Posted in: Movies, Music | Tagged: HRL, Marilyn Manson, The Fillmore Theater, The Heaven Upside Down Tour

Heaven Was Upside Down For A Night: Marilyn Manson At The Fillmore Theater

Published Thu, 28 Sep 2017 14:15:49 -0500

Last night, Marilyn Manson kicked off his Heaven Upside Down tour at the Fillmore Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. I got tickets a few weeks ago, but according to employees of the venue, the show was indeed sold out.

I'm not entirely surprised that Manson is still selling out venues. His new album is due out October 6th, and in a world marred with tragedy and rubbish, people need an escape. And what better way to escape your current reality then by spending the evening with the Antichrist himself?

I've never seen Manson live. I've been to plenty of shows in my day (thanks to getting free tickets from working at Hot Topic), and I've seen some amazing acts. I didn't really know what to expect from a Manson show, but here we go.

We got to the Fillmore around 8:30, when doors opened at 8. To my surprise there was a line still wrapped around the block, so if you were there to see Alice Glass perform, you were shit out of luck. The venue is beautiful, though; a two story building with a few bars, VIP seating, and the place was clean. For $22 we got two beers, so this may shock you, but we decided to only have our one drink and that was it. I missed the entire opening act, but what can you do?

Manson came on around 9:30. From my spot on the balcony, I got a pretty good view of the stage. But I was also right next to a speaker, so the sound was predictably awful. I'm familiar enough with his music to know which song is being played, and to be fair the audience around me was having a damn good time, so it was easy to feed off of their energy, too.

Manson himself has a commanding presence, but he seemed to just stumble through some of the songs. He did perk up during 'Sweet Dreams', but to be fair, he was on stilts. He probably needed to be alert to move around in them.

Manson is still relying on shock imagery during his show too. During much of the set he had a microphone that had a fake knife on it, which he used to "cut" himself during the show. He was also a fan of throwing the mic on the stage when he was done a song. I couldn't really understand most of what he was saying when he was talking to the audience (likely due to being next to a speaker), but I did hear him — clear as day — ask the audience who was high.

The crowd was 110% into this show. The mosh pit was huge. People were really enjoying themselves, and frankly, Manson looked like he was having fun too. Would I see him again? Yes, absolutely. I'm finally living out my 14-year-old self's ideal life.

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