Marilyn Manson

If you’re looking for a good show to attend, look no further than Marilyn Manson’s “Hey, Cruel World” Tour! The tour has been across seas and in the states now for a few months.

Let’s take you to Huntington, Long Island. On April 29, 2012, the sold out Marilyn Manson tour came rolling through town. The show began upon arrival as hundreds of fans either dressed up (or down depending on how you want to look at the amount of material, or lack thereof worn by girls), made shirts, or wore old Marilyn Manson t-shirts. The crowd was a mix of old and new fans ranging from teenagers to forty year olds.

The Pretty Reckless opened the show. Lead singer Taylor Momsen can vocally be hit or miss, but that night she was spot on; Momsen sang the same way she does on the band’s EPs and full length. The only problem I have with Momsen is that she tries too hard to be overly sexually explicit physically and lyrically (I feel it takes away from the band). That night however, she was pretty mild, dancing seductively throughout most of the set. The rest of the band played very well. Not many people knew the band, but after each song, the audience cheered. The best song of the night was “Make Me Want To Die”, a typical romance gone wrong song, but with very intense bass and guitar lines. Another favorite of the night due to the clever lyrics was “Going Down” in which Momsen dedicated to all of the ladies in the crowd. The song is an ode to scorned women as it discusses a woman killing her man for cheating on her, but with a twist at the end (her regret as he was ironically “the best thing she ever had” or best lay). The band ended their set with the song “Factory Girl”. This is a band I would recommend seeing; I personally wouldn’t mind seeing them again.

About a half hour later, a black sheet rose to the front of the stage and the lights went out. A few minutes later, white lights behind the curtain came on, Manson’s band came on stage and began playing the first few chords of “Hey, Cruel World”, and the second Manson himself came out and began to sing, the curtain dropped. Fans cheered immediately and at that instant, a mosh pit began in the middle of the floor, remaining there for the rest of the night. The band then went into their hit “Disposable Teens”, in which Manson’s high pitch screams sounded just like they do on the recording. Manson had a ton of costume changes and props throughout the 15 song set including a microphone with a knife at the end of it. During the song “mOBSCENE”, the lighting on the back wall changed to different colors during each chorus displaying the name of the song. Fans sang along loudly to all of their favorite songs including, “The Dope Show”, “Personal Jesus”, and “Tourniquet”. A memorable song of the night was “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”. The music and vocals were spot on from the original recording. During the song, the lighting on stage was a very dark blue creating an eerie feeling in the air while Manson walked around the stage holding a microphone with a spotlight on it.

There were two encore songs to end the night. When the band came back on stage, there was a podium and flags displaying the “Antichrist Superstar” logo. The crowd went insane when Manson climbed the 12foot podium and dangled all over it while singing. The night ended with the hit “The Beautiful People”.

I can easily say out of the thousands of concerts I’ve been to in my 24 years of existence that this was definitely a Top 5 show!

+ Shanna D