Ministry performs at The Warfield in San Francisco on April 16, 2022. Nathan McKinley/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — Lots of gritty sci-fi movies include a scene set in some futuristic nightclub where loud music and flashing lights serve as a backdrop for scruffy characters exchanging a thumb drive, taking designer drugs or “hacking into the mainframe,” whatever that is. Saturday’s sold-out show by industrial powerhouse Ministry at the Warfield Theater felt like those movies were coming true.

The performance began with a large projection of the Ukrainian flag behind the stage, superimposed with the words, “Ministry stands with Ukraine.”

“Hello, San Francisco, it’s so fucking great to be back!” Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen greeted the crowd.

Separated from the audience by an six-foot tall chain-link fence,  Jourgensen stalked the stage in a long black leather coat and dark dreads. The singer resembled a leather muppet crafted to look like Johnny Depp’s pirate character, Captain Jack Sparrow. The band, composed of two guitarists, bassist, drummer and synth player, looked menacing as they meted out their pummeling riffage.

Ministry performs at The Warfield in San Francisco on April 16, 2022.

The band led off with “Breathe,” from its game-changing album, A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste. Jourgensen screamed the lyrics he penned more than 30 years ago, “Breathe!/ This is the world/ It’s got no future/ Is this earth?/ Breathe! breathe, you fucker!” The prescience of the lyrics, the stark lighting, and the grinding mechanistic power riffing from the guitars set the dystopian mood like an IPCC report on global warming.

Other songs from Taste included “Burning Inside” and “Thieves,” with its iconic stutter riff and dentist drill sample.

At other points in the show, samples of old anti-drug ads blared over the band’s cover of Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut,” clips played of climate activist Greta Thunberg chastising adults and George H.W. Bush spoke about  “new world order” during “NWO.”

Ministry performs at The Warfield in San Francisco on April 16, 2022.

The set’s multimedia content included the giant screen behind the band. During the Slayer-ish power chugging of “Just One Fix,” author William Burroughs appeared on the screen. During “NWO,” flags and nationalist iconography flashed in rapid succession.

Crew members removed the chainlink fence for the encore, when the sextet returned to play material from last year’s Moral Hygiene. During “Alert Level,” a sample of a reporter asking “How concerned are you?” repeated over and over until Jourgensen screamed, “Let’s get ready to die!”

“Get the party started, vote the fascists out!” he screamed during “Good Trouble” as confetti guns fired white bits of paper over the crowd.

It’s no coincidence that Steven Spielberg cast Jourgensen and company in his 2001 robo-Pinocchio classic, “AI.”  If, in five or 10 years we need a house band for our robot death battles, Ministry’s stark, abrasive, and cathartic stage show will set just the right tone.

The Melvins perform at The Warfield in San Francisco on April 16, 2022.

Earlier in the evening, sludge powerhouse The Melvins got the crowd going with a pummeling set that focused on the trio’s older material. Playing before a giant projection of aging witch Endora from the ’60s TV show “Bewitched,” the band kicked things off with a rendition of “Kicking Machine,” off 2008 album Nude with Boots. The highlight of the Melvins‘ nearly hour-long set occurred when the band was joined by Ministry drummer Roy Mayorga for their classic songs “Hooch” and “Honey Bucket.”

Heavy rock pioneers Corrosion of Conformity played first, delivering slabs of Sabbath-like riff rock. The North Carolina quartet demonstrated why it’s been so influential for grunge-era bands like Soundgarden. The subtle grace in songs like “Señor Limpio” and “Vote with a Bullet” was evident amid all the overdriven power chord bashing. The band finished its set with a long version of “Clean My Wounds,” off their 1994 album, Deliverance.

Follow photographer Nathan McKinley at Instagram.com/memories.by.mckinley.