Watch Ministry perform songs that haven’t been played live in 40 years at Cruel World Festival

Ministry performed a setlist of songs that haven’t been played live since the 1980s at Cruel World Festival this weekend.

The US industrial metal pioneers performed at Brookside at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on Saturday (May 11), where the likes of Duran Duran, Interpol, Blondie and Simple Minds were headlining.

Ministry were billed on the line-up poster as performing songs from their first two albums – 1983’s ‘With Sympathy’ and 1986’s ‘Twitch’ – which meant fans were treated to a host of songs that haven’t been performed in decades.

‘Work For Love’, ‘I’m Falling’ and ‘Effigy (I’m Not An)’ were all performed live for the first time since 1984, while ‘All Day’, ‘Over the Shoulder’ and ‘Just Like You’ were brought back for the first time since 1987.

Also in the set was ‘We Believe’ for the first time since 2003, and ‘(Everyday Is) Halloween’, which was last played for a crowd back in 2019.

Check out fan-shot footage of the show below.

Ministry’s Cruel World Festival setlist was:

‘Work For Love’
‘All Day’
‘Over The Shoulder’
‘Just Like You’
‘We Believe’
‘I’m Falling’
‘Effigy (I’m Not An)’
‘Revenge’
‘(Everyday Is) Halloween’

In an interview with Rolling Stone ahead of the performance, Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen explained how he came round to the idea of performing their debut live again.

“The guys in the band know I don’t like this record,” he shared. “They came up with all these new versions of all the old songs and then sprung them on me one night on the bus while I was on ‘shrooms. I actually wound up going, ‘Hey, that’s not bad.’”

He continued that he reasoning for initially distancing himself from the album was more “the surrounding dynamic” of it being a largely “label-appointed” crew rather than the sound itself.

Last year’s edition of Cruel World festival was headlined by Siouxie Sioux and Iggy Pop. Sioux’s set was thwarted by severe weather, which halted the festival during sets by Pop and The Human League.

Following the festival’s cancellation, organisers announced a new show the next day, featuring Pop and Sioux performing full sets. The performance marked Sioux’ first appearance in the United States in 15 years.

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