Our names are Angeles and John with 28 and 30 each one...We are from Barcelona---Spain.....Weīre gonna tell you an story difficult to believe, but real....We were the winners for an incredible competition, we won a trip to New Orleans to see Marilyn Manson playing live on the 25th of March...all the expenses were included....this competition was made by the Universal Music....it was an american experience for us.....

This was the fourth time we saw Marilyn Manson playing live....we had seen them three times before....two with the Antichrist tour, one with Mechanical last year and now we had the chance to see them in one of their american shows... Weīve been into Marilyn for about five years...we love it.....Marilyn has changed our lives, our way to think and look ahead....Marilyn is for us more than a band, is a way to life, a way to dream.......and this trip has been exactly what we needed to be even more into it....more into Marilyn himself....

Everything began at the beginning of March, we saw on a Tv station about this competition..... all we had to do to get the opportunity to win it was writing a letter telling which song we like most from MA and why...we did it, thinking that weīd never get the chance....Imagine our suprise when the wednesday 17 of March we got a phone call, and we were told that we were the winners...we couldnīt believe it...they liked our letter and that was all....from that day we werenīt more the same, we were out of control.....In the following days we received a couple of phone calls giving us more details about our departure....We were told that we were going to go with two more winners from a radio station, and with a person from the Universal Music, whoīs name was Marta........

Everything seemed like a dream...It was incredible....Why to us? Needless to say we couldnīt sleep those days, just waiting the date, the 24th of March, at 9:30am we had to be at the airport, the five of us, to get the flight that will take us first to New York, then to New Orleans...

We took off on the New Orleansīs airport about 20:00 of the same wednesday....remember....from Barcelona to new Orleans there are seven hours less....for us it was aprox. three in the morning.....we were about 15 hours without breathing outside from an airport....We put our watches on american time...and got a cab to go to the Hotel Sheraton....a luxurous hotel I must say......We were broken, really broken....but soooo excited that, it didnīt really matter.... The time to see playing live one of the most great band nowadays it was coming....and at least it was righthere....At 17:15 of thrusday 25, we were ready to leave our rooms, in the floor 41, yeah! 41, and got another cab to go to the UNO ARENA.....Imagine our surprise when Marta told us that the amazing white limousinne parked in front of us was for taking us to the venue....we couldnīt believe it either...you donīt usually go to the show of your favourite band on a Limousine....We got to the Arena soon, because we had to take our tickets one and a half hour before the first band started, so there wasnīt many people around but the enough to get impressed with our arrival...We could see some religious people with banners against Marilyn---the devil man----There was no way for them...people didnīt pay attention at all.... We had seats...no floor....but we got a good ones....just in front of the stage....Marta started to work at this point....and she did it real well....She got Backstage passes for us!!! She went to talk with the manager- Tony- who did agree with the idea, more than that....he was impressed with the idea of the trip from Barcelona just to see the show....We were as crazy.....

The first band---Jack off Jill----A band of girls....Marilyn himself helped them to get the name....They didnīt sound really bad... but...I must say that we didnīt pay much attention, we were thinking on the backstage, thinking in what weīd tell to Marilyn when he was in front of us.....

---Monster Magnet-----They sounded really good.....Everything was clear----Dave has a very good voice....They got the audience....I remember when he asked us if we missed Hole there....everybody yell nooooooo!!!! Their last song was ---Space Lord! It was fucking good!! Almost 8000 people were singing---Space Lord--MotherFucker----

Now we had about 30 minutes of Pink Floid....

And now.....madness everywhere----lights were out, we only could hear screams everywhere, and in front of us it was the great glittered curtain....then the curtain dropped off, and you could see clearly all the band in their usual places---Twiggy and Ginger on the left----Madonna and John5 on the right----and on the centre of the stage Manson crucified...in a big cross made by televisions...similar to the IDLTD video....and after jumping from the cross...they went into "The Reflecting God"......

The set of songs---Iīm sure they are out of order, but the played songs were....

