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| Photography: Jacob de Zwart |
01 March 2012
Comparing Marilyn Manson’s sidewave to his Soundwave set is like comparing The Sex Pistols to a Pistols tribute band at the local karaoke club.
Sporting laser-firing headwear and staggering onto the stage in his platform knee-highs and wet-look garb, the shock rocker successfully cemented almost every presupposition of what a Manson show should entail. For the majority of opening tracks Antichrist Superstar and Disposable Teens, the man of the hour was on his knees holding and kissing the sweat-soaked paws of his minions. Sporadically he would stumble over to who we're guessing is current girlfriend Lindsay Usich, who was propped on a stool to the left of the stage, filming Manson with her iPhone.
After throwing his microphone and stand across the stage (an expected constant after each track), a crew member reached up and dressed him in a leather waistcoat and top hat, not so unlike the hat he wore on his Smells Like Children record cover.
“How many of you are hiding drugs?” he asked. “I have to ask how many of you are sober so I can weed out the cops.”
Searing into a caustic delivery of The Dope Show, Manson handed a bag of white powder to a grateful fan before he crawled over to an amp and proceeded to dry hump it.
Asking the audience to cheer for his band and patting Twiggy’s hair, Manson treated his comrades in the opposite way he treated the stage and instruments; his crew were constantly running onstage to pick up his belligerence-fuelled messes. Silver confetti rained down on his halfway through the set, he responded with: “I’m not against sexual relations between man on man and woman on woman, but that shit is gay.”
Closing with Sweet Dreams and 1996, Manson lay on his back for the most part, staring inquisitively at the three half-naked females propped on male shoulders. The only presumption in Manson’s encore was the song choice; Beautiful People was more than a chaotic sing-along, it was a celebration of gratitude from both parties. The man who so sorely disappointed his fans at Soundwave had finally shown his worth as the deserved king of shock rock, and an effigy for those against conformity.
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