Marilyn Manson, L7, Wallace Civic Center, 2/21/97
 | Man oh Man this concert had the makings of a good Fox news Story. The local Catholic School asked the town not to allow Manson to play, the Knights Of Columbus planned to picket, but the Mayor had to let the show go on or risk getting sued for violating Manson's civil rights. |
Thinking that this would be just too much fun to miss, I took the day off and drove to Fitchburg early to check things out. I couldn't find anybody to go with- chickens- so I went alone. At noon there weren't more than 10 die-hard Manson kids out side, and I didn't see one protestor.
I went to the local strip mall and bought the newspaper. The front page had a center story with the headline "Fitchburg Braces For Manson Concert." The story went through Fitchburg's two-week debate over Manson. Everybody was hot with stories f rom the internet about what Manson might or might not do. Local churches were holding an "anti-Manson prayer gathering" and a "youth rally with performances by a christian rock group and mimes." Security for the Manson show had been beefed up- paid for by the promoter- and local cops promised they'd be there in force to make sure things were looked after.
The show was set to start at 6:30, but you couldn't park until like 4:00 so I killed three hours playing video games at the movie plex and cruising around. I went to one of the churches mentioned in the paper, but at 2:00 nobody was there to off er me any sort of guidance.
I parked at 4:00 and got a decent spot. The first few rows had been filled already and some television trucks had arrived. There were no protestors to be seen. Television people got quotes from kids in facepaint, and we watched the tour bus with Marilyn arrive. Security cops arrived in droves. They made quite a presence, there was like one cop for every five kids.
As it got dark some protestors did arrive. They gave out some flyers that warned not to go inside because- "The Spirits of greed, lust, blasphemy, and self-indulgence (getting 'wasted' on drugs and alcohol) will run rampent in this arena tonight."
It turned out at the last minute that I did have a photo pass- YEA INTERSCOPE- so I got excellent placement for most of the show. The usual security guys were there- the ones who I've seen at the Pistols, Rage, & NIN- but there were extra guys wh o were all frantic and shit about keeping the pit under control. The loyal Manson fan scares them, hell the little guy with the smeared lipstick and the fuck me look scared me too, but mostly they are harmless.
Spooky Kids cause almost no trouble. They're into Manson all they want is to be noticed by him. The dudes who cause trouble are the lug nuts who get limos and travel in groups so thy can stick up for each other as they start fights all night. (I saw five such guys start in on a cop while in the ticket line.)
L7 came out and did their thing but had problems getting people into it. I really felt bad for them. They kick some serious ass but all the Manson publicity was too much for any band to overcome.
Even though the reaction was lackluster, they still whomped the shit out of their set. They did a whole bunch of shit off their new CD "The Beauty Process", as well as some older stuff.
I was most impressed with Gail Greenwood- she was working people all over the place and her timing seemed excellent. She did most of the jumping around.
Donita and Suzi did do their share of whomping it up. They opened with "Andres" and did some some new stuff from "Beauty Process" that I didn't know. The new stuff doesn't stray too far from the old, they do some more harmonizing, but they still s ing about drinking and shit.
I really love L7, I wish people would have given them more of a chance. L7 has been kicking ass before Manson was out of Junior College.
Suzi managed to get the last word- she took down her leather pants and flashed her nice butt. She had a black thong thing on and a big pentagram drawn on each cheek. That was one better than the three girls with "manson" carved into their chests from my seat.
The lights went down and an announcement came on to tell everybody that if they threw even one stupid thing at the stage that it was gonna be over. Manson came out shortly after- arms spread like he was on the cross, but strutting triumphant that h e'd packed the house inspite of the negativity.
They opened with "Angel with the Scabbed Wings" and did mostly Antichrist Superstar songs. Their set didn't change too much from their show at the Strand a few months before. I don't care what my friends think; Manson is great in concert.
It's been a long time since I've seen something that was visualy as well as musically appealing. Rage rocks but its not much visually. Kiss and GWAR dress up and have huge sets, but take them off the stage and its over.
Anyway it was lots of fun. Marilyn
played some peek-a-boo with his dick to taunt the cops watching from the
balcony. He also had us give a big "God Damn!!" to the people who were
"praying for our souls outside." The only big difference between this show and
the last ACS
show was that the band has added another backdrop- this one a big US flag with the ACS logo on it where there should be stars. Marilyn came out with a flag around his waist and spent a fe
w quality moments wiping his leather thonged ass with it before he did a spiteful version of "Irresponsible Hate Anthem."
They finished the show with "Man that You
Fear", which seems
appropriate from the Christian reaction he's getting in the south these days.
In between encores I was near a mom, dad, and kid
family. They
were going to dash for the door, but I told mom that there was more to come. She halted dad and the kid and they watched the end of the show. The mom kinda thanked me for stopping the
m- they were having a great time. This just drove home how wrong the protestors outside were, as are the people who are trying to ban Manson from playing in any town. Parrents, not govenment should decide what their kids listen to.
Sorry to go political on you there, but I think it
sucks. I'm
gonna print the flyer that was handed out at the show, as well as some of the stuff from the local paper in Fitchberg, and some shit from the 700 Club and even Readers Digest for all ya
all to check out. If it gets you mad, call the 700 club (found on all cable television) and tell them to get off Marilyn's back- if they won't listen then you might have to talk dirty- they'll love it!
I've also started to boycot the Knights of
Columbus- they were
against MM playing Fitchberg and they are always begging for change at my supermarket. Now I tell whoever is collecting that his organization promotes censorship, and tell the supermar
ket manager that it bugs me that they allow the Knights to beg outside. If they want to protest us I think we should protest them as well.
