Mechanical Animals - Tulsa 10/4/98

background
I think the key to understanding the Tulsa show is a line from a skit on Saturday Night Live several years ago. Shannon Dougherty and David Spade play characters in MTV's Real World:
she: "If people from Oklahoma can't get along, what is the world coming to?"
he: "I'm from Oklahoma City. Hell, you're just po' white trash from Tulsa."

I can't report on pre-show activities: we were late arriving and the man at the "will call" window couldn't find our tickets - or charge card receipt. So we got our tickets at 9:13 for a show that started at 9:15. Great seats as it turned out, at the back of the floor (by the soundboard), which slopes up allowing wonderful view over the heads of the floor crowd. Pull out the trusty Jason wide angle bino's and I'm there, dude.

You can tell that considerable money has been invested in this tour: they had a separate board for the lighting rig up in the balconey - they had a bunch of those trick 360 degree rotating lights hanging high above the stage - so the lighting effects were quite impressive. Also, they seem to be running alot more watts soundwise - which translates into a bottom end which could be felt even where we sat - (the floor section seats about 1200, the balcony about 1100). Plus the crew had an extra day to set up the sound - very impressive, though it could easily overwhelm some smaller venues.

the setlist


(1) the reflecting god
(2) great big white world
(3) cake and sodomy
(4) post human (followed by percussion exploration)
(5) mechanical animals (with stilts)
(6) speed of pain
(7) mister superstar (followed by further percussion exploration)

So, dissociative got the axe (too bad) in favor of post human. For my money, the coupling of speed of pain with mister superstar was definitely the highlight of the show. Mister superstar ends with mister manson trashing his guitar (a red Gibson SG or reasonable facsimile) on guitar amp cleverly in place behind him. This was, of course, not the way-cool shock guitar from ACS. On the other hand, they didn't throw the guitar to the crowd either - I suspect it will be back in duty quickly. In any case, it was little more than a prop anyway - he wasn't trying to actually play (compared to, say, minute of decay - which took some concentration). By the way, the reflecting god works quite well as the set opener - much better than at the end of the ACS set when it just seemed like piling on, as it were. Also be advised that the costume changes (3 or 4 of them) are accompanied by a blitzkrieg of drums and strobes - after the second or third time it seemed a little excessive IMHO.

(8) rock is dead
(9) dope show
(10) lunchbox
(11) user friendly
(12) i don't like the drugs
(13) rock & roll (the "n word")

This begins the "Vegas" section of the show, Manson in his red feathered outfit. I think there was also the MA introduction from the alblum, but I'm not sure. Before the start of lunchbox was the first time Manson adressed the crowd. Personally, I prefer Zim's intro (to lunchbox) to John5's...the "I give you" sample wasn't played and apparently Marilyn no longer wants to grow up and be antichrist superstar. Shucks!!

I don't like the drugs had a custom introduction: Tuesday was election day so the Reverend took the opportunity to stick it to our Governor, Frank Keating (how they had been backstage with the governor's hand on/up his ass etc. etc.) Now for you historians, this all goes back to the last time Manson played in Oklahoma City and the huge tizzy that we were in the grip of as we anticipated the first known visit of the antichrist to Oklahoma (to quote Kurt Loeder). Unless you count Bill Clinton, but I digress. Manson hasn't played in Tulsa since they opened the SLC tour there way back when. There is no doubt in my mind that Manson had read some of the subversive propoganda mocking Gov. Keating that was distributed back in Feb. '97 at the Oklahoma City show. (If none of this makes sense now, you must wait until angelynx publishes her ACS tour odyssey - all will be revealed). I doubt the Tulsa crowd (Keating used to be mayor of Tulsa and is also ex-FBI) had a clue about it either, but obviously Marilyn was having a wonderful time insulting Tulsa's favorite son. He also had a great rhyme (but I missed the puchline- damn!) about Jesus Christ creating marijuana, cocaine, LSD and something about Keating that ended with "why don't we".

(14) antichrist superstar
(15) the beautiful people
(16) sweet dreams
(17) irresponsible hate anthem

Oooh Oooh Oooh, on ACS check out the Reverend's new trick devil red contact lenses - way too cool. Also, the "time is near, it is quite clear..." chorus at the end is gone. And "trident" triple microphone setup. At this point, the show started going downhill rapidly - I would say due to (1) more or less total lack of crowd response ("is that all the middle finger's you've got?") and (2) several items thrown from the crowd (the bra was welcome, but not projectiles). So beautiful people ended with two nasty thuds from the mic being smashed. Sweet dreams has a much more aggressive/metal type solo now, but again, I prefer Zim's big moment. There was some more anti Keating stuff at the end but it doesn't appear in my notes.

Conclusion
I think the boys are trying very hard, it's early in the tour. The problems in Tulsa I would put squarely on the audience. However, this is going to be Marilyn's dilemma as he expands his audience - and especially if/when they take the show to arena sized venues. I noticed that at this show, the proportion of the crowd that was dressed spooky-style couldn't have been more than 20%. Contrast to say, New Year's eve at Fort Worth where it seemed everyone had makeup of one sort or another. What can I say, Tulsa sucks. Come to OKC rev. Also, I would say that if you like the new direction on MA, you'll absolutely love this show. Hopefully the band can try out some of the killer songs on the alblum that they didn't play (I want to dissapear comes to mind). On the other hand, the sad fact is that the new material can't hold a candle to ACS IMHO. I would say that the slow/sad songs on MA would work better live than most of the more glitzy stuff. Still, you have to give the man credit for performing new material (for better or worse) rather than just an oldies/greatest hits rehash no matter how much the screaming masses may desire the latter.

Say hi to Ethan running the light board. Our old buddy Sean is in LA working with "No Doubt".
I give you warts. My warts I give unto you.