TThere was a time—long, loud, and laced with disdain—when Al Jourgensen swore he would sooner set himself on fire than revisit the neon-lit ghosts of Ministry’s synthpop past. The early ’80s? Dead and buried. *With Sympathy*? A record he disowned, a relic of record-label interference, and a mistake that Jourgensen once wanted to forget. However, history has a way of bringing the past back to life. After a special performance of Twitch and With Sympathy at the Cruel World Festival 2024, Jourgensen’s friend from that year’s lineup, Gary Numan, encouraged him to rethink his stance on his band’s earlier material. With a few well-placed words, Numan nudged Jourgensen into reworking “Everyday Is Halloween,” “All Day,” and “Revenge” in Ministry’s current industrial style, transforming music that was once shimmering with synths into something now snarling with distortion.
That experiment cracked open a door Jourgensen never planned to walk through.
Now, The Squirrely Years Tour drags those early years onto North American stages, backed by Die Krupps and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. The show, fueled by a March 28 release on Cleopatra Records, coincides with The Squirrely Years Revisited, an album of twelve reimagined tracks, including Work for Love, I’m Not an Effigy, and I’ll Do Anything for You. Some will get fresh videos, as if to say: the past never really dies—it just mutates into something sharper, louder, and a hell of a lot grittier.
“Since I hated my early stuff for decades, I decided to take ownership of it and do it right,” Jourgensen says.
Pre-order The Squirrely Years Revisited via Cleopatra Records here.
Ministry sets its sights on the past and the road ahead, shaking the dust off old ghosts and dragging them onto the stage. The Squirrely Years tour ignites April 29 in Phoenix, a long, loud march through memory’s back alleys and neon-lit nightmares. Come May, the band crosses into Canada—first rattling Montreal on the 17th, then storming Toronto’s History on the 18th. A quick detour south lands them in Minneapolis before they charge back over the border for a West Coast assault. The tour barrels toward its final reckoning, closing June 5 under the flickering heat of Las Vegas.
Tickets go on general sale this Friday (February 14), with various presales beginning tomorrow (February 12) at 10 a.m. local. Order them here, and surprise your Valentine with a megadose of Uncle Al!
Tour Dates:
- 04/29 Phoenix, AZ – Van Buren *
- 04/30 Albuquerque, NM – Revel *
- 05/02 Austin, TX – Emo’s *
- 05/03 Houston, TX – House of Blues *
- 05/04 Dallas, TX – Factory *
- 05/06 Atlanta, GA – The Eastern *
- 05/08 Columbus, OH – Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival #
- 05/09 Chicago, IL – Riviera *
- 05/10 Detroit, MI – Masonic Cathedral *
- 05/12 Baltimore, MD – Soundstage *
- 05/13 Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall +
- 05/14 Boston, MA – Roadrunner +
- 05/16 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount +
- 05/17 Montreal, QC – MTELUS +
- 05/18 Toronto, ON – History +
- 05/20 Minneapolis, MN – Palace +
- 05/21 Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre +
- 05/23 Edmonton, AB – Midway Music Hall +
- 05/24 Calgary, AB – Palace Theatre +
- 05/26 Vancouver, BC – Commodore +
- 05/28 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo +
- 05/29 Spokane, WA – Spokane Live Casino +
- 05/31 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom +
- 06/01 Salt Lake City, UT – Union +
- 06/03 San Francisco, CA – Warfield +
- 06/04 Los Angeles, CA – Palladium +
- 06/05 Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues +
* with Nitzer Ebb
+ with My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
# without Die Krupps
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