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by Ben Desroches
A Rock ‘n’ Roll Concert
Originally when I bought Marilyn Manson tickets way back in February of 1999, I had expected something else than what I thought when I originally got them. I thought I was going to see Monster Magnet, Hole and Marilyn Manson. Instead I went to see Nashville Pussy and Marilyn Manson. I didn’t mind this one bit since I’ve been wanting to see Marilyn Manson for a long time and nothing had stopped me now. The concert was on the night of Friday April 9th and was held at the Worcester Cemtrum Centre. Waiting for weeks and weeks for this one day the excitement built just for this one evening in Worcester.
Going there Marilyn Manson fans along with myself expected to hear such hits as "Get Your Gunn", "Lunchbox", "Sweet Dreams (are made of this)", and "The Beautiful People". These along with the three current singles off their latest album "The Dope Show", "I don’t like the drugs (but the drugs like me)", and "Rock is Dead".
As for the opening act, Nashville Pussy, I didn’t know what they sounded like or who they were. All I knew myself was that they were nominated for a Grammy this past year. That is a high honor just getting nominated for that great award.
I got to the show about an hour before the first band went onstage. Nashville Pussy was something that is very obscure. Their sound is almost unnamable because it is from all different styles and techniques. I would describe them as a satanic hardcore country band with two hot chicks who play bass and guitar They had the country style with screaming loud obscenities that were hard to depict.
About thirty minutes after they got offstage things were all set for the eighty minute plus set to come from Marilyn Manson. They started to play "The Inaguration of the Mechanical Christ" which was the live intro for the whole Mechanical Animals era. A cross made out of television sets raised with Marilyn Manson on it. The music started and he started to sing the words to the song that was playing, "Reflecting God". The song was powerful and fit for an opening song for such a colorful band like Marilyn Manson. After that song was over the first track off of Mechanical Animals started, "Great Big White World". This a song about how modern society has changed and is less caring toward less fortunate people. They then played their first ever single, "Get Your Gunn", off of their first album Portrait of an American Family.
For the fourth song of the set Marilyn Manson went on stilts and roamed the stage like a fifteen foot monster for the song "Mechanical Animals". After that song he left the stage and took off the stilts and went back onstage and "Sweet Dreams" started to play. At the end of that song they extended it musically with the "Long Hard Road out of Hell Outro" and the television cross was set on fire and Manson left the stage for a wardrobe change.
When he came back he was wearing a brown trench coat and hat. And they played an amazing version of "The Speed of Pain". The black back-up singer sang on mainly the choruses of the song. At the end of the song the spotlight was only on Pogo as the keyboard faded and the light went off.
The next four songs of the set the band and stage took on the more glam look that is related to with the new Marilyn Manson style. Out of the four songs they played all three singles that have been released since September when their album came out. Thrown in there was the second single off of their first album, a song called "Lunchbox". They extended the break in the song and Marilyn Manson went to both sides of the stage, tormented the police on one of the sides and told the crowd how beautiful they were. Marilyn also said that this was one of the best crowds so far on the tour, something he hardly says at shows.
He left the stage, when he came back he was wearing a police uniform, and the Marilyn Manson flag with the shock logo was in the background. Toward the end of the song a roadie went behind the singer with a fake gun and pretended to fire. Since Manson knew that the certain part of the song was his cue to pull off a fake death he grabbed his chest and fake blood came from that spot and fell to the ground like he had been shot. He was dragged offstage by two stage engineers.
When "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" was over the light went off and then the beginning of "Antichrist Superstar" filled the venue. Everyone raised their fists and yelled "HEY" like on the CD. Before he began to sing he yelled into the mic "YOU CAN'T KILL ME MOTHERFUCKER!!!". Instead is singing the lines "Time has come and it's quite clear/our antichrist is almost here" he ripped off the top of his suit.
The lights went out when the song was over then they slowly came back on. Marilyn was standing there and said that it was a great show. Then he said "Massachusetts i've got one last question to ask you, I said i've got one last god damn question to ask you", quoting a Beatles song he said, "how does it feel to be one of the beautiful PEOPLE???" The place went crazy like it was the last day on earth and everything was opening to vandalism. It was a regular version of the song nothing spectactular and the band went off stage.
The crowd wanted more. They knew he would come back for an encore and an encore is what they got. The band came back and played one of the first real Marilyn Manson songs, "Cake and Sodomy". After that song, Mister Manson pointed to Twiggy and he started to play the creep opening bass line to "Tourniquet". Now on this tour they rarely played "Tourniquet" so it was a rarity to see it live.
This show was a really good show because it showed the theatrics of how far someone will go to please their crowd. It showed that someone would actually go this far to have a show this diverse and expose the different sides of the band.
It was one of the most diverse concerts I’ve been to and it was worth all of what I paid for. I thought it was good enough to show to anyone, I thought it was so good I went the next night in New Haven. That and the fact that my best friend was going and I couldn't refuse.
That show was pretty much the same as the show in Worcester. Marilyn taunted the cops ten times worse and they only played a one song encore. Also at the end of "Lunchbox" Marilyn put the mic where his dick would be and Twiggy came over and started sucking the mic off. The encore was Rock 'n' Roll Nigger and for anyone who doesn't know that when they close with Rock 'n' Roll Nigger it gets very destructive at the end.
Toward the end of the song, Mister Manson sprayed the drums with lighter fluid and set them on fire with matches. As he was singing he continued spraying it with the bottle and the flame got higher. When on the last chorus Marilyn took the microphone stand and hit it into the cymbals of the drums repeatedly.
The last time he hit it all the drums came falling down and Ginger walked off the stage. After Marilyn left the stage Twiggy threw his bass into the mess of drums and fire on the ground. The show was over and the roadies of the band came out put out the fire with extinguishers and the house lights came on. That was the best thing I’ve ever seen at a concert.
