Attention Ministry diehards! (If there are any still out there.) Al Jourgensen recently announced that three hundred lucky Ministry devotees will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pay for the privilege of a big bath of Ministry love (including “access to band rehearsals” and “access to band’s soundcheck before show”) all while staying at the swanky Freemont Country Club in downtown Las Vegas at the end of May.
The whole affair is called “Ministry Boot Camp,” and it’s basically a massive Ministry fantasy weekend in which you can spend three nights in a fancy hotel room and have a Q&A session with Jourgensen, attend a Ministry show in the “VIP area,” get shit signed (one item only, greedheads!), and so on.
The full weekend has a tiered pricing structure in which you can pay $2,000 to become a Ministry “Sergeant,” $3,000 to become a Ministry “Major,” or $4,000 to become a Ministry “Colonel.” (I love the military metaphor, it’s just like joining the KISS Army!) The three packages are distinguished by how nice a room you get and if you can pick your roommate and stuff like that. But all three packages receive the following:
Three nights accommodations at The Golden Nugget (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
$50 food and beverage credit per day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Welcome reception with the band Friday night
Access to band rehearsals Friday & Saturday night
Access to band’s soundcheck before show on Sunday night
Access to full live show on Sunday night with VIP area
Q&A session w/ Al Jourgensen and Ministry
TBA daytime activities with Al Jourgensen and Ministry
Meet and greet with Al Jourgensen and Ministry including individual photograph and signing of one item (With Sympathy excluded)
Ministry merch goodie bag
Remember, don’t bring a copy of With Sympathy and expect Al to sign that shit! It ain’t gonna happen.
Upon reading this announcement, a friend wondered, “Does this mean he didn’t meet his Patreon goal?”
Turns out, that witticism may be dead-on accurate. Late last year (sometime in November, it seems) Jourgensen actually did start a Patreon crowdfunding project with the stated goal of generating $5,000 a month—as of now the page has stalled at $525.44 per month (which is still kind of impressive).
Two years ago my colleague Ron Kretsch called Jourgensen “a neck-tatted steampunk junkie purveyor of industrialized speed-metal for dimwitted bros,” a description that makes me chuckle to this day—but the band undeniably had its moments. Here’s a boot of Ministry playing Los Angeles in December 1992, supporting Psalm 69. For the last song, a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut,” Scott Ian of Anthrax joins the band
via Blabbermouth
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Early Ministry KICKED ASS
Ministry’s first video was for a song that has never been released. Until today. Sort of.