Twins of Evil Tour, October 8th, 2012 (DJ Starscream, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie)

Twins of Evil Tour
October 8th, 2012
Pershing Center
Lincoln, Nebraksa

DJ Starscream
Marilyn Manson
Rob Zombie

After nearly 20 years, finally, two of the biggest names in the industrial/shock-rock/metal genre are finally on tour together. The Twins of Evil was long over due but well worth the wait. For those of you, whom like myself, grew up listening to White Zombie (and later Rob Zombie) and Marilyn Manson, it always seemed obvious to me that the two should tour together. Especially now that two of Marilyn Manson’s longest lasting members have found themselves in Rob Zombie’s band. Tonight’s show was going to be a religious experience and it was going to be brutal.

Dj Starscream

A few weeks ago it was announced that Jonathan “JdEvil” Davis of Korn would no longer be opening the tour with his DJ set and that Slipknot’s Sid #0 Wilson would be taking his place. I know what you’re thinking, “A DJ at a metal concert?” But Sid is no normal DJ. Unless you’ve had the pleasure of seeing Sid Wilson DJ as his alter ego DJ Starscream, it’s hard to describe the experience. For tonight’s set, Sid took familair tracks, like Nine Inch Nail’s The Perfect Drug and Slipknot’s Pulse of the Maggots and spun them into a demoic mixture of House and Trance music. This may have been the 4th time I saw Sid DJ as Starscream but it was the first time I’ve seen fans form mosh pits during his set. Even his sets in between sets during the 2012 Mayhem Festival, the crowd was rather subdued. Not in Nebraska though. People may have been unfamiliar with Sid’s alter ego, but they warmed up to him quickly.
As soon as those familiar notes of Slipknot’s Pulse of the Maggots were struck, the crowd started bouncing and continued to do so for the reast of Wilson’s half hour set.
While perched behind his DJ booth, Wilson was flanked on either side by two “guards”, each dressed in a black jumpsuit and wearing #0’s trademark robot mask usually reserved for his time on stage with Slipkot. But Sid looked fucking amazing. His DJ helmut was Starscream of The Transformers. Even his hoodie looked like Starscream when he transformed into a robot. We found out later that the hoodie is a one-of-a-kind and Sid made it himself. Wilson had honestly transformed himself into one of his childhood icons.

The crowd was eating up the heavier tracks Sid remixed but came to a nearly complete stand still when we mixed in Goldfinger’s cover of Nena’s 99 Red Balloons. I admit it was a little confusing to go from the bass heavy thump of Nine Inch Nail’s The Perfect Drug to the more House and Trance friendly version of 99 Red Balloons but it was still a killer set.
Several times during his performance, Sid would bathe the stage in fog that poured out from his booth and it mixed with the ever present tobacco and pot smoke that was wafting up from the crowd. I spoke with numerous people after Sid’s set and they all agreed that Wilson ws the best choice to replace Davis as the opening act.

Set included:
Pulse of the Maggots (Slipknot)
The Perfect Drug (Nine Inch Nails)
99 Red Balloons Goldfinger version)

The crowd started to get antsy after Dj Starscream’s set. They were ready for the beginning of tonight’s main course and would soon enough be gourged to near bursting. The whispers and conversations turned into screams of approval as a black crutain was draped across the stage. Tonight’s crowd was a decent mix of old and new fans, as well as guy and girls. It was the ammount of girls in the crowd that concerned me. I knew that tonight’s show would include an abundance of moshing and crowd surfing but girl’s mosh dirty. It’s almost like they feel that they have something to prove to the burley male pit bosses who usually rule the brutality during a show. After having seen Marilyn Manson in Des Moines, Iowa earlier this year, I must say that tonight’s crowd was seething with the energy that that Iowa show lacked.
The floor was packed with a sea of Manson and Zombie t-shirts, something lacking in Iowa. Another aspect of Nebraska that the Iowa show lacked; Fans. True fans. Iowa’s show, as amazing as it was, was full of people who only attended the show so they could tell their friends “Yeah, I was at a Marilyn Manson concert.” Tonight’s conversations revolved around how long the set would be and which tracks we all thought the band would play? The energy of the crowd was already bouncing off the sheer black curtain when the house lights were cut.
The Goblin’s “Susperia” enveloped the crowd as the stage lights cast dreadful shadows across the curtain. As the opening chords of “Hey Cruel World” played, the curtain was torn free to reveal the man that so many of us still view as out Antichrist Superstar. The band wasted no time with their aural assault and the crowd wasted no time whipping themselves into a frenzy. In all my years of attending concerts, I’ve never had the nerve to actaully seek out the most violent sections of the mosh pit. I had questioned my decsion to be in the thick of the action through “Disposable Teens” and “The Love Song” but those fears of bodily harm were replaced with a confidence I didn’t know I had as soon as “No Reflection” was played. This show was where I belonged. I was among 5,000 of my closest friends that’d I’d not met until only a few hours ago. Manson’s first outfit change happened during “The Love Song” as he walked on stage wearing a glemmed out priests robe and hat.

