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There isn’t much to be said about Marilyn Manson that hasn’t
already been said. They have emerged as one of the most talked about
bands from the late 1990s. Manson and crew have been tossed back and
forth between their supporters and their protesters; they have simultaneously
been lauded and banned, adored and criticized. Everyone has something
to say about this band.
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Graphic by Bryan Danknich - The Metropolitan
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Marilyn Manson graced Denver Oct. 14, at the Fillmore Auditorium.
And so, as far as show reviews go, what better than to have dual opinions
for the band with a thousand faces? Twenty-one-year-old Metro students
Tuyet Nguyen and James Garrett discuss their experiences at the Manson
concert.
Tuyet: I used to be that girl. The cynical adolescent with black
hose on my arms, a dog chain around my neck and an over-sized T-shirt
emblazoned with the two words that my made my parents horribly uncomfortable:
Marilyn Manson. I was frustrated and disenchanted; confused and hormonal.
Marilyn Manson was the band that made me feel like discontentment
was healthy.
James: I was that girl too. Although, Marilyn Manson didn’t
tick off my mom, so I wasn’t attracted to it for that. There
were different sorts of reasons why I got into them. I related to
the atheist lyrics; I read an interview and I thought he was a genius
at marketing himself; I also thought he was kind of hot. I had pictures
of him all over my room.
Tuyet: I hadn’t seen them play since I was fifteen, so I was
really anticipating going to that last show.
James: I was definitely excited. But, it was a sold-out show, so
I knew it was going to be crowded and hard to see. To be honest, I
was a little worried about you.
Tuyet: I was worried too. I’ve rarely had good experiences
at the Fillmore. I hate that the only way to actually see the band
is to either shove my way to the front or be six feet tall with binoculars.
Being a small girl in a big room like the Fillmore is terrible.
James: What did you think of the crowd?
Tuyet: Lots of kids in black clothes. Black shirts with black pants.
Black ties and black skirts. It’s fair to say that black was
the “in” thing.
James: And white make-up, pale skin, chains and typical newbie Goth
attire.
Tuyet: Then the few out-of-place people. The sinister kid, the big
jock guys, the few parents.
James: The metal guys standing by the bar the whole time. AC/DC patches,
long hair.
Tuyet: Interesting crowd, to say the least.
James: The show started and it seemed more violent than any show
that I’d been to.
Tuyet: Yeah, like that girl that pushed my face. She took something
we said completely out of proportion and then attacked me. She wasn’t
much taller than me, but she was definitely bigger than I was, like
80 pounds bigger than me. Totally incoherent, unreasonable; I don’t
understand why she lashed out like that. Luckily you came to my rescue.
James: I could only think in exclamations. It was some sort of weird
instinctual need to stop her from attacking you. I grabbed her left
pinky, punched her in the ribs, but nothing worked. She was completely
unaffected. It was really weird. Then she turned to me and grabbed
me around the neck. The whole thing ended when this big guy came over
and knocked her out of the way. When it was going on it felt really
long, but the whole thing only spanned about two minutes.
Tuyet: Surprisingly, from that point on the rest of the show was
pretty uneventful. Marilyn Manson sure does cuss a lot. Every other
thing he said was a cuss word. I think it would be just as effective
if he would say something like, “Please clap your hands for
the next song, thanks.”
James: Also, the music had changed a lot from what it used to be.
I haven’t really kept up with any of his new stuff. I felt sorry
for the new fans because the new stuff sucks. The lyrics are terrible,
“Put your arms around me now, we’re going down down down.”
That’s just ridiculous.
Tuyet: The stage show has definitely been watered down, too. The
tour was called “Grotesk Burlesk” and it was neither grotesque
nor burlesque. There were two dancers on stage, but they seemed more
like go-go dancers than burlesque girls. And all the things that were
supposed to be offensive were all simulated. At one point, Manson
ripped the underwear off one of the dancers. I was shocked at first
but then I realized that the girl was wearing hose.
James: And when the girl was bent over and he pretended to shove
the mic into that very uncomfortable place?
Tuyet: Up close it was pretty obvious that he just stuck it in her
underwear. The whole show seemed like it was edited for prime time
television. While certainly racy at points, it wasn’t anything
that you couldn’t find on Fox.
James: I know another girl who also went to the show. She was in
the back and couldn’t tell if any of it was real. I guess that
if you weren’t close enough to tell the difference between real
and fake, the show actually was grotesque. His scheme worked.
Tuyet: Marilyn Manson has always been this kind of act; every show
is supposed to be an experience. Even though everything was simulated,
it was still pretty entertaining.
James: That’s all that matters, then.
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