Reviews

At the oddly corporate Manchester Central tonight, corseted, contact lensed and awash with slicked back black, Manchester’s rock consortiums are out in their droves. Be they teeny boppy Marilyn virgins or bearded forty something ‘impress me if you dare’ biker types, all are united through their admiration of the bizarre and the heavy. And what a show we have in store.

It’s almost natural to assume that 14 years after their debut album, Marilyn Manson may have lost the shocking edge that catapulted them into the international sleaze metal spotlight.

Marilyn Manson (c) Shirlaine Forrest

With a lead singer now a caricatured household name and seemingly responsible for every teenage suicide or shooting on the planet, the original line up a distant memory and accusations of self-indulgent performance artistry trailing their every move, MM have a lot to live up to. Yet somehow, they manage to deliver.

From the gorgeous opening piano strains to the aggression-pumped, blood-baiting audience banter, Marilyn Manson nail the set this gory evening. With just four songs from new album Eat Me, Drink Me, balanced self consciously throughout, MM give the audience what they came for with a well structured greatest hits parade.

We get fistfuls of 90s Manson, from Beautiful People to a healthy smattering of Antichrist Superstar tracks, all tightly executed. The eponymous singer seems to finally be striking some kind of acceptable balance between impressively powerful vocals and engaging stage presence.

The set changes are a treat: from the oversized Alice In Wonderland chair for Eat Me, Drink Me, the Nazi-themed podium address of Antichrist Superstar and even a pneumatic smoke surrounded cruciform platform.

That said, the show is definitely more Alice Cooper than Alice in Wonderland, a gloriously entertaining and high octane fanfare. The threatening and unsettling Marilyn Manson appears to have left the building, but the theatrical and anthemic one is welcome to stay.