Manson’s set was a brilliant mix of older tracks and newer material. Songs like “Slo-Mo-Tion” and “No Reflection” held their own against “mObscene” and “The Dope Show”. Manson addressed the crowd numerous times during the band’s set. Early on in the set, he asked the fans is anyone was high. Obviously there were screams of approval. He then warned us that he was placing us all under a citizen’s arrest and demanded we put on stage all the drugs in the arena and that he would be conducting a cavity search of everyone.
Tonight’s set was full of surprises too. Manson began “The Dope Show” with the first verse and chorus of The Beatle’s “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” and very few of us screamed the words to “King Kill 33” as it was the prelude to “Antichrist Superstar”. Twiggy began the night wearing a high collared jacket but, by the middle of the set, he was wearing his “death mask”. Fred Sablan marched back and forth across stage right, smiling when he noticed just how much of the floor was covered with circle pits during “Sweet Dreams”.
There was a collective gasp though as the stage lights turned back on after “Sweet Dreams” and we noticed that the air of the auditorium was full of snow. “Coma White” …. one of my favorite tracks and one that I’d not heard played live for nearly 5 years and the band played nearly the entire track as snow fell on the crowd.

Sablan told us afterwards that the outtro chorus was cut so that the band could play “The Reflecting God” in its entirety. Tonight’s show was made for fans like myself who’ve been following Manson since his Spooky Kids days. Sadly though, the crowd wasn’t sure how to handle “The Reflecting God”. Sure, there was moshing, but not as much as during the better known songs, which is a shame. “The Reflecting God” isn’t played often and hasn’t been played yet on this tour. A rare treat and one I’m grateful to have heard. Sablan admitted after the show that “Murderers Are Getting Pretier Everyday” was replaced with “Slo-Mo-Tion” because the guys didn’t like the way “Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day” sounded when played at the previous show and “Coma Black” was cut so they could play “The Reflecting God”.
As exhausted at the crowd seemed to be towards the end of the set, there was just enough energy left to re-open the circle pits during “Antichrist Superstar”. Manson’s podeum was brought on stage, and a full length mirror was placed behind him. A handfull of red, white and blue balloons was passed to him by a stage hand. Manson stepped up to the microphone and announced to the crowd, “These (balloons) are like the U.S. political system.” He released the balloons which popped when they hit the stage lights and showed the crowd with more confetti.

Manson conducted the crowd during “Antichrist Superstar”, orchestrating more chaos for the crowd. The show ended with a BANG as red, white and blue confetti was shot out of cannons and onto the crowd during “The Beautiful People”. By the end of the set, we were all covered in sweat and confetti and sore from the constant pounding of other’s bodies against our own but it was worth it. I had screamed my throat raw but it was worth it. This being the 8th time I’ve seen Marilyn Manson live, I can attest to you that this band gets better each and every time I see them live. I hope you get the chance to be a part of music history like I have.

Marilyn Manson

Setlist;
Suspiria (intro by The Goblins)
Hey, Cruel World…
Disposable Teens
The Love Song
No Reflection
mOBSCENE
The Dope Show (Happiness Is A Warm Gun (The Beatles cover) Intro)
Slo-Mo-Tion
Rock Is Dead
Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode cover)
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Eurythmics cover)
Coma White
The Reflecting God
King Kill 33
Antichrist Superstar
The Beautiful People
You’re So Vain (taped outtro) Carly Simon cover)

