Antichrist Supperstar
So yesterday I found out that Mike got two free tickets to go see Marilyn Manson at our local mega-arena. We walked down there from our house, and got our seats (over on the side/front– good view of the band, not so good sound) in time to hear the opening band, Die Mannequin (word Toronto!), play about five songs. They were really entertaining–first of all, the leader (singer and guitar) was a non-starving, actually talented woman! Her outfit and presentation was not tarty–she wore a shapeless black tank top, white tube socks rolled down and some kind of combatty boots, and black nylons. She forgot her pants, but was sporting some nice black knickers. She staggered around the stage manically thrashing on her guitar and was easy to take seriously, despite her high squeaky girl voice (which was always bang-on key). How did she do that?
At one point she said “have you guys ever been locked up? At one point I was deemed insane and institutionalized, so I wrote a song about it.” At another point she said “were you ever raped six times and forced to have six children? This is a song about someone who did”. Way to take those negative life experiences and turn them into Art, girl of mannequin.
After a setup break and some wicked people watching, the giant black curtain floated down to the floor and the man himself appeared. Now, I’m not a Marilyn Manson fan at all, in fact I couldn’t name or hum even one of his songs, but I knew his face. I always thought they must photoshop and glamorize the hell out of his face and expected to see a pale (haha) simulacrum; it was oddly impressive to see him in real life. I was surprised to see that he looks exactly like Marilyn Manson–he has the prerequisite huge head of people in show business, and he was weirdly beautiful and totally charismatic. Kind of reminded me of Snerp, or Sneep, or whoever that hot Alan Rickman played in Harry Potter. He (Manson) had some kind of cheekbone-enhancing black paint or makeup or tattoos on his face, his shoulder length jaggedy black hair was perfect (even when it started to get sweaty). He came out in a really cool black leather kind of SS style greatcoat with “hell etc.” on the back in what looked like white duct tape. That came off to reveal his basic outfit, which consisted of skinny black pants with fuchsia ripped fishnet thigh-highs over top, a black sports bra of some sort and a tent-ish loose post apocalyptic black tank top that kind of enhanced his high gut (yes, he’s got middle age spread–the kind that tall, thin men get). I think he and the Girl Mannequin shop at the same tank top shop. I did find the gut really out of place with his sweet-transvestite strut and general rockstar demeanor, but I can’t really imagine him doing situps…can you?
For different songs he put on different outfits over his flashdance gear–a greatcoat and police hat; a different greatcoat (which had upside down crosses projected on it and he lit a book on fire, presumably a bible); a sort of bell-shaped hat, like a british bobby’s, and studded motorcyclish coat. At one point his mouth became huge, red and messy (I think he hid in a bank of fog and applied lipstick).
He’s got the awesome growl/scream, and can sing real notes too, which is super cool, but I found his stage moves robotic. They went like this: Reach out for beverage (looked like rootbeer in a red bottle–handed to him by assistant), take a swig, spit it out, throw bottle behind him at a low angle, walk out to end of catwalk, pump arm holding mike 3x, crouch down and sing to that one lucky person, holding his/her hand, walk back to stage, strut. Repeat 15 times. Hump mike stand (which worked for me), hump floor monitor (which didn’t–he only did it once actually, and had a bit of trouble getting back up–put me in mind of Nigel Tufnell’s solo in Hell Hole).
Hell Hole!
I thought it looked and sounded pretty good, not much in the way of effects or stagecraft at all. Props consisted of a mic that looked like a dagger and the flaming book, and the outfits. The band seemed to be off each in his own little world, playing tightly but without any of that connection that makes live acts so gratifying to watch.
People beside us informed us that he was playing all new stuff. The woman turned out to be the editor of the Seattle Times. The crowd was pretty small, I’d say the half of the arena that was allocated to the show was about 2/3 full. Actually the feeling was strangely intimate in there, maybe partly because there was no huge tv to watch. When Manson played his last song, “the beautiful people”, the crowd went off, confetti cannons were shot and it felt really fun, like I thought it would or should have all along.
Although I feel unqualified to give a review, (I’m doing it anyways, aren’t I?) I’d give it 5.5 out of ten, for solid musicality, sort of adequate energy, and good outfits, but the lack of sponteneity and excitement, and the gut, prohibits a higher score. The opening band gets a solid 7. I get a 2 for audience participation, although I did raise my hand in a middle-finger salute when called upon.
4 Responses to “Antichrist Supperstar”
Leave a Reply
Bonspiel Randomizer
September 9th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Sweet review nothing like a night of good mikestand humping! But hey can you really lose points for your paunch I don’t have time for situps and Alan Rickman hot? C’mon. Anyway your review gets a 3 out of 5
Thanks
Rik
September 9th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Right on! I give your blog comment 1.5 out of 5.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:38 am
are you kidding me? this review rocks the hell out of the actual show, i give it a 4 out of 5! However, if the reviewer had worn a white fur bunny suit to the show then the review would automatically score 5 out of 5. (standard bunny suit review policy, everyone knows)
July 9th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
very nice stuff hopefully i learned from it.