 One of the first gigs that I ever went to was
in January 2001 when Marilyn Manson played the
NEC in Birmingham, I remember the show well, I
had seating tickets and was blown away by the
massive stage show that Marilyn Manson had and
how loud and heavy they came across live, since
then I have seen the band play at many festivals
and enjoyed every single one of them including
their recent appearance at Download festival where
they got pretty much slated by every press person
attending the festival maybe the few beers I had
helped me enjoy the show more than others did
or maybe they just don’t like Marilyn Manson
in general, either way I was really looking forward
to tonight’s show as it is the first time
I have seen Marilyn Manson headline a show since
2001 and I was well looking forward to their stage
show and getting to photograph them for the one
song the press were authorised for.
 Before I mention the actual show I would also
like to say that tonight was my last gig of 2009
and also my first time at the brand new academy
in Birmingham, a venue which I now have a very
mixed opinion on as the venue is slightly out
of the way being on a massive main road on the
other side of town, from the outside the venue
looks pretty smart and the fact that it is 3 venues
built into one where 3 gigs can be on at any one
time is pretty impressive, but inside the main
Academy when we arrive tonight it is like Piccadilly
Circus with people trying to get in and out of
the main room with a massive blockage and not
much movement due to this but by the end of the
show things were steady with a lot of room to
move about and the sound was so much better than
the old venue but to be honest the sound in an
old tin barn would be better than the sound in
the old Academy.
So we got into the Academy just as the support
band Esoterica were playing there last song so
I don’t really have anything creative to
say about them as one song is not enough to gain
a true opinion whilst also taking in the new Academy,
there was a good 35 minute wait until Marilyn
Manson took to the stage so I went and took my
place in front of the crowd with the rest of the
photographers waiting for the show to start.
 Finally the music stopped, the room went dark
as the curtains opened and the room filled up
in smoke with a dark silhouette of Marilyn Manson
lurking the middle of the stage as he shined his
nice new pair of laser gloves whilst marching
closer to the front of the stage to the notes
of ‘Cruci-Fiction In Space’ the moment
was a Marilyn Manson fan’s dream but a photographers
nightmare as the massive mixture of deep smoke,
and nonexistent lighting whilst not being able
to use a flash caused for a lot of hard work and
strain on every one’s camera with the end
result being a lot of poor photos, as soon as
the song was over the security were quick to escort
us out of the photo pit, I then headed to the
back of the room to watch the rest of the show.
Marilyn Manson were not messing around tonight
when it came to playing big songs, they fired
straight into ‘Disposable Teens’,
‘Pretty As A Swastika’ and then everyone’s
favourite heavy song ‘Irresponsible Hate
Anthem’ which had the 3000 odd people in
the Academy tonight throwing their middle finger
in the air whilst chanting “I wasn’t
born with enough middle fingers”. ‘Four
Rusted Horses’ was next on the list to be
played; the song is currently my favourite song
on the new Marilyn Manson album and it went down
a treat with everyone singing and rocking along.
 The set list was a pretty big mix of songs new
and old but I did find it odd that no song’s
were played from ‘The Golden Age Of Grotesque’
and ‘Eat Me, Drink Me’ and they also
didn’t play ‘Arma Goddam-MotherFucking-Geddon’
which happens to be the lead single of the latest
Marilyn Manson album ‘The High End Of Low’
and what made it even odder was the fact they
were selling t-shirts with that song and the lyrics
plastered all over it but there was no sign of
the song being played.
The other thing that I was disappointed with
was the stage show, it was pretty much non-existent
like the lighting tonight, instead of having Manson
walking on stilts and being lifted high up into
the air whilst having a massive Alice Cooper style
theatre show we had Manson with his laser gloves,
Manson handing towels out into the crowd and burning
a bible and that was pretty much it, it seemed
that they recent credit crunch has hit everyone
including Manson and his stage show, however Manson
did make up for this with the quantity and quality
of songs, each and every song came across in a
hard hitting way sounding so much more heavier
than they do on record.
 The set finished with a cover of ‘Sweet
Dreams’ and ‘Rock ‘N’
Roll Nigga’ with Manson and his band leaving
the stage for a few minutes before returning for
a blistering version of ‘The Beautiful People’,
as soon as the show was over everyone left the
venue to take to the streets of Birmingham whilst
buying knockoff merchandise from the touts surrounding
the venues.
Overall I was disappointed with the lack of stage
show but impressed with how the band made up for
it with their energetic and heavy ways leaving
me wanting to see them again as soon as the show
was over.
4/5
Review By Trigger
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