In his first tour since before Covid, Marilyn Manson is out on the road with Slaughter to Prevail and WalMart Metal icons Five Finger Death Punch. The tour strolled through Pine Knob last night, and Manson was looking in tip top shape.
I was pretty annoyed with the announcement, Pine Knob shows suck, any amphitheater really, and anyone who says otherwise isn’t about that rock and roll life. Casual imbibers, not full blown music junkies that need a genuine shot to the veins to satiate the DT’s.
The Lawn sucks, pavillion is price gouged and unreasonable, traffic is always a certified cock suck, and for being a wide open well ventilated area, the pungent notes of un showered white trash always seem to overpower everything else. Seriously, wash your ass, it’s summertime, and your going to sweat, so make like your at the water park and shower before you jump in the pool. It makes a considerable difference when you are sweating on top of a freshly showered body, instead of the three day crust and BO that you’ve let build up during the hottest time of the year.
Anyways, I’ve been jonesing to catch Manson live again for some time. Last time seeing him was sometime between 2015-2017? Well overdue to see the Aging Antichrist Superstar again. It was my third time seeing him.
I was looking forward to catching Slaughter to Prevail, but the abhorrent traffic made it nearly impossible to get to the Knob in time, Brynn and I got there in time to catch their last song, but as with the vast majority of Knob openers they are better suited being seen in a more intimate venue. Especially for that initial cherry pop. They did sound great for what I was able to catch. Hopefully they set out on their own headlining tour in the fall and I can catch them proper.
Manson is apparently sober, which causes some dissonance to my celebrity Death Pool roster, as Manson has been a mainstay on my lineup for years, especially after his episode of WTF with Marc Maron had dropped, and a self prescribed exit seemed like an inevitable scenario. I’m glad he’s taking care of himself, he truly is one of the best performers of our generation and he solidified that sentiment again last night. It’s just a shame he had to take second billing to the run of the mill, generic, military pandering Wal Mart Merchants of Metal, Five Finger Death Punch.
I caught FFDP years ago, after their first album dropped at the world famous Machine Shop, and had a good time, their first album was pretty solid, and the venue to catch them was top tier. Ivan was definitely fired up and coked out or raging on roids, coming out yelling about whatever had happened at Rock on the Range the day before with a chip on his shoulder. They were decent, but the machine shop provided the bulk of the good time nature of that particular gig. The second album was garbage, and as they got bigger and bigger my interest got smaller and smaller in them. They are just a bit too corny and generic for my taste.
Manson was in solid form for the show, opening with We Know Where You Fucking Live right into Disposable Teens, and Angel With the Scabbed Wings. Unfortunately the overindulgent theatrics were not in play, but he sounded pretty good for a 55 year old that has put millions of miles on his body over the years.
This is the New Shit, Say 10 and Deep Six built up to Tourniquet. There were some new players to Manson’s band this go around, as Code Orange’s Reba Meyers shared guitar duty with Tyler Bates and Rob Zombie’s former bassist Piggy D was holding down the low end, with Gil Sharone coming back to handle the skins. The band sounded tight, and complimented Manson with unrelenting professionalism.
The classics kept rolling in as we were treated with mOBSCENE, And The Dope Show before playing his recently released As Sick as the Secrets Within. It’s a solid track, it didn’t blow my mind, but it is by no means terrible. Looking forward to see what else he has up his sleeve ready to be released. A Manson show isn’t complete without his haunting take on the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams. For as many covers that he has recorded over the years it would have been nice to hear his take on the Ramones KKK took my baby away, or Carly Simon’s You’re so Vain, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it I suppose. He rounded out the short set with The Love Song and Beautiful People.
All in all it was a killer set that delivered crowd pleasing classics and renewed Manson that sounded excellent. Hopefully he takes this sobriety serious, and gets himself back to his hey day. A headlining theater tour this fall or winter would be an absolute delight. We can only hope. Check him out on Spotify if you’ve been living under a rock for the last 30 years.