Both nights were great! Far better than the recent Idaho show, for many different reasons...location for example :) But besides that, a better venue, nice crowd, no problems, a much livelier and talkative Manson.

Of course, there was no fuss made about the show here...the only visible media presence were a couple of radio station vans, who were parked in front of the theater, partying the night away. The second night there was one lone Jesus protestor standing there silently holding a sign, but they're always down there anyway. On the marquee outside the Warfield (an old Fox Theater in downtown SF, located in the XXX-sex shop section of Market Street) it said "MARILYN MANSON" in gigantic letters, and underneath in a type size about 1/20 of that was "L7" so tiny it was barely readable--it looked pretty funny. Anyway, I thought L7 was much better than the microscopic billing they got out front :)

Tuesday night we had reserved seats near the front of the center balcony (I sneaked in a camera!) and general admission floor for Wednesday. That first night, there was a long pause between the time they dimmed the lights and when MM actually started playing...I didn't think they were that popular here (and it did take weeks for all the balcony seats for both these shows to finally sell out), but you should have heard that crowd *screaming* for them to come out! Loud, excited screams...it was quite impressive in my opinion, kind of touching actually...a nice "Welcome to San Francisco" from the audience. My 12-year old niece was really excited--this was her very first concert (start 'em off right with Marilyn Manson, ya know?) And that reminds me...unlike Idaho where the average age was probably about 17, I didn't feel the least bit out of place at these shows. A good large chunk of the crowd was in their late 20's, 30's, even 40's and 50's for some. Not very many kids and high-schoolers, even though it was an all-ages event. Crowd-watching at the Warfield is always interesting, particularly at events that summon forth the black-clad underground contingent from all the dark corners of the Bay Area :)

I was surprised to see the security guys put on raincoats here--orange this time, and they kept them on too. Manson was wearing the Tourniquet video ruffled-panties outfit again, but he took it all off eventually :) Twiggy in a beige dress, Zimzum in the black short pants. MWG was jumping around so much I couldn't figure out what he was wearing, but I saw a blur of skin so it must have been short pants. Ginger was hiding behind the drum kit (good thing too, as a familiar heavy object soon came flying his way).

I'm pretty sure this is what they played Tuesday night, and in what order; and all the details are from Tuesday as well unless otherwise noted.

1) Angel with the Scabbed Wings 2) Get Your Gunn 3) Dogma 4) Dried Up/ Tied etc. 5) Tourniquet 6) Lunchbox 7) Sweet Dreams 8) Cake and Sodomy 9) Little Horn 10) Cryptorchid 11) ACS 12) Beautiful People 13) Reflecting God 14) IHA 15) Man That You Fear. But the SF Examiner reviewer said there were 16 songs, so maybe I forgot one (she also called the show a "love-fest" :)

It was good to be in the balcony once, as I could really see everything that was going on down there. The sound seemed overly heavy on the bass, with Manson's vocals not loud enough, or so it seemed to me. (It was much better the next night down on the floor--almost perfect, in fact.) He hit his chest *continuously* Tuesday night with the microphone, and every time it went "THUNK!" against his breastbone, I could feel it resonate in my own. It started to drive me crazy after awhile...kind of like somebody scratching their fingernails on a blackboard :\

For "Dried Up" Manson was playing a red guitar! He didn't do that in Idaho. And since he had something to do with his hands this time during this song, they wandered less (except during "I feel your fingers in me..." :) It was then that I noticed that 3D backdrop thing going on--wow! I didn't see that in Idaho either, nor the impaled angels which dropped in a bit later.

I think it was during "Sweet Dreams" that Manson smashed a bottle and cut his chest. I didn't see any blood, but maybe I was too far away. There was spitting...one night (can't remember which) he threw his head and arms back while people spit on him, like Christ nailed to the cross (dressed like him too, in that little scrap of while cloth). He threw the lamp at the ground, then he threw himself to the ground and thrashed around a bit. During "Tourniquet" the second night, somebody gave him a bouquet of flowers, and he smashed them to bits against his chest.

"Cake and Sodomy" rocked!! Pogo was playing drums, Manson did a strip down to his G-string and bandage-sling thing during the intro, and was crouched on the edge of the stage leaning into the crowd. One time he turned sideways, bent over, and pretended he was going to stick the microphone up his butt (the next night, it was his fingers).

At one point, they stopped playing and Manson shouted "HALLELUJAH MOTHERFUCKERS!!" and got the crowd to repeat this with him. Then he screamed, "IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AND THAT'S THE BEST YOU CAN DO??!!" The podium scene was just spectacular as seen from the balcony. I was noticing how well he's got those TV-evangelist/ Baptist-preacher moves down so perfectly...plus all the little gestures--the waving fists, the shaking hands--classic! And then THAT FLAG!!! (They didn't have that in Idaho.) The Warfield has this huge floor-to-ceiling space, and that shock-symbol flag was a towering spectacle that seemed to fill up the entire theater. Just in general, MM seemed to fill up that big space with their presence like I don't recall anybody else doing. Manson was shouting and pumping his fists, whipping up the crowd like only an Antichrist Superstar could do with stuff like, "WE WILL NO LONGER BE OPPRESSED BY THE FASCISM OF CHRISTIANITY! WE WILL NO LONGER BE OPPRESSED BY A POLICE STATE MENTALITY! WE WILL NO LONGER BE OPPRESSED BY GRATEFUL DEAD SPIRITUALITY!" (So, he knew what city he was in!)

At the end of "Reflecting God," Manson threw the mic stand at the drums, then went careening wildly toward the back of the stage and collapsed onto some guy standing back there, who carted him away. Zimzum kicked something over and walked off. I was afraid they weren't going to come back after that, but they did!

I didn't like "Man That You Fear" as much from the balcony...no chills up the spine this time...I don't know why, it was still very impressive, but it didn't grab me as much as it did that first time (it was better from the floor the next night though).