End Times Tour

We are back. Yes, it's been a while but we are BACK. I write this in the afterglow of last night's epic concert. Marilyn Manson and The Smashing Pumpkins brought their End Times Tour to Irvine Meadows, Irvine CA last night and it was plain AWESOME. It was the second performance of the tour and I couldn't have been more pleased. This is the 3rd round of Marilyn Manson for me, and my first time getting a chance to see The Smashing Pumpkins.

 


Marilyn Manson has a new vigor I haven't seen before. This show was by far the best of the 3 Marilyn Manson performances I've seen.
His recent success with The Pale Emperor,This album brought him back to the headlines and I think critical acclaim has been good for him, however, he deserves it; he worked hard. He seems to have a new outlook on life. If you watch his interviews over the past few years you'll find a Marilyn Manson who grew up in a sense, instead of being lost in a depressive drug induced world of split ups and heartache. Now he has seemed to reflect on the death of his mother bringing him closer to his father. You find a Marilyn Manson finally staring into the eyes of Brian Warner. I think he's come a long way emotionally over the past few years and I think it's fantastic, he's a brilliant artist and has a brilliant mind. He's always been on a mission to stir up controversy in the name of individuality and open mindedness. I feel people disregard his profound impact, people like Bill O' Riley warned us of his negative impact. But in reality Marilyn Manson has become a Christ like figure.

I'm struggling to find what to say about the show, it was just a really solid Marilyn Manson concert. Stilt walking, bible burning, costume changes and a revived Marilyn Manson. Favorite song of the night was Lunchbox, but the entire set list was top notch. This concert felt like a Marilyn Manson concert should feel. It was fabulously wicked.
I could have done without the two cover songs. I love his covers of Personal Jesus, and Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This. But it always bothers me when an artist has a massive body of work and they lace in any more than one cover. I wanted more Marilyn Manson songs, but that's okay. The audience enjoys the covers and I'm pretty sure Marilyn enjoys performing the songs. So it's all good!

The Smashing Pumpkins, what a treat. What a tight sound. Now I can't reflect too much on Pumpkins. I genuinely care about Marilyn Manson, and have followed him ever since I was a young "disposable" teen. But I've always like a number of Smashing Pumpkins as anyone who is into good 90s alt. rock should be. Songs like 1979, Disarm, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Cherub Rock, and so on and so forth.

But what a massive performance, the delivery that Billy Corgan still has is brilliant, he still feels like an artist in his prime. The light design was fantastic, as was for Manson. You can tell these two 90's powerhouse bands got together and put together a joint budget together and gave themselves a very fun tour. I felt like these two artist touring together is about as good as it can get. These two fit together so well.

Not only do the bands fit together, so do the front men of each band. Manson and Corgan being essentially best friends. Now that I reflect... we were awfully close to LA... I'm surprised Johnny Depp didn't make an appearance. Manson and Depp are also good buds.
What more do I put down on this post? I just really really enjoyed the performance okay? LOL

Photos grabbed by http://consequenceofsound.net article.