Halloween night. Fans packed the floor, bar and balcony of a sold-out show at the Hard Rock Live, Orlando, Florida. As the smoke was still lingering from the opening band, Ho99o9, the venue lights are all on, with what seems like a shuffled playlist of classic karaoke songs is playing throughout the speakers. The in-bar system is shuffling through hits from Queen, AC/DC and Britney Spears, which surprisingly enough had a large portion of the heavily make-upped fans singing along.
Suddenly the classic hits switched to a familiar jingle; a late 90’s song for Meow Mix cat food. “Meow, meow, meow, meow”, and so on, as the song repeated. And repeated again. Again. The commercial jingle featuring meowing felines went on, as though on a seamless loop, for over 15 minutes. As the song looped, louder and louder, the tightly packed crowd, hot and irritated in make-up and costumes, grew less and less patient for the main act. As the last months have proven that Marilyn Manson isn’t always the most reliable performer, fans began to look around in worried confusion as the clock struck 9:20 pm.
Boom. The Meow Mix commercial, now driving concert-goers into irritated arguing, stopped and within seconds the venue filled with more smoke. The lights flooded blood red across the simple stage-set, and out walked The Prince of Grotesque himself. Suited in an all black outfit, with dress shirt and vest, Manson sported his usual face paint, however a little more Halloween-like than normal. He started off with back-to-back songs from this older albums before stopping to work the crowd.
With what seemed like a genuine smile on his face, flashing his signature gold chompers, he greeted the crowd with an enthusiastic, “Happy Halloween, Motherf*ckers”. Chatting between each song, as though he was at a casual Halloween party, Manson sat down mid-stage and lit up a cigarette. Puffing away and mocking authority, the Florida native gave fans a little story time about his prior arrest at Disney World by what he calls, The Mickey Mouse Police.
Despite being notoriously late, Manson did an energy-filled set for just shy of an hour and a half, filled with fan-favourites such as The Dope Show, Tainted Love and The Beautiful People. Playing songs from both his earlier albums and his 2017 release, Heaven Upside Down, he chose to keep the holiday-appropriate I Put A Spell On You and This Is Halloween off the setlist. Perhaps it was too cliche for the self-proclaimed “Antichrist Superstar”.
Manson kept his stage set fairly simple, with not much more than interchanging backdrops. Despite the simple atheistic, mostly done by coloured lighting, Manson couldn’t resist a little bit of theatrics. In his usual way of provoking social and religious groups, the singer, adorned in black hooded cape and waving a giant lit torch, performed several rally-style songs atop a 7-foot podium, with light-up logo.
Recently ending his Twins of Evil 2 tour with Rob Zombie, the shock-rocker has built a bit of a reputation for last minute cancellations, heavy drug and alcohol use, fainting on stage and cutting performances halfway through. While Manson, 49, showed no signs of heavy intoxications or deterrents to his performance, he slithered around the stage, shredded a flawless 5-minute guitar solo and held his energy level throughout. Finishing his 12-song set, he returned for a final encore of his latest, Cry Little Sister, a cover of the 80’s film theme from The Lost Boys.
Closing out on a good note and powerful vibe, the costumed Halloweeners began to exit the venue, with nothing but signs of excitement and pure, spooky-fan satisfaction.
Setlist:
Creepin n Lurkin
Cruci-Fiction in Space
Angel With the Scabbed Wings
Rock Is Dead
This Is the New Shit
Tainted Love
The Love Song
Say10
The Dope Show
Great Big White World
Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World
The Beautiful People
Antichrist Superstar
Cry Little Sister
This Is Halloween
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The writing of this article is seriously sub-par. Did an 8th grader write this?:
“Suited in an all black outfit, with dress shirt and vest, Manson sported his usual face paint, however a little more Halloween-like than normal”
You go and see Marilyn freaking Manson and *that’s* the most descriptive you can be about his outfit? Also, how many more times can the author say “simple stage”??? We GET IT, the stage was minimally adorned *eyeroll*