Slayer and Manson Live: A Concert Review
Alexander S. Peak6 August 2007
On Thursday, August 2nd, I attended a concert in New Jersey. Three bands played at this concert: Bleeding Through, Slayer, and Marilyn Manson. I would describe this as a rather enjoyable experience.
Of the three bands, the heaviest of the evening had to be Slayer. The drawback, unfortunately, was that it was so loud, the music was on the verge of overmodulation. This problem existed with all three bands, but posed the largest detriment to Slayer and their fans. Manson’s music, whereas also quite blaring, at least allowed their melodies to shine through. Even a casual observer could notice that
more people were moving to the music of Manson than of Slayer, which I account to the overmodulation of Slayer’s music rather than a distaste therefor.
As far as stage-show goes, Manson definitely wins the prize. Bleeding Through, the opening act, had a very basic stage presence. The only pizzazz was the smoke machines, which kept pumping out smoke throughout the duration of the concert.
Slayer had a more advanced stage show, with sophisticated use of lighting and a variety of dark images illuminated on the screen behind them. They also had a single camera man filming them, the image filmed being shown on billboard-like panels on each side of the concert. The camera-man, however, did not seem very professional to me, and heads of audience members were constantly getting in the way, sometimes of the actual band members, more often of the instruments they held.
Marilyn Manson had, as one might expect, a very over-the-top stage show. His show involving costume changes, lighting, a rising stage, sexual gyrations, and other such attractions. During “Fight Song,” Brian Warner, lead singer of Marilyn Manson, was dressed as a boxer and stood between red velvet ropes, with his microphone descending to him from above the stage. During “mOBSCENE” Warner wore a derby with matching suit. At various points, Warner also waded into the audience, which none of the other bands attempted. Interestingly, when something was thrown at Warner from the audience, he ducked his head perfectly so as not to get hit.
In between the bands, various ads played on the billboard-like panels on each side of the concert. Music played from speakers, at an obviously lower decibel level than at which the bands chose to play. The music chosen was most typically metal or hard rock alternative. I did notice, however, Bauhaus’s “Bela Legosi’s Dead” begin to play. I was disappointed not to be able to hear the full nine-plus minutes of the song, however, as Marilyn Manson began their show about two minutes or so into the song—just as the lyrics were about to begin.
Slayer played, I believe, eleven songs. I admit, however, that it’s possible, considering the overmodulation and my being not as familiar with their songs as I would like to be, that they played more than eleven, placing some of their songs back to back, giving me the false impression that two songs were really one long song. I didn’t arrive early enough to count all of Bleeding Through’s songs. As for Manson, I believe they played thirteen songs, although I may be mistaken now as I am writing this four days after the concert.
The hot dogs were delicious. Tee shirts were being sold, but I chose not to buy any, as I am quite in the need of saving my money.
After the concert, fans of both Slayer and Manson could be heard outside screaming the name of their preferred band. Ozzy, despite not being there, also got a yell from at least one fan.
Overall, I was pleased with the show, notwithstanding the overmodulation.
