Jesus Built His Hotrod

Comments (0) By John Graham Wednesday, Mar 26 2008

More About

In the past 25 years, Al Jourgensen has been many men, including a foppish New Wave fancyboy, a twitchy fuzz-disco pioneer, a shit-kickin' cowboy punk, an industrial-metal monster, and a smacked-out basket case. With a just-completed trilogy of Bush-bashing thrash albums, he's also one of the most caustic voices of political opposition in the American music scene. But apparently Al is eyeing those Social Security bennies, because he's putting Ministry, the longest-running and most noteworthy of his numerous musical alter egos, out to pasture on a farewell-cruel-world jaunt called the C.U. LaTouR. To be sure, Ministry's heyday has already passed: though the recent trio of Dubya-dissing albums scored two Grammy nominations, Jourgensen's influence peaked with 1988's The Land of Rape and Honey, 1989's The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, and 1992's Psalm 69. By welding stainless-steel guitar riffs to Terminator-strength techno beats, he reinvented both rock and dance music and created shock waves that reverberate around the world even today. The C.U. LaTouR's two-hour-plus setlist regurgitates both these iconic stomach-punchers as well as sillier (but still bilious) material from the brand-new shits 'n' giggles covers album, Cover Up.
Tue., April 1, 8 p.m.; Wed., April 2, 8 p.m., 2008