Aragon Ballroom, Chicago Illinois

Waiting to get in, we are called “Mansonites” by a person outside the venue telling us that the intelligent people here tonight will find inner peace by becoming Buddhist :->.

They’re playing The Wall between 12 Round and MM. Kind of scary that many in the crowd are enjoying it. 12 Round sound better tonight. Her dress is better tonight, too. They’re a darker sound and a tighter band than NY Loose. But still not particularly interesting. Certainly not interesting in the ways that either Helmet or Rasputina are.

Show starts at 9:20. The filmy glitter of the curtain is completely lost in the smog of the Aragon. It just looks like a tarp. Lights go down. “This isn’t me. I’m not mechanical.”, over the sound system, strobes. His silhouette projected from behind the curtain by a single spotlight. The effect is very cool. His fingers look really, really long, the outline is something like the angel on the cover of ACS. Twiggy and J5 come out in front of the curtain as it drops to the floor. And there he is in his blue, arched, feather-boa-jacket. The powder-blue platform-soled jump suit is completely cutaway around his crotch and butt. He’s wearing a silver, glittery g-string. He’s really into it tonight running through The Reflecting God, Great Big White World, Cake and Sodomy – tonight he screams “Cuntfucker!” (he didn’t last night) , and Posthuman without a stop. It isn’t a phallic apparatus as I thought from a distance last night. It’s just that sliver g-string and his own fascination with what’s inside it.

Long pause, darkness. The crowd is packed and hot, it’s hard to breathe. And surprisingly calm for the Aragon, for any MM concert. These people didn’t go wild over Cake and Sodomy. Am I the only one? There’s no mosh, no surfing, no riot. Which is nice, but surprising. It’s nice not getting kicked in the head but I have to wonder, am I at an MM event? Here he comes, big, confident strides on the stilts for Mechanical Animals. He finishes the song with his arms high, those long arm poles crossed over his head, very dramatic. Fade to black and J5 goes into his acoustic solo.

Here he comes in that jaunty hat and raincoat, Speed of Pain. He really is on tonight. The mic feeds-back. He flips off the crew back stage. Damn, not again tonight. Please! The snow starts. He continues. He really likes the snow, doesn’t he? Everything’s ok. The lights fade to a spot on Pogo who plays until the stage is set for Omega.

Omega is announced. Rock is Dead. Love those red feathers. This time there’s a gold-lame backdrop to match the background femmes’ dresses. Again he throws off the feathers way too soon. They’re soooo lovely! It’s the best outfit of the night, his thin thighs look so good in garters, and it doesn’t even last one song. Long, long pause, feedback.

Dope Show, and it’s the first surfer of the evening. Hmmm. That sucks. But I guess that’s what MM wanted, after all. He’s wearing the red platform-leggings and g-string from the previous outfit, the garters are gone so his leggings are falling. He’s such the ravaged woman. A black corset sitting down over his hips. The red shirt is gone, too…..”Drugs, they, were made in Chi-ca-go”…

Lunchbox: glitter into the crowd. They are little half-inch squares of gold-metallic paper that stick to your sweaty skin. It is kind of cool. Tonight he asks the crowd to spit. He didn’t last night. Not many comply.

User Friendly: push-ups on his pedestal. He has two long bench-pedestals this time instead of the one off-center cube that everyone just had to be in front of last time around. He says he’s “gonna fuck you in your mouth and in your ass” last night he also said he was going to “fuck this pretty little baby in the front row.” He really enjoys this song.

Going into Don’t Like the Drugs: “How many of you have drugs tonight?”, loud response from the crowd, “How many of you have drugs for me?”, louder response, “How many of you are lying?”. The crowd pauses, it’s funny. He’s asking us if we are lying? Hm. The DRUGS marquee barely fits the Aragon stage.

Rock ‘n Roll Nigger, great job, throws down the mic, walks off, band jams, J5 solo, strobes, feedback. Heartbeat! Antichrist! It is just as incredible every time! This time he’s got the black tie and red shirt. They don’t last long. He doesn’t like his clothes tonight. He does in another book. Ends with “You might as well kill yourself, your already dead” tape loop.

“How many of you missed us?” Crowd responds. “Would you rather be watching 311 and Korn?” Oooo, that’s painful. The crowd yells “No!” “How does it feel to be one of the Beautiful People?” Pandemonium, mosh time, hold onto your head. Apes. Definitely Apes. Ginger got it right tonight.

Sweet dreams. He thumps his chest with the mic while the crowd sings the words. Ugh.

Encore. He’s wearing blue work shirt, cop hat, flag wrapped around his waist. Says he’s been told to tell us that drugs are bad. That he should say something positive about not doing drugs, that drugs aren’t cool. Tells us we should all say: “We love cops. We hate drugs.” He says it a few times – so you know, you just flat out know that it’s Irresponsible Hate Anthem, next. Then he says. “See that just doesn’t work. I am Marilyn Manson and I am a drug addict.” The crowd is riotous. At the end of the song he pitches the mic stand into the drums.

Last night in Milwaukee they were all the way through Beautiful People and had started Sweet Dreams when the show abruptly ended – all of this in one hour, ten minutes. Temper tantrum included.

Tonight the show is one hour, 30 minutes. Not exactly smooth, but no blowups. The only encore is Irresponsible Hate Anthem. Disappointing in my opinion. Can anything be as great an ending as Man That You Fear? I’d sure like to see him try with Coma White. He wanders to the back of the stage during the noise and feedback at the end of IHA and collapses. Stage crew carries him off. End of show.

Overall, it is bright, glitzy, dramatic and theatrical. Hm. Personally, nothing comes close to the dark power of DTTW.

Rachel