11/29 - Flaming Mug, Fayetteville, NC

(Yup, "The Flaming Mug." No idea what it means.=) --What a dive. Got to listen to a great extended soundcheck jam, though oddly [[big foreshadowing here]] minus bass. Met up with local fan Mark, who we knew from the last NC gigs. (NB: Mark gave Mr. Manson a neat-o stuffed monkey back in March, carefully embroidered with one blue and one brown eye plus eye and lip makeup in the Rev's "stitch" style, and decked out in a little bondage harness. He loved it.) -Get to the barricade and watch the crew hoist up the crosspieces with their dangling boy dolls - lo and behold one of them has been replaced with Mark's monkey! (Are these boys thoughtful or not? of course they knew Mark would see it...) Mark's delirious with joy and we're all laughing our heads off. Cool.

Get a shock when they come out - Twiggy's wearing a *black* dress, whiteface, no other makeup, blonde wig. We remember he'd skipped the soundcheck earlier, and now doesn't look a bit like himself. Something wrong?...maybe; at "My Monkey" when his amp cuts out he throws a *major* tantrum. Drops his bass and runs offstage for crew help, then bashes a mannequin into the amp, steps behind it and topples it over, stands on it pouring beer into it - a fullfledged snit. Mr. Manson doesn't look at him but goes into a teeth-chattering head-snapping rage, scary as fuck. Even if you love him you'll back away from this. -He gets to the central break, pounds himself over the head with a bottle and lies there motionless. Wasn't a real bottle so we suspect he's just putting himself out of the picture and letting Twig (and himself) simmer down. Daisy checks them both out and plays calmly on without breaking stride; Madonna and Ginger take their cue from him, and techies scurry to get the bass back in working order.

*No* reconciliation as we've seen in previous onstage spats; the Rev yells something at Twiggy once he's back in gear (to the effect of "I decide whether we stop, not you" though not in those words) and Twig gives him the finger. They blast through the remaining three songs with a vengeance and do a killer encore - never say these guys can't channel anger...

Best evil funny bit: In the middle of the "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro to "My Monkey" some guy yelled "Fuck you!" and the Rev picked it up without missing a beat: "Nothing is real ...nothing to fuck me about...you want to fuck me in the ass for-EVER." ROTFFL!

Second-best evil funny bit: Mr. Manson turned his back and jammed a half-full water bottle into his ass, then yanked it out and poured the water over a bouncer's head. The guy hadn't been watching him, so didn't know where the source of his shower had been, but the bouncer beside him saw it all and was choking with laughter...bet he told his buddy the whole awful truth afterward. (Heh heh.)

==angelynx==