A Bang, Not A Whimper: A Marilyn Manson Concert Review

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Oct 5, 2001

A Bang, Not A Whimper

When you reach the age where you are, as Jethro Tull once espoused, you are too old to rock n roll and too young to die what can you do? I say, if you're going out,waving the white flag, passing "Smoky Joes Cafe" on the way to a reviewing a rock concert and thinking sadly that you'd rather be at a Broadway show (this actually happened.), you know,well, you're finally....old. I say, if you gotta go out if you gotta cop to your geriatric status ....go out with a BANG, not a whimper....

Nashville Pussy/Monster Magnet/Marilyn Manson Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, N.Y. April 7,1999

I'm at the age now where I feel stupid going to see bands that I really like.. the music I listen to is just too bizarre-or LOUD-- for every person over 30 except me. and.it's kinda awkward to drag along the accountant I dated last week to a concert,. so he can have a heart attack when one of the performers (allegedly) beheads a chicken. I don't have time to for a trip to the emergency room. The most overwhelming element of the night was the underwhelming amount of fans in attendance. What genius decided that two local NY arenas could be filled by said bands!! And this was announced when Hole was on the bill. There was nobody there. Not a soul in the balcony. A half filled main floor. Empty spaces in the mezzanine. It was pretty pathetic. You'd never ever guess this from all the Satan's minions publicity that actual, lauded music was involved- that two albums that had occupied many rock critics' Top Ten lists for 1998 ..pseudo Ziggy Stardust concept (MM #1) and old school hard rock more popular in Europe than America (MM #2) Even Nashville Pussy, the opening band, ( 2 girls, 2 guys, hyper-rock with a lot of dirty words) was nominated for a Grammy this year!

At the purist end of the spectrum, we have Monster Magnet, an Old School sex and drugs and rock n' roll biker band. Eschewing flashiness in favor of straight ahead rock, this New Jersey based band features guitarists who attack their instruments fervently, a singer with an attitude in black leather pants, strippers onstage for the final song, etc. If you were to leave a sample of a rock band in a time capsule for aliens and all eternity, this would be the representative. This is what rock n' roll was like when I was sneaking Peppermint Schnapps into concerts at the "Arrogant Brawlroom" in Chicago...this is how it should be done more often.

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