Ministry dug deep into their catalogue on the farewell tour this week, playing “Scarecrow” live for the first time in 23 years and bringing Paul Barker back onstage.
Both happened on Tuesday, September 15, at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, where the band co-headlined with Acid Bath. Fan-filmed footage of the performance has since circulated.
“Scarecrow” closes 1992’s Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs, the album that took Ministry from the clubs to platinum sales. The band had not performed it since 2003, the same year Barker left.
He returned to the stage later in the set for “Useless“, from 1996’s Filth Pig, taking the vocal. The pairing is recent: Ministry and Barker gave the song its live debut on July 4 this year at Till Fest in Leipzig, a show that also brought back “The Fall” for the first time since 1996.
Barker was Ministry‘s bassist, producer and engineer from 1986 to 2003, the stretch that produced The Land Of Rape And Honey, The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, Psalm 69 and Filth Pig. He left after Animositisomina and spent years out of contact with Al Jourgensen, the two reconciling in 2018 after both appeared at screenings of the Wax Trax! documentary “Industrial Accident“. In March 2024 it was confirmed he would write, perform and produce on a new Ministry record.
His presence on that album is narrower than the announcement suggested. Barker is credited on a single track, the closing “We’re Still Here“.
Hate To Go – Take Out Or Delivery is released on October 30 through Cleopatra Records and is Ministry‘s seventeenth and final studio album. The third single, “Singularity“, arrived on September 18, following “Burned Out” and “We Hate“.
Remaining dates on the current legs of the farewell tour:
- Sep 20 – Louder Than Life, Louisville, KY
- Oct 3 – Salt Shed, Chicago, IL (with Acid Bath and Windhand)
- Oct 24 – Sick New World Texas, Fort Worth, TX
- Dec 4 – Good Things Festival, Melbourne, Australia
- Dec 5 – Good Things Festival, Sydney, Australia
- Dec 6 – Good Things Festival, Brisbane, Australia
- Dec 8 – Liberty Hall, Sydney, Australia
- Dec 10 – Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide, Australia
“The Goodbye Europe” tour with Die Krupps:
- Apr 2 – Ronda, Utrecht, Netherlands
- Apr 3 – Garage, Saarbrücken, Germany
- Apr 4 – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
- Apr 6 – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, UK
- Apr 7 – 3Olympia, Dublin, Ireland
- Apr 9 – Rock City, Nottingham, UK
- Apr 10 – Troxy, London, UK
- Apr 12 – Bataclan, Paris, France
- Apr 14 – La Riviera, Madrid, Spain
- Apr 15 – Paral·lel, Barcelona, Spain
- Apr 17 – Docks, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Apr 18 – Tonhalle, Munich, Germany
- Apr 19 – Gasometer, Vienna, Austria
- Apr 21 – Forum Karlín, Prague, Czech Republic
- Apr 22 – Progresja, Warsaw, Poland
- Apr 24 – Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany
- Apr 25 – Grosse Freiheit 36, Hamburg, Germany
- Apr 26 – Amager Bio, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Apr 27 – Rockefeller, Oslo, Norway
- Apr 29 – Fållan, Stockholm, Sweden
- May 1 – House of Culture, Helsinki, Finland
