LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: Ministry in Boston, MA (05.14.25)
For years, Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen maintained he would never revisit material from the band’s early Synth-pop albums, With Sympathy and Twitch, short of the rare live performance of “Everyday is Halloween.” However, in 2020, he was taken to see a Ministry tribute band and realized the lasting popularity of the material, which led to a change of heart. Thus, the release of The Squirrelly Years Revisited (Cleopatra Records 2025) – reimagined tracks from Ministry’s earliest albums, along with a supporting tour allowing fans to hear songs not played live in forty years.
Ministry played Roadrunner in Boston, MA on May 14th, 2025, supported by opening acts Die Krupps and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. Ministry’s back catalog has been updated and re-imagined to what today’s Ministry fans would expect to hear. Wailing guitars and pounding drums now accompany synthesizers and electronic effects. Still, if you had never heard the tracks from the early eighties, you would be forgiven for thinking the material is new. Tracks like “Work for Love” and “Revenge” have taken on a new, hard-driving life and feel comfortable in their new clothes.
If Al Jourgensen still feels chagrin for his earliest work, he certainly doesn’t show it live, throwing as much energy and passion into his prodigal songs as ever, and introducing songs with historical notes, and in the case of material from Twitch, auto-biographical memories of writing the songs in the early eighties right here in Boston. At the end of the main performance, Jourgensen was visibly overwhelmed at the Boston crowd’s love, giving heartfelt a farewell and appreciation.
Having played the new album’s material on-stage, the encore was a cover of Fad Gadget’s “Ricky’s Hand,” followed Ministry’s well-loved cover of Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” bringing the house down. Yes, Al, we do think you’re sexy.
How many more Ministry albums may be in our future remains to be seen, but let’s hope revisiting his older material means that Jourgensen isn’t going to stop any time soon. The reimagined songs on The Squirrelly Years would co-exist on tour comfortably next to later Ministry anthems like “N.W.O” and “LiesLiesLies.”
Ministry Live Tour 2025 Line-up: Al Jourgensen (vocals/guitar), Cesar Soto (guitar), Monte Pittman (guitar), Paul D’Amour (bass), Pepe Clarke Magaña (drums), John Bechdel (keys)
Photos – Ministry, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Die Krups at Roadrunner in Boston, MA on May 14th:
