By Chris Alexander-Utne
It was April first, the day of the Ministry concert. Mini-School had just gotten out and I was planning to go back to Gabe’s crib, who I was going to the concert with. There seemed to be a small dilemma, Gabe never came to school that day and Marna, who was going to give us a ride, left after third hour. So I was stuck, not knowing exactly what to do. Then Kelsey, who was going to go with us (she and Marna were going to go shopping in Uptown or something) said that I could go with her house because she would probably hook up with Marna later. We got a ride to Kelsey’s house and waited for a phone call from Marna. We waited and waited and waited, watching this movie, “Chorus Line” which was Kelsey’s favorite when she was younger. It was a really cheesy dance try-out musical.
After awhile we decided the best thing to do or the only thing for me to do was catch a bus to the city. I had to walk into Excelsior which was a half-an-hour walk. We called and checked the bus schedule and I left for the bus stop. After about 15 minutes of walking I realized I had left the tickets in my wallet, which was in my other pants. There was no point in catching the bus now, I had to find a way to get to my place, and then to the city and the only possible way to do that was to find someone with a car. I went to the pay phone at ICO and called the people I knew that lived in that area, but no one was home.
I decided I would try to hitchhike back to my place knowing that no one would pick me up looking the way I do. It was my only choice. After walking for about 5-10 minutes I spotted Nate Clifford in his truck driving in the opposite direction. I raised my arms up and down like I was stranded on a deserted island and I saw a plane that could rescue me, but he drove past me. I turned around hopelessly -“this sucks”- I screamed out. But wait, it’s Nate Clifford, he had turned around and come to rescue me. “Yes” I thought to myself. I get in the car, oh yeah, Sara or Susan Pipkorn were in the car too (I can never tell which one’s which). Anyway they said they would gladly drive me to my house and Ridgedale because they didn’t really have anything better to do anyway. After they drove me to my house and then to Ridgedale, I thanked them with a few dollar bills. I played Virtua Cop for a little bit and then caught a bus to the city.
When I finally get to Gabe’s crib, he says Petar, who was going with us and was the designated driver, doesn’t want to go anymore. We needed to find someone who wanted to go and had a car fast, within two hours or something. We called as many people as we could think of with no luck. Gabe’s girlfriend wanted to go and then didn’t for some reason, so we called Petar, because he said if we couldn’t find anyone to replace him, he would go.
Petar finally arrived and we left for the Ministry concert. We didn’t make it on time to see the opening band, “The Young God” which I was a little disappointed about, but oh well. We sat on the lower level straight across from the stage at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium.
The lights went out and Ministry opened with “Reload” from their new album “Filthy Pig.” They mostly played stuff of their new album which is a lot more guitar than usual, but it was real loud and still intense and jammed-out. They played some of their old stuff, but not too much. They played “Psalm 69″ which kicked butt, and also “Scare Crow.” I was a little disappointed because I wanted to hear other older stuff like “Connect the #*!@ Dots!” or “Stigmata” or songs from “The Land of Rape and Honey” but it was still a kicka!!, jammed out show and even though I was disappointed that it ended way early, they only played for about an hour. I’d rate this concert 7 out of 10 points.