#SW15 DREAM SETLIST // Marilyn Manson

What will The Pale Emperor play for us come Soundwave? As our black curtains descend, we can only dream. So here’s the result. Did your offering to the dark gods make the cut?

Warning from the jump: If you expect the God Of Fuck to prance around on Soundwave with ripped stockings and garter belt lodged firmly in his asshole, think again. Marilyn Manson is far from snorting cocaine from the heads of his band mates on stage (#SW12, anyone?). There’s no such thing as shock-rock anymore. Instead, expect the Pale Emperor to deliver “This Is The New Shit” and reinstate himself as the regal monster of your nightmares, only far better dressed. – Martina Bailey Pitrun

Personal Jesus – This cover does not deviate in any large degree from Depeche Mode’s original, apart from added guitar distortion and Manson’s gyrating. Let’s be honest here—That’s what you’ve come here to see, but probably draw the line at watching him fellate a crucifix. There’s gotta be a line, people. That kind of outrage would have been “SHOCK! HORROR!” ten years ago, but we’ve all grown up. Pissing off Christians is so passé. They’ve got their own shit to deal with. Good song but. – MBP

Cake and Sodomy – Yelling “I am the God of Fuck!” sounds like something you’d scream at the TV while evangelists grease up your loneliness at 5am and in the same breath ask for your credit card number. Side note: Sodomy is a lovely word for nasty business and Manson calls this 1994 track “an anthem for the hypocritical America slobbering on the tit of Christianity”. If you aren’t familiar with Manson, the first 10 years of his career had a definite recurring theme. Take a wild fucking guess what it was. – MBP

Deep Six – From The Pale Emperor, it’s Manson Sings The Blues. Catch him dressed like the man in black, slowing to a crawl as he pulls lyrics from dark recesses and drags them over a hissing snake pit. “You want to know what Zeus said to Narcissus/you better watch yourself” over and slower till you can’t shake off the depression that’s set into your bones. On festival day, there’s no showers to cool yourself off and wash away the grime. You’ll have this song scarred into you for at least a week. Sorry not sorry. – MBP

No Reflection – I think Manson is the only dude who can shake metalheads loose and get ’em dancing. Goths dance; they fucking love dancing. Sure, they dance like Robert Smith clones in lonely corners of chessboard dancefloors. Metalheads don’t. Ass-shakin beats AND crushing guitars liberates that long repressed urge. Music has to move you somehow. When the world burns down around you, the bravest dude throws a party. Manson is that dude. – Tom Valcanis

Heart Shaped Glasses – I bet my first and twelfth born child that Manson will not play this song. It’s a principle thing. The worst part of writing songs about/and for lovers is they eventually become exes, and then you’re stuck with that nasty lesion on your back-catalogue for the rest of your career. It’s like getting a lovers name tattooed. In that case, you can excise it from your body with a rusty paring knife. But if you wanna watch Manson fuck that hot little Lolita from “Thirteen” on a blood soaked bed, google it. Never (or try to) forget. – MBP

I Don’t Like The Drugs – Manson has said and I quote: “drug abusers give drug users a bad name”. I have applied this sentiment as an excuse to all aspects of debauched circumstances I’ve found myself in. The irony is that for most of the 90’s to 00’s his abuse of drugs, his band mates and himself are what made him so notorious and got panties twisted in all sects of conservative society. Let the man do what he wants. While bored housewives are popping Xanax to dull the screams of their newborns, Manson was taking speedballs like it was Vitamin C. – MBP

Disposable Teens – Manson has to pull out one solid mosher. Why not make it the most apocalyptic one in his arsenal? Disposable Teens tears through veins like poisoned adrenaline. That swinging riff just screams sex. Not the kind when you love someone, either. If it doesn’t inspire an out-and-proud orgy right there in the pit, I think everyone’ll leave a hair disappointed. – Tom Valcanis

Killing Strangers – With minimal, repetitive lyrics and referencing the gun culture that’s embraced by NRA card-wielding middle Americans, Manson chokes up the gothic blues on this seedy opener to the new record. If he’s gonna burst out of ashes like a slick-tarred Phoenix, that will impress me 97%. Stage production is a must. Fake blood is dead. Rise like the godless monster you are. – MBP

The Dope Show – Manson’s avant-garde metamorphosis was his entire body, including prosthetic rubber breasts, covered in white grease paint — as an androgynous extraterrestrial wandering around the Hollywood Hills. Even currently, “cops and queers make good looking models”- The former as uncontrollable hair-triggers that shoot blindly in the dark and the latter as a blueprint for equality. Nothing’s changed, except Manson’s possibly breast reduction. I haven’t seen him naked (yet). – MBP

Sweet Dreams – Slower and meaner than the Eurythmics version, Sweet Dreams will be sung in unison by crowds who don’t know who the Eurythmics are. Johnny Depp’s joined Manson in playing this track live over the last couple years and if that swashbuckling sea-urchin with a penchant for nubile young blondes makes an appearance, I’ll eat my own hat and probably yours too. – MBP

Antichrist Superstar – Let me just quote: www.jesus-is-savior.com

“Marilyn Manson acts like a freak that is straight out of the pits of hell. He is a so-called rock singer, but that is a farce, as the guy can not even carry a tune. He burns Holy Bibles in public, spits on pictures of Jesus and curses Christianity. The fact that Manson has the photo in his CD, “Antichrist Superstar” of two of his band members drinking his urine through a straw while he is urinating should be enough to repulse people. If anyone endorses that or thinks that’s “cool” then they are mentally disturbed. I encourage parents to monitor what their children are listening to and if they find any of Manson’s CD’s in their child’s possession to take the appropriate action.”

Burn me at the stake coz I think that’s cool as fuck. I encourage parents to let their children make their own decisions regarding personal music taste. While Manson isn’t burning bibles to keep warm anymore, the parents that crucified him are currently accepting that their blocked arteries are “God’s Will” and not the fault of ingesting calorie-laden poison that they also feed to their children. Who is killing whom? It’s just music, man. Chill. – MBP

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