The reflecting God....Big great white world.....Get your Gunn....Mechanical Animals.......Sweet Dreams....Speed of Pain....Rock is dead.....Lunchbox.....I donīt like the drugs.....Dope Show......Irresponsible Hate Athem.....Antichrist Superstar.....Beautiful People.... The show was amazing, breathtaking, spectacular.....they were still on the Mechanical Animals tour...so there was many things that reminded me the last show I saw of them the 2nd of December 98ī, but there was someones news ......

They used fireworks, gunshots with fire..... During Dope Show we could hear....The drugs they say are made in New Orleans....

At almost the end of Irresponsible Hate Anthem....when everybody was singing FUCK IT and we were with our middle fingers up, someone came out from the back of the stage, it was a man, he wore a kind of police or militar dress on, and a big gun, then he shot at Marilyn at the back, we could hear it very loud, then Marilyn fell down blooding, the rest of the band were still playing, but the people stopped singing, we were all just looking at.....then two persons came out, took Marilyn for the shoulders and dissapeared...... Before starting IDLTD, Marilyn told us a dream he had, in that dream Marilyn spoke with god...in the dream god told him that "god" wouldnīt spell like that anymore, god told him that from now it would be spell it as D-R-U-G-S....Drugs, and he made us the game of -Give me a D, Give me a R........ha,ha,ha...it was funny....When we saw Marilyn last year playing in Barcelona, they told us another story...he told us that he had learned a new word in Spanish ---the word obviously it was drugs in Spanish----thatīs Drogas!!, he said....Drogas----I canīt hear you, Iīve said Drogas, what do you have to say??....needless to say the audience went crazy at that point....I know from reviews of other people, that he used also the story of god create the marihuana, and the LSD and the cocaine, etc....I find it funny, I love his sense of humour.....

Of course, we had also Mechanical Animals on stilts, The pulpit on Antichrist Superstar and a kind of confetti during Speed of Pain and Lunchbox.

Outfits----the usual ones----I really love the one with feathers on the shoulders, and I really love too a new one....A silvered one with a silvered cape too...he had control over the cape, spreading it like a big wings...He took it off after few minutes....This was during Rock is Dead.... He didnīt wear the same blue and white dress that used during the other Mechanical Animals tour, the one which wore on the MTV Video Music Awards... but the outfit was the same for Speed of Pain, Irresposible Hate Anthem, Antichrist......

We could see again that Marilyn has taken the show as his own show....and the rest of the band is being each time more appart from the protagonism.....Marilyn is like that!!

The audience was into the show, but in a different way that here in Barcelona, we are here more agressive, more crazy....I have to say it....Here we are as if each show was the last of our lives.....But we were really impressed anyway, it was really cool to see everyone singing all the songs......to hear people speaking in American everywhere.....and to see all them concentrate in one thing-----Marilyn Manson!!

The show finished with the destruction of the drums, and throwning the mic with stand included to John5, for the majority of the people there, that was the end of the show, for us there was one more thing waiting....Meeting the band...John and I met them some time ago, in a signing, in May 97ī, with their Antichrist Tour, but it didnīt matter, the excitement it was the same than the first time, besides...they were really different now than before..... We had to wait for a while before entering a room, there was about 25 people, counting friends of the band too, we sat, there was tables and chairs....The first we saw was Ginger, he got a seat with his girlfriend.... in the same table that we were sat!!! we told him our story, he talked a bit with us while he was signing our tickets...Then John5 joined us, Ginger told him our story....Well...We were there with them....Ginger with his girl, and John5 chatting with the people very enjoyable....But....we had three left...Where were they?? After being waiting about 15 minutes, we were told to form groups for entering the backstage where Manson, Twiggy and Madonna were, we were warned...not to bother the band, because we had to understand their state after the show......That looked very good, we were more excited than ever...... We had to walk a bit, we were seeing all the time their equipment, with their names witten down on the boxes.....At the end of the hallway we saw a poor lighted room...that was their backstage...There were the three, then Ginger and John5 joined them too....Twiggy and Madonna were sitting on the same sofa, meanwhile Marilyn was alone on one....There was food, drinks, cosmetics products, all in a mess...... It was breathtaking.....we got our tickets signed, shook hands, and I even got the chance to sit beside Marilyn and tell him a few things.......It was really really good.......an unforgettable experience......

- Angeles y Juan