Marilyn Manson and Turbonegro at Wembley Arena, London, 5th December 2007
I didn’t really know what to expect on my first Marilyn Manson gig. I’ve seen a few live videos and heard about his amazing theatrical stage performances and stage set, for instance, the Hitler-esk podium act during Antichrist Superstar, but for the last few years I haven’t been tuned in to the world of Marilyn Manson.
I attended the concert with Richard Dee and Simon Waterfall. Richard was a Manson Virgin, as I, while Simon was an experienced manson-ite.
On our arrival to Wembley I was a bit disappointed. I thought the concert was in the new Wembley Stadium, built in 2007 and seating 90,000; not Wembley Arena, built in 1934 and seating 12,300. But since the Arena turned out to be about 1 third empty — the entire back section of the arena — I can see why they chose the Arena and not the Stadium. Obviously I thought an artist of Marilyn Manson’s caliber would attract a larger audience. So, even before I entered the venue, I had to re-adjust my expectations; turn the dial down a few levels. One positive outcome of the smaller venue was that our otherwise poor seating was closer to the stage.
Similar to a check-in queue in airports; it’s fairly easy to guess what has brought the gathering of people together. In an airport it’s the destination, at a concert it’s the artist. An audience is an artist’s reflection. So, on a Marilyn Manson concert… well, I can’t say it’s a pretty sight. Freakshow is not the right word but the first that comes to mind. Confused. Lost. No. One thing is certain — I didn’t blend in. So, to be honest, I was the freak.
Supporting Marilyn Manson was the Norwegian deathpunk band, Turbonegro. They are absolutely wicked. Unfortunately not that many people were there to see Turbonegro, and Turbojugend, their famous fan club, didn’t seem to have many representatives present. When Turbonegro tried to get the audience to sing along to the song “I got Erection”, hardly anyone joined in. So Hank Von Helvete, the lead singer, abandoned the attempt and tried get the audience to sing “I’m a Londoner, so I can’t get an erection” instead. Brilliant.
Photograph captured by Andrew Kendall
And then came Manson. From start to finish the performance just grew and and grew and got better and better and better and better. Looking back on it, I don’t think he could have failed even if he tried too. With songs like Disposable Teen, mOBSCENE, The Irresponsible Hate Anthem, Sweet Dreams, The Fight Song, Rock Is Dead, The Dope Show, Antichrist Superstar and The Beautiful People, I can’t see how a failure would have been possible.
One thing that I wouldn’t have minded more of is dialogue between the songs. I see dialogue between songs as bonus material that you don’t get on albums, and it’s something I treasure quite highly when I go to a concert. A front figure like Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine can get away with not uttering a single word during a concert, but he belongs to the exceptions and not the norm. An artist like Marilyn Manson is the kind of artist you’d expect and want to speak his mind between songs.
As the concert kept going, I began to get very jealous of the job of my fellow Swede and guitarist, Tim Sköld. I would have loved to be on that stage and play those tunes. So much energy. So easy and yet so damn good. However, I have learned that Tim’s role in the band extends way beyond just playing guitar live — he’s producing, editing, doing artwork, electronics, drum programming and beats, playing guitar, keyboards, accordion, synthesizer bass and backup vocals — which I can’t say I envy. But to stand on a stage and deliver the energy of those songs through a guitar — priceless.
Photograph captured by David Herranz
One thing that struck me during ‘The Fight Song’, while the words FIGHT were flashing up in big red letters behind the stage, and the main part of the standing audience were raising their fists and screaming along “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”, was how provocative Marilyn Manson really is. We liberal Europeans shouldn’t forget that Manson’s main audience is based in America, where about 80% of the population are christians. As Simon Price on the Independent said:
Context, of course, is everything. A recent USA Today /CNN /Gallup poll revealed that 88 per cent of the American population believe that God had at least some hand in the creation of life on Earth. And so, when Marilyn Manson ascends a lectern for a mock-Nazi rally during “Antichrist Superstar” and sets fire to a copy of the Bible, one has to remember where he comes from.
If Manson’s shock tactics appear a little blunt to us urbane Europeans, one has to remember that this – the land of the religious right, the Intelligent Designers and the pro-lifers – is the battleground where he fights.
Photograph captured by James Harber
As the lighters during a ballad have been replaced with the light of a camera-phone, youtube seems to be the replacement for photography, reviews and set lists. I had to spend quite a while online to locate the set list of the night, I finally managed to find it on lyingonthecovers.net, but way before I managed to do that, my search query had found basically the whole concert through the eyes of a camera-phone lens on youtube.
- If I Was Your Vampire (See it on YouTube)
- Disposable Teens (See it on YouTube)
- mOBSCENE (See it on YouTube)
- Tourniquet (See it on YouTube)
- The Irresponsible Hate Anthem (See it on YouTube)
- Are You The Rabbit? (See it on YouTube)
- Sweet Dreams (See it on YouTube)
- Lunchbox (See it on YouTube)
- The Fight Song (See it on YouTube)
- Putting Holes In Happiness (See it on YouTube)
- Heart Shapped Glasses (See it on YouTube)
- Rock Is Dead (See it on YouTube)
- The Dope Show (See it on YouTube)
- The Reflecting God (See it on YouTube)
- Antichrist Superstar (See it on YouTube)
- The Beautiful People (See it on YouTube)
Enjoy.