Adios… Puta Madres: Ministry Final World Tour DVD
Ministry is one of the coolest bands I have never seen live. If indeed their last tour was their final tour, the closest thing I will have to seeing them live is Adios….Puta Madres. Adios… is the very enjoyable, brand spanking new two disc DVD set, following Ministry across the world in their final tour. The final lineup for the band was, of course, Al Jorgensen : vox/guitars, along with Tommy Victor: guitar, John Bechdel: keyboards, Sin Quirin: guitar, Tony Campos (Static-X): bass, and Aaron Rossi: drums.
Disc one, titled, “En Vivo”, is a video album , covering fifteen of the songs Ministry played on their 2008 CU-LaTour. Featuring tons of onstage footage edited together and synchronized with the live versions of their songs, this DVD is going to spend a lot of time in my player. I loved the stage setting too, adorned with a chain-link fence for old times sakes, and a goat skull mic stand for Al..
For the CD version only, check out Adios.. [Live], which has a slightly different track listing than the DVD. Tracks which exist on the CD but not the DVD include “The Dick Song”, “Wrong”, and “Khyber Pass” . Tracks which exist on the DVD, but not the CD are “So What”, “New World Order”, “Just One Fix”, “Thieves”, and a cover of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.
Tracks existing on both the DVD and CD are “Lets Go”, “The Last Sucker”, “Waiting”, “Worthless”, “LiesLiesLies”, “Watch Yourself”, “Life is Good”, “No W.”, “Rio Grande Blood”, and “Senior Peligro”.
Disc two, titled, “Fuchi Requiem”, and directed by Hector Saenz, documents the events leading up to and including the CU-LaTour‘. Some of the more interesting bits were during the four weeks of rehearsals at the Sonic Ranch. The Sonic Ranch is a 1700 acre ranch about 45 minutes outside El Paso. The only things to do there is drink and rehearse, and both were done in copious amounts leading up to tour. While most bands rehearse for only two weeks, Ministry takes four weeks. They said this was in order to compensate for not using pre-recorded audio like a lot of other bands use.
On tour, they explain what Mel’s Lounge is all about. Mel, one of their guitar techs, controls an Ipod wired to speakers on the tour bus. After the shows, the band likes to wind down to lounge music and jazz. Jourgensen talks about his excitement each night during the balloon-fall when hundreds of balloons rain upon the audience. We also get to hear the band members opinions regarding the chain link fence used on stage. The moment I liked best though, was when Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) made a surprise appearance at one of their shows.
I really enjoyed both Adios… on DVD and on CD. But given a choice, if I could only pick one, I would have to go with the Adios… on DVD. I have to make it clear though, you cannot go wrong with either.