So much confetti was shot onto the crowd during Manson’s set that I expected to see it lingering in the air of the auditorium up until Rob Zombie took the stage. What I didn’t expect was every fan over 5’5″ to be covered in the shredded white, blue and red tissue paper. It clung to the sweaty bodies of nearly every fan, myself included, but the smiles on their exhausted faces was a great sight to see. People who had been violently slamming into each other only a few minutes earlier we laughing and joking about how intense and amazing Manson’s set was and how much more excited they were to see Rob Zombie.
Soon after the stage was cleared, yet another curtain rose in front of the stage to block our view. This time though it wasn’t a solid black sheet. Zombie’s curtain sported an image of the classic King Kong movie. Kong cluching the frail, blond woman he was obsessed with. Yeah …. Tonight’s show was going to be amazing. Not just because Rob Zombie puts on an amazing show, but because it’s October and the Witching hour was near.
Soon after catching our breath, the house lights shut off and the crowd erupted into screams, chanting “Zombie! Zombie! Zombie!” Flames burst to life behind the curtain, casting eeries shadows across the auditorium. The stage lights burst to life and flames grew from nearly every area of the stage. The strobe lights revealed a giant robotic sarcophagus placed center stage. Rob Zombie’s intro music was a combination of the three intro tracks off of three of his albums. “Call of the Zombie” bled into “Sinner’s Inc.” which melted into “Sawdust In the Blood” …. then the opening chords of “Jesus Frankenstein” were struck and the crowd pushed forward, everyone trying to reach the barricades. The gates of the sarcophagus opened and Rob Zombie stepped through as flames burst around the stage and the crowd surged again, squeezing bodies into every empty space within 20 feet of the barricades. If the crashing guitar and hammering bass of “Jesus Frankenstein” wasn’t enough to push the crowd to their breaking point, “Superbeast’s” intensity was.

Ginger Fish was a caged animal behind his drum kit. The energy he had put into touring as part of Marilyn Manson’s band was tenfold at tonight’s show. PiggyD would strut from one side of the stage to the other, flirting with the crowd the entire time. At one point during “Living Dead Girl”, John5 joined PiggyD and Zombie on one of the platforms set at the front of the stage. “Look, Piggy,” Zombie said when he noticed a dozen cameras aiming up from the crowd, “they want to take our picture!” The trio posed for a few shots, Zombie leaning on his guitarist and bassist. But tonight wasn’t just a rock show. Zombie informed us early on that tonight would also be “a Halloween party.” The pyro during tonight’s show was just as extreme as if Zombie were playing in front of 50,000 fans. The band did take note of the crowd’s smaller size though, and Zombie joked with us several times during the evening. “For such a small crowd in the middle of a cornfield, you fuckers know how to rock.”
The stage props were lavish. An emaciated witch paced across the stage during “Meet The Creeper” and the giant robot made an appearence during the band’s cover of White Zombie’s “More Human Than Human.” The most elaborate prop was saved from “Mars Needs Women” though. Rob road a giant Martian craft on stage while John5 shredded through the track and the enormous LCD screens flashed anime horror images.

The small size of the crowd didn’t matter to Zombie or his band. They still put 110% into their set. After pelting the crowd with various sized beachballs during “Sick Bubblegum”, Zombie returned to the stage wearing a bright yellow Nebraska Corn t-shirt. “I don’t wear the color yellow very often,” he told us, “but this seemed appropriate.” Zombie continued to tease us. “Do you all ride corn here?” Zombie has a sense of humor. The band stayed in Omaha on their off day, and Zombie made note of the fact that the Miss Nebraska contest was going on at the hotel they all stayed at.
Being a film maker and artist, Rob Zombie knows how to put on a helluva show. It’s not just about the music. Zombie know that the visuals of the stage show enhance the listening experience and he uses those visuals to their highest potential. One of the many highlights of the evening was Rob Zombie’s trailer for Lords Of Salem being played for the crowd. The fans cheered just as much for the trailer as they did when hearing their favorite songs played live and the concert still ended with a bang. As GInger, PiggyD and John5 were dressed in the sparkling robes of monks (each adorned with a giant black cross), Zombie himself stood atop a podium, conducting the final destruction of the crowd as the band played Dragula and once again covered the crowd in confetti.

Rob Zombie
Setlist;
Sinners Inc. / Call of the Zombie / Sawdust in the Blood (Taped intro)
Jesus Frankenstein
Superbeast
Meet the Creeper
Living Dead Girl
More Human Than Human (White Zombie cover)
(Drum solo by Ginger Fish)
Mars Needs Women
Scum of the Earth
Sick Bubble-Gum
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
House of 1000 Corpses
Thunder Kiss ’65 (White Zombie cover w/ John5’s guitar solo)
School’s Out (Alice Cooper cover)
Dragula

Waiting outside, by the busses, after the show, about a dozen fans got the chance to speak with current Marilyn Manson bassist Fred Sablan. Fred spoke with us for about 15 minutes, posing for photos and signing autographs with everyone. We found out that Manson’s band has learned every track off of Antichrist Superstar and has been playing Little Horn during the band’s soundcheck. Fred also told us that there are a few surprises in store this tour as far as music goes and that the band currently has about 20 new songs that have been written. Fans of Goon Moon, Fred and Twiggy’s band, can also expect new music soon.