Monday Aug 13 – Allstate Arena

Who would have guessed that Marilyn Manson would be touring with Slayer in 2007 – let alone be the headlining act? The god of goth metal with the kings of speed metal - a curious combo that has so far been received quite nicely. God knows Slayer fans are true blue leaving many to guess how the crowd would respond to Marilyn, or vice versa can be said as well. Honestly, I couldn’t tell who brought in the majority of the fans seeing equal amounts of band t-shirts and watching the crowd react in the same fashion for each performance. In other words, both acts were widely accepted.

Marilyn Manson, the headliner of the two, made his usual dramatic entrance, this time as a frightening silhouette behind a giant curtain amongst clouds of smoke and red flashing lights. As the curtain dropped the band went into “If I was Your Vampire”, a track from his latest release Eat Me, Drink Me.

Manson’s stage show was certainly lavish, featuring glittering lights and multiple costume transformations as he moved and gestured with his Marilyn-esque theatrical expressiveness like only he can. The set also included numerous prop changes to enhance the vibe of a particular song such as a rising platform transcending Manson high above the stunned audience, a boxing ring, and over-sized furniture.

Though the 38-year-old rock star did play a handful of new songs, as expected the crowd made the most noise when he went into Manson favorites “The Beautiful People”, “mOBSCENE”, “The Dope Show” and his cover of the Eurythmic’s “Sweet Dreams”.

Manson was entertaining and shocking, bringing some of his old tactics back to the stage but surprising with some new.

Though the crowd seemed equally enthusiastic with both Slayer and Marilyn Manson, something in the air felt awry as though these completely different bands should be touring separately with their own, more fitting, opening acts - kind of like when Anthrax toured with Kiss back in the day. Still, who knows, perhaps new fans were made for each band.