According to the sandwich board wearing, preaching freaks on the street outside Varsity Arena that night, this was the show that would ensure my ticket to hell whence I kick the bucket.  The freak show on the street was almost as good as the Reverend Manson himself.  As I stood in the line-up torn between good and evil, it occurred to me that doing the right thing would have been ripping my ticket up and screaming hallelujah as I danced among the preaching freaks, justifying their existence. However, in this case, it was the voice of Darth Vader that took over... "Mike I am your father"... and just when I thought I was free from the clutches of the dark side... they pulled me back in!!!!!  I will burn!!!!!!  I didn't know at the time who the opening act was. Powerman 5000.  I thought, nice name.  NEXT.  Turns out they were REALLY good and totally gracious for our approval.  I later found out that the singer's brother is Rob Zombie!!!  I was kinda pumped about seeing this show just because of all the hype and the controversy surrounding his shows and tunes.  I'd always been the guy who cheers for the underdog so I figured it would be pretty easy to get into Marilyn Manson.  Sure enough, I checked out the Antichrist Superstar CD and was thoroughly impressed.  My kinda shit.  Heavy, rude, obnoxious, racy, twisted, demented.  Guaranteed to make 95% of the population recoil in fear and disgust so of course I'm attracted to it.  The show was amazing.  I mean the guy pours every ounce of whatever it is he has into all he does.  When a guy takes a smashed hunk of glass and cuts himself open night after night, you know he's serious as a heart attack.  

The sound was good, the band was tight, and Manson had a couple tricks up his sleeve for this show to make it just special enough to possibly land him in jail.  He was warned by the OPP not to play "Rock n Roll Nigger".  Of course Manson being the fucker that he is, he invites this black dude up on stage with him to help him sing. Well there ya go, I'm going to jail now too dammit.  Sorry, just quoting someone else... does that count?  Is this considered a hate site now?  Sorry.  I apologize.  Fuck me in the goat ass.  Anyway, they threatened to bust him if he did the song and he did it.  But they didn't bust him.  It just made for bad = good press.  He did some pretty neat things too like his Pink Floydish political rally scene during the song Antichrist Superstar where he stands at a podium and flops about as if hooked to puppet strings while ripping the pages out of a bible and throwing them about.  At the end of that performance, it starts SNOWING for a good minute  or more.  Fuckin' bizarre that effect was.  Never saw that before or since.  The shit just kept pouring from the rafters.  There was so much shit falling you couldn't even SEE the band.  It actually falls and piles up creating a weird indoor effect in the middle of summer.  I don't care what anyone says.  Manson is a genius.  He was created to push people's buttons cuz most people are holding them out to BE PUSHED.  I once asked a pretty cool Priest in the entertainment business what he thought of the whole Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie thing.  I asked what he thought of guys who are making money by using Satan and hellish sounds and imagery as an attention getter in their performances.  All he said was a stern, "THEY'RE GOING TO HELL".

SO... that ended THAT conversation.