Ministry Sets Its Final Show: Kia Forum, October 30, 2027
Al Jourgensen says the industrial band will bow out exactly one year after its final album, with a farewell tour across Europe and the U.S. first.
Ministry has a date and a room for the end. Founder Al Jourgensen says the band will play its final show on October 30, 2027, at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California.
He revealed the plan in an interview with journalist Lyndsey Parker at Licorice Pizza Records. The date falls exactly one year after the release of the band's final album, Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery), which arrives Friday, October 30, 2026, through Cleopatra Records.
Jourgensen did not sound sentimental about it. He said he expects to be home before backstage access even opens after the show, and joked that comedian Bill Burr will fly him home by helicopter. The night itself, he said, will be a procession of guests and musicians who have worked with the band, jamming through the farewell.
“I'm proud of what I've accomplished. I'm amazed at the path that it's taken, from With Sympathy to where we're at today, and all points in between,” Jourgensen said. “It's been quite a ride, but I'm completely at peace with the fact that it's done. It's time to herd goats.”
The final album is Ministry's 17th studio record. Its closing track, “We're Still Here,” features a final collaboration with legacy member Paul Barker. The current lineup on the record includes guitarists Monte Pittman and Cesar Soto, bassist Paul D'Amour, sampler and synth player John Bechdel, and drummer Pepe Clarke Magaña.
The farewell tour
Before the Forum finale, Ministry will tour Europe one last time. The Goodbye Europe run, with Die Krupps as special guests, opens April 2, 2027, in Utrecht, Netherlands, and closes May 1 in Helsinki, Finland. It includes Manchester on April 6, Dublin on April 7, Nottingham on April 9, and London on April 10, followed by Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm. A full U.S. run follows.
Jourgensen said building the farewell setlists meant sorting through 55 songs. Listening back, he said, the band's message has barely changed in four decades. “It's disheartening, but at least I stuck to it,” he said.
Four decades of noise
Ministry began in Chicago in 1981. The early records were synth-pop, starting with With Sympathy in 1983. The sound hardened through Twitch in 1986 and The Land of Rape and Honey in 1988, and Psalm 69 in 1992 brought the band its first Grammy nomination. The band has been nominated six times in total.
One caveat hangs over the farewell. Jourgensen has called time before. Ministry broke up in 2008 and returned in 2011, and earlier retirement announcements did not stick. This time, he insists, the ending is final.
For now, the calendar is set: a final album on Friday, a year of goodbyes, and one last night at the Forum.
