marilyn manson
st louis, mo
fox theater
10/30/00
i sit with anticipation mounting as a worker climbs a shaky ladder. slowly he goes. nervous obviously. his goal, to fix the curtain that held eager eyes from their anti-hero marilyn manson. for five minutes the worker plays with the curtain as he hangs fifty feet above death. the show is about to go on but still he frantically tries to fix the curtain. at last he gives up. he begins to climb down but loses his balance. i gasp as no one around me seems to understand the danger at hand. quickly another worker rushes up the shaky ladder confidently. he grabs hold of the scared man and helps him down to safety. now with one death averted i sit back and await the true dead man to show his face.
the rolling stones tape stops. the lights dim. an eerie scratching noise can be heard. it sounds as if gremlins are about to jump out from the curtain and devour us. a soft, dreary song begins to unfold. the journey has begun. suddenly the curtain drops, the lights shine down and there, half man, half gargoyle stands mr. manson. a second lasts five minutes as the image of green smoke swirling around the anti-hero burns into my brain. suddenly thunder claps as the show now truly begins with the ferocious irresponsible hate anthem. an interesting choice to begin the show. it had been one of the last songs played the last time they were in town in 98. it seemed as if this was a contiuation of the past, but something was very different. the glam garb manson had once dressed himself in had turned death black and it seemed as if his left arm had spawned into a long, furry tentacle. within a blink of an eye that song vanishes and is replaced by my favorite song off holy wood, the death song. much like the reflecting god, the death song seems to like a little power live, but it was still very entertaining. a short pause gives time for the background to change for the next song disposable teens. the crowd goes wild for the overplayed the beautiful people rip off. live the song seems to take on new charisma however and it was definately one of the high points in crowd noise for the evening. after the disposable teen's buzzing outro a dim, smokey white fills the stage. looking back on it now it was a beautiful way to bring life to the great big white world. the song seems to put half the audience asleep by the end of it though. again there is a short pause and everyone collects themselves for what could be next. the crowd goes crazy as manson now turns into a spider/alien of sorts and treats the crowd to his stilt walking rendition of tourniquet. ive always secretly wanted to see the sometimes clumsy manson fall on the stilts but that would not happen tonight as the whole show seemed to go flawlessly after the roadie mishap in the beginning. before the next song manson decides to get the crowd going. in 98 he had insulted the docile crowd by calling us sunday schoolers. this time we became his "cheerleaders." he told us there is no point in saving whales, saving rainforests, or in a nihlistic manner, saving ourselves. he tells us the world is destined to fail and "bill clinton and his communist cock" proves it. he provokes the crowd more by saying he wants the whole city to hear us "scream our balls off" which i found rather amusing. immediatly after he goes into the fight song which i always though lacked the power it could have. after the fight song came lunchbox in which manson paused, as he had done in most 99 shows, to work the crowd again. however this time, unlike 99, he did not abuse the fans with insults and sights of his ass when they cheered back pathetically. instead he blew each side a kiss and finished out the song. next up was the dope show and i must have fell asleep during the song because i dont remember a damn thing about it. ill never forget the next song though. a steady bass chord begins it eerily. a strange noise emits from pogo's fingers and all of the sudden a dark light shines down at manson who appears to be wearing a long black dress now. slowly he begins to grow to the crowds amazement. higher and higher as he begins cruci-fiction in space until he finally tops out around 40 feet high. the black dress hangs lazily down as slowly he begins his descent. anti-climaticaly the song ends with manson back down to the floor. all of a sudden another loud roar blasts out signally the beginning of the burning flag. the song sounds very sloppy live but gets the crowd excited because of the loudness of it. after that comes the loudest cheer from the crowd as the ominously familiar chords of sweet dreams are played. again i dont remember much of what happens during this song because i was busy watching about three people lift their lighters then about a thousand going into sheep mentality to match them. after sweet dreams was a rather long and fast version of the hell outro. this was most likely put in to give time to set up the best prop ive ever seen manson wield. valentines day starts off with manson dressed as a pope walking out onto the stage. he slowly sings and walks in stride to what seems like a waltz. he bows down in front of a crude altar with two heads of dummies (i hope) at each end. he then strips off the white coat and hat to show the blackness underneath. i turn my head for a split second and i look back to see him covering himself in a dark substance. im not sure if it was supposed to represent blood or just common filth but he promptly made a mess of himself before the song concluded. a long pause occurs this time and the crowd gets a bit antsy. i know whats coming up and get very excited as i see a podium being put into place. antichrist superstar is my favorite song live i think but then am promptly disappointed with the love song which is a great song but cannot compare to antichrist superstar. an eerie smoke rises from his now red podium with guns in the shape of a cross which is a pretty cool idea i think. after the song is over the podium stays, which strikes me as odd, for another fan favorite the beautiful people. after that there is a short pause before my favorite marilyn manson album song and probably least favorite live song: the reflecting god. the version reminds me alot of every other version he's played as he replaces half the chorus with the repetetive "shoot shoot shoot mother fucker." after this the crowd is pretty much beat. we stand chanting for what seems like ten minutes before our "encore" is played. i guessed it right on the nose when i figured it would be rock is dead. i like the idea of having this song last because its short, powerful and sort of concludes the night with the title. after manson finishes and halfway tries to destroy the drum kit, he storms off, the music dies down, the lights go up and suicide is painless comes over the speakers. it was a nice way to close the night.
overall the show was better than the 98 show but still lacked something. i guess i expected more, but then again it was only the third show of the tour. i left pretty happy. on the drive home i turned it on the local radio station only to hear an idiot call up and say manson began with antichrist superstar. after cussing him out i enjoyed the 30 minute drive home to eight (yes eight) back to back manson songs on the radio. that was the coolest thing that radio station has ever done and most likely will do.
