Well, here we are in the EchoLodge (that's 'EconoLodge' to everyone but my mother...) after the show. When we pulled up in the parking lot awhile ago (having stopped for a late dinner), there was KORN's bus, right there with their U-Haul. (This place is $30 a night--they're traveling on a budget.) They had one of their best nights; I could actually make out some of their lyrics. At least SOMEONE had a good night...

This wasn't Columbia, SC, part two, but it came close. The crowd was metal headbangers and junior high mall rats, all trying desperately to perfect that glitter/eye shadow/dyed hair wannabe look (at least I only saw one pair of striped stockings...). They scare us, badly. And there's a LOT of them...and they're loud. We get in and wedge our way to the rail. The stage is high, five feet plus, and set well back from the crowd, eight feet or so.

KORN play. As I said, it's a good set, particularly if you take into consideration that they had no soundcheck. But they're probably used to that by now. (Danzig's bus pulled by us in traffic at 6:15 or so - they honked. If they were that late, KORN didn't get a soundcheck. And if they didn't, you can guess who else didn't.)

Manson time. The cube is set up just to my left, directly in front of EVB. The weird crowd vibes have gotten weirder-- it's a very active crowd in the verge of violence. They were particularly lively for KORN. (Lots of nights the only thing moving during their set is their one lone fan--they seem to have one in every city.) They enter, stage right. Suddenly the area between stage and barrier is swarming with people with cameras, and I see ONE press pass among seven or eight of them. You can feel Manson about to crawl out of his skin. The teenyboppers shriek. He avoids going near them. They throw cute and cuddly stuffed monkeys and teddybears and the like at the stage. The metalheads throw tennis shoes, and ice, and scream for Danzig, among other things ("You suck!" occurs more than once). When he first crawls up on the cube in front of us the first thing I notice is the eight butterfly bandages holding last night's cut across his chest closed--I knew that looked bad when he did it.

They try, they really do. More importantly, Manson tries --if he can just hold it all together, channel the energy through, hostile and otherwise, and change it, this night might come off yet. But there's too many distractions; even after the photographers are gone he's still got to contend with the mall rat brigade. And he's badly freaked/bothered by them, you can feel it coming off him in waves. (Cathy later comments that he'd looked like a trapped, caged animal up there. She's right.) He throws the microphone out past the security dudes; Frankie runs to its rescue and puts it neatly back onstage. Manson stands there and stares. Next it's mike stand abuse--kicks it over, picks it up and swings it down onto the stage, hard. Daisy keeps a calm, level eye on him, and keeps playing.

Once, early during 'Sweet Dreams' the vibes start to smooth out, things improve a bit, the crowd quiets down momentarily, and I can focus my attention on what's perched on top of its' cube in front of me. But suddenly some flying fuckhead catches me upside the head and I lose it--next time I see him he's downstage, crouched and staring at the 13-year-olds who are wanting him to take his clothes off, or do SOMETHING outrageous they can tell their friends about tomorrow.

There's more mike stand bashing as the night progresses--it's got more bends in it than a bad road. During the end of 'Sweet Dreams' the Rev's mood gets blacker. The stand is repeatedly hammered into the stage, and from the sound and the way he's putting his weight behind it you can tell the foot of it is EMBEDDING itself in the stage. He menaces Ginger with it--Ginger looks really paranoid, but the Rev changes direction at the last moment, and sends it crashing into the floor. Manson circles, the stand gets thrown off stage. He looks around for another missile. His eyes fix on Daisy's extra guitar, the cherry red Johnson sitting in its rack by the amp. He's across the stage in two steps, grabs it, stand and all, and lets fly. It arcs down and across, and catches a security goon across the back on its way to shattering on the concrete floor in front of Twiggy's end of the stage. Daisy's expression is one of regret, sorrow, dismay, but not anger--you can tell he's been through these times before. Twiggy, however, is staring at us, his eyes wide with fear, clutching his bass and ready to bolt. His entire look and pose say 'did you see that?!--he's crazy!' Ginger looks almost as freaked. We figure the show is over. But no--the Manson collects himself, breathing hard. He starts the "we hate love" chant, which we haven't heard in many days. Twiggy looks a little calmer, and turns back to face the audience and the God of Fuck; he turns in a few hopeful bounces and a small smile. They slam hard into 'Dogma', which actually gets mostly finished before the Reverend turns his attention once again to melding drum kit with mike stand. Twiggy even gets in a few licks at the bass drum with his bass; when that doesn't do any appreciable damage, he drags the top section of his amp off, and hits THAT a few times. Ginger finishes off drum mayhem, looking kind of peeved. They vanish.

Tampa set list: Cake And Sodomy; Cyclops; Snake Eyes And Sissies; Dope Hat; Organ Grinder; Sweet Dreams; 3/4 of Dogma

Tampa's hottest fashions: Twiggy - the Twigster has a new dress! Well, it looks exactly like the green one (and the pink one, and the orange one...) but it's a cool dark lilac color. Purple's definitely a good color for him, looks smashing. He's wearing lots of silver glitter, too, under his eyes and in his hair. He's added a couple of purple barrettes to his hair, also. The Reverend - as he's usually been (in looks, at least), but with no makeup of any kind on the left eye. Madonna - red velvet coat with black lapels over his favorite Bomac shirt. Red tights, black shorts. Daisy - the Blondie shirt with - oh god no - the orange pants (a'la the back of the 'Lunchbox' single). I'd kinda hoped they hadn't come along on this tour... Ginger - black tights, black Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney version) t- shirt. He showed up to do the drum ritual with his hair down, a first.

Stay tuned for the last night of the tour....

--coyote--