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I attended this concert with my friends Erick and David. It was an amazing show! The opening acts were ho-hum, but Manson brought a level of energy to his performance that I had not seen before or since. The band was on fire! The sound, the performance, the production ... everything was just top notch. Granted, this show was not as dark and raw and titillating as the footage I've seen from earlier tours. However, it seemed as though Manson & Co. were polished to the point of peak professionalism on this night. It was a wonderful evening that left me wanting more!
Manson changed costumes a couple of times <see pictures>. He came out in some animal skinned shoulder pads, he dressed like the pope and sang from a shotgun-encased mike stand with two wax heads on a mantle, he brought out the stilts, and he had a new high riser (covered in cloth) that raised him 25 feet in the air while a big Holy Wood sign flashed in the background. John 5 was foaming at the mouth like he was possessed. Twiggy and Gingerfish were pounding out the low end rhythms like a couple of jackhammers. And Madonna Wayne Gacy was playing his keyboard on top of some kind of big rubber slinky that swayed to and fro, while he lurched along with it. The whole performance was a non-stop tour-de force of visual stimuli!
At one point, someone lit a fire behind me and as I turned around, I saw security guards barreling through the crowd to tackle this guy. I thought they were too overzealous, because they were shoving people aside and knocked down this one girl. I found out later from the newspaper that someone had lit a flag on fire. (Side note: that newspaper article is full of shit. There was nothing tame or soft about that show. I cut out the article and saved it, and I have a little handwritten note to the author that reads "Fuck you Mike, it was awesome!") The band's performance along with the audience and the atmosphere was awe-inspiring. It was definitely a night to remember. Epic!
01 Count to Six and Die [Intro]
02 Irresponsible Hate Anthem
03 The Death Song
04 Disposable Teens
05 Great Big White World
06 Tourniquet
07 The Fight Song
08 Lunchbox
10 Rock Is Dead
11 The Dope Show
12 Cruci-Fiction in Space
13 Burning Flag
14 Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) [w/ Hell Outro]
15 Valentine's Day
16 The Love Song
17 The Beautiful People
Music review: Manson cuts back on shock rock
by Michael D. Clark for The Houston Chronicle [2000]
Perhaps it's a result of being used as a scapegoat after Columbine. Or finding love with a starlet. Maybe he's just tired of trying to shock the world. Whatever the mixture, with a new album, Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), and new tour, Marilyn Manson has toned it down. With the exception of grisly imagery and a few kids trying to torch American flags (attempts that were stopped swiftly by security), his Friday show at Aerial Theater settled in nicely between the spectacle of a KISS concert and the macabre theater of Alice Cooper.
This relative softening by Manson matches the sympathetic themes of his new album. Holy Wood comes from a much more personal place, filled with childhood memories of growing up bored and afraid in Middle America. It could be personal, but it also has a defensive tone, telling parents to look in the mirror before blaming Manson for their messed-up kids.
There was no greater moment during the 85-minute, 16-song set than when Manson wagged a scolding finger at a woman in the audience showing too much flesh. He admonished her, telling her that ample cleavage is not necessarily all that rock 'n' roll. What must it be like to draw Manson's scorn?
His rock 'n' roll is swirling, with multi-colored contact lenses, lipstick smeared down the face and toothy sneers. He likes to play dress-up, but his most shocking and effective ghoul prop is his own gawky, flexible body. Knock-kneed and hunched over, Manson looks a little more muscular these days. He's not really a 90-pound weakling anymore. More like 110 pounds. His skin is still the color of porcelain.
Beginning with the opening line of "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" ('I am so all-American, I'd sell you suicide'), Manson spent the evening offering examples of how society corrupts human behavior and distorts perception far more than he ever could. Wearing leather pants with matching elbow-length gloves and a black corset, he introduced two Holy Wood tracks, "The Death Song" and the single "Disposable Teens", with the shuffling guitar riffs and spit-drenched lyrics of his favorite metal dirges. A not-so-subtle painting of a baby on a crucifix, cut open as if at an autopsy, slammed home Manson's message of youth corrupted by religion and glorified violence in entertainment.
There were reminders of the formerly more caustic Manson. Galloping the stage on stilts during the new "Fight Song", followed by one of his earliest efforts, "Lunch Box", he looked again like the emaciated creature feature who once opened for Nine Inch Nails. Staring at the grotesque image made one wonder how Manson's girlfriend, actress Rose McGowan, who danced near the soundboard all night, looked up at the stage and saw love.
The more listenable Manson's songs get, the more the images of his show feel like nothing more than shocking entertainment. In the Shadow of the Valley of Death was a think-piece, instructing listeners to question that which we give blind faith. The fact that he sang it dressed in a pontiff's robe took away from the more subtle innuendo. Combined with past hits like "The Dope Show" and Manson's hissing cover of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", it made his finale's effort at chain-rattling ring hollow. Propagandizing from a podium with a cross made of firearms as a backdrop, he sang "The Beautiful People" like a dictator at a youth rally.
It made for colorful scenery, but there was no reason to sell to this capacity crowd of kids. They've already bought into the fun, if not the belief.