Marilyn Manson has completely outdone himself with his last album “The Pale Emperor”. Everything from that album is phenomenal and I was SUPER excited to hear some of the new material performed in concert. He has been hanging around Tulsa as of late shooting his new movie “Let Me Make You A Martyr” and this show at The Brady Theater was completely sold out. Fans arriving at the venue were met outside by protesters carrying anti-gay signs and one that read “Sodomites Defile The Land” while yelling “freaks!” at the fans and telling them they would go to hell.
Manson kicked off his set with “Deep Six”. A thick white fog covered the stage and it was hard to see Manson at first but the fog disappeared quickly to reveal the man we were all there to see! “Deep Six” was the perfect high energy opening track and really showcases Manson’s vocals, this man hasn’t missed a beat in all the years he has been performing! Next was his hit “Disposable Teens” which sent the crowd into a frenzy. The setlist was perfect to keep the energy up and fists high in the air all through the night!
It was not until Manson’s biggest hit, “Sweet Dreams”, before the pace was slowed down a bit. This song is always a crowd favorite and hearing a large venue full of people sing that song along with Manson is an amazing thing to witness. The setlist did not have many new songs, however, the new ones that were present are some of the best off of his new album including “Third Day Of A Seven Day Binge”, opener “Deep Six” and “Killing Strangers”. It was nice to see some new tunes included in a mostly “Greatest Hits” set. The songs meshed well with all of his earlier hits like “Tourniquet”, “The Dope Show” and “Rock Is Dead” which had smoke and confetti shot out of canons into the crowd.
Though the crowd was crazy all throughout the night, it was nothing compared to the reaction of “The Beautiful People”. Once the opening notes hit , the crowd went CRAZY with everyone jumping and singing along to one of the greatest songs of the past 20 years. Though the song was released in 1996 it still holds up well with all of today’s rock music! Manson ended his set with “Coma White”, which is surprising, considering everyone expected it to end with “The Beautiful People”. The song was a great way to end the show with the a serious bang! Manson really made the best of the hour and a half he had on stage, moving around like a crazed mad man and giving the crowd every ounce of energy he had. You really can’t ask for a better rock show than the one Marilyn Manson put on for Tulsa, one of the best of 2015 so far for sure! by David Rader, photos by Michael Ervin