ROCK N ROLL EXPERIENCE - Slayer / Marilyn Manson tour

Marilyn Manson / Slayer / Bleeding Through

July 30, 2007 - Merriweather Post, Maryland

August 2, 2007 - Tweeter Center - New Jersey

I remember hearing about the Marilyn Manson/Slayer tour several months back & my initial thought was, omg, this show is one that you’d only dream of, I mean both bands have a fan base that’s REALLY different from each other, & originally there was to be 2 opening acts, but they eventually decided on just having Bleeding Through be the opening act for the entire tour. As a side note, I was talking to the guys in All That Remains & was told that they were approached to open the tour, but they turned it down, but anyways, this is definitely the most diverse & unique tour of the summer, & it blows Ozzfest away by far! I made it a point to check out 2 East Coast shows, even though I was only officially covered to do the Maryland show, since that’s my hometown show! Upon arriving at both shows, the first things I noticed were, the Marilyn Manson fans, or atleast the die hard ones, were dressed in their standard Hot Topic garb (eye liner, nail polish, Tripp clothing, etc.), & the Slayer fans were dressed down & screaming “SLAYER” at any given opportunity, & the Slayer mosh pits were definitely strong than the Manson mosh pits...to be honest with you, Slayer had a REAL Mosh pit, whereas Manson had kiddies & drunks pushing around & trying to touch Manson when he would adorn the ends of the stage.

To be quite honest with you, I thought Bleeding Through did a kick ass job of opening the shows...they played a set that I described as a more melodic version of Hatebreed, I mean it’s total hardcore, but there’s keyboards & melodic moments that make it all unique, & holy cow, these guys LOVE The Misfits..there’s sooo many Misfit’s skulls all over the place, from t-shirts, tattoos, to their bass guitar! At the Maryland show, Bleeding Through had a decent crowd & they commented that it was the best show so far for them..in New Jersey, the crowd was very small & not amused by their music. This tour runs pretty standard, & at 8:05, the almighty Slayer took the stage, which was hidden by a stained up white sheet that dropped, to reveal the band thrashing about! The band is all original members, they play as hard as ever, & as much as I love Marilyn Manson’s show, Slayer were the clear champions of this tour...Kerry looked evil as f*ck with his long goat like beard, his huge, heavily tattooed body, & come on, he plays the ultimate Metal guitars, BC Rich’s! I was really glad that Tom Araya shaved that raggy looking beard off..he was looking like the Uni-bomber for a while & it made him look really old! Tom’s sporting a soul patch these days & he still looks like he did when the band made it big! Jeff Henneman is the bands silent shredder, who twirls his blonde locks about & keeps his shy face hidden most of the night, & when he does decide to look at the crowd, it’s usually a fierce look of intensity & btw, check out his custom “Henneman” guitar that’s a play on the Heineken logo..it’s killer! At the Maryland show, I didn’t see the band use their inverted cross Marshall Amps, but at the New Jersey show, midway through the set, these huge rigs dropped from the left & right sides of the stage & they were Marshall Amp cabinets strapped together to make a huge upside down cross! After Slayer’s set, I have to be honest, it was like the night was done! I am a long time Marilyn Manson fan, & I’m being very honest with you, Slayer was clearly the highlight of the night & I don’t believe they even tried to outshine Manson, Slayer just did what they always do!

Manson was the headliner of this tour, even though it was billed as a co-headlining gig, but it was clear to see that Manson pulled the ego trip & HAD to close every show! The Maryland show started about 10-15 minutes later than it should have due to some guitar problems with Tim Skold’s rig & I saw Tim on the side of the stage observing this & trying to set things right so the show could start. The Manson stage was led off with a huge black curtain that had the new MM logo on it that hid the stage so roadies could set things up & the initial beginning of the show is kinda like a heart beating & you can see silhouettes’ of the band via flashes of lights, & the band opens with “If I Was Your Vampire” of the bands latest release. I was quite amazed that this time around, Manson is allowing camera’s & ALOT of people are using video mode & filming the shows, with the bands consent..sorta. At the New Jersey show, Manson was more sober...at the Maryland show, Manson seemed drunk or lucid at times & missed cues & screwed up lyrics. I’m not giving Manson too much press in this review, because I practically begged his publicist to work with me for this review so I could photograph the band & quite honestly, Manson’s people NEVER got back to me & I tried to contact them numerous times, & I’ve heard the same story from ALOT of people who review shows & take pics for zine’s & sites, so for me, these shows were more about Slayer, & seeing Marilyn Manson on this tour, it was kinda sad to me, because I’ve seen the band 15 times over the years, & this line-up of the band is really bland..the only guy left from the older band is Ginger Fish & without Pogo onstage, it’s kinda weird. Tim Skold is adequate, but NOT really a great fit as a guitarist for the band...he fit in better as a bass player, although I’ll admit that the songs he wrote on the new record were played better than the songs John 5 wrote, because, like with “Fight Song”, Skold lost the feeling that song had because he didn’t play it right! I never support or condone the sale of bootleg t-shirts, but to be honest with you, the bootleg t-shirts being sold outside the shows were cooler than the ones inside, & fyi, if you dick with the guys outside, they offer a high price for shirts ($15) & after the show you can ALWAYS get a shirt for $10 or less, because they wanna sell at all costs! Soooo, to put it bluntly, Slayer was the best band on the bill, they killed it, & as great as Marilyn Manson used to be, he can’t compare to the strength of Slayer!

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