Al Jourgensen and Ministry are on the Rob Zombie & Alice Cooper Freaks on Parade Tour 2023 as direct support along with Filter. The tour stopped in Raleigh, North Carolina at the Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek on August 29 and it was pretty close to a sell-out. These two bands have the sometimes-difficult task of being on early as fans are still trickling in. They also, in most cases, have to perform in the direct sunlight because of how these amphitheaters were built without much thought going into that directional aspect before being built. Even with all of that being said, Al and his band came out and crushed their 40-minute set. They opened the set with “Thieves” and it was very loud, in your face with lots of smoke and strobe lights. We covered the band’s last visit to Raleigh, NC in 2022 on the Industrial Strength Tour. That tour featured a metal fence going across the front of the stage (similar to a WWE steel cage match) which made photographing the band a bit of a challenge. Luckily, that was not present on this tour and Al was a mere few feet in front of us. The two big projection screens on each side of the stage usually show the band performing giving the people on the lawn seats a closer view of the band. All during Ministry’s performance, a wide variety of clips were being shown to go along with the song being played, but the band wasn’t shown. Some people on the lawn expressed their dissatisfaction with that, but for the most part it really didn’t bother them. 40 plus years of Ministry and Al is still going strong! The guy was all over the stage, singing, yelling, giving the middle finger and giving a really great performance! A full setlist follows the photo gallery.

Review & Pix by I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price