basically getting everyone really pumped up. The crowd was really receptive to Ministry, and there was a lot of head-banging and underground-style dancing. Then they performed the often-played “Lies, Lies, Lies,” “Bad Blood,” and “Just One Fix,” finishing off the set with “Thieves.”

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I was much happier with the band’s sound and performance at this festival. Also, I was able to get closer to the band, so I could catch more facial expressions, with moments like bassist Jason Christopher flashing a grin out of the blue, or having a concerned look when he tripped over multiple cords as he walked backwards from the corner of the stage. It was a more intimate festival, and therefore you could bond a lot more with the artists and the people around you.