May 18, 1998

I was lucky enough to win tickets through my local radio station to the big Marilyn Manson concert at the Vatican (Pope John Paul II's 78th Birthday Bash), and it was an AMAZING show. Here's the review:

My friend Jenny and I arrived at the show around 7 pm. We were both really excited and had been ever since we had heard the news (on EmptyVee =P) that Pope John Paul II absolutely LOVED the new album, Revelations, and wanted Marilyn Manson to play a show at the Vatican on his birthday. Jenny and I were astounded by the place - it was simply huge and there were no seats anywhere, just a large stage and a balcony high up above our heads behind us (which I correctly assumed was where the pope would be situated.)
We took our place on the barrier slightly to the right of centerstage and around 8 pm the lights dimmed. A large stone altar was wheeled to the center of the stage. Twiggy came out from the left side of the stage (stage right) and all the little girls in the audience started screaming. Then Pogo walked onstage and motioned to the security guards at the front of the stage, who immediately began throwing large ziploc bags of cocaine into the audience - you know, the usual act. The female guitarist walked onstage, stripped completely, and lay down on the stone altar. Ginger then took his place behind the drum stool. A spotlight was suddenly shone upon the balcony, and there stood Mr. Manson and Pope John Paul II. Manson gave the pope a big kiss on the cheek, then fastened a large pair of gaudy "scabbed wings" to his back and appeared to fly down to the stage (though I could see the wires attached to his back a la "Fartman" from the MTV Music Awards). When he landed, he unzipped his pants and proceded to have sex with the female guitarist. I was a bit bored at this point actually, since I've seen that act before (other than the soaring intro). After they both climaxed simultaneously, a tribal drum beat came from Ginger's direction and they launched into "Cake And Sodomy". The guitarist quickly jumped off of the altar and picked up her guitar while Manson tucked away his penis and began screaming "I am the god of fuck!" It was actually pretty good - I must admit that MM has begun to sound much better ever since Zim Zum was replaced by that unnamed female. Anyways, they played pretty much the same setlist that they've done for the rest of the tour with only a few minor differences:

Cake And Sodomy
Angel With The Scabbed Wings
Sweet Tooth
IV-TV
I Put A Spell On You
Son Of Man
Get Your Gunn
Junk The Magic Dragon
She's Not My Girlfriend
1996
Dope Hat
Tourniquet
Negative 3

Highlights:
-Those wings that he had on during AWTSW! They were somehow electronically controlled and he was flapping them like a demon the entire song. After it ended, the stage was covered with smoke and when it cleared they had been removed. =(
-Sweet Tooth: I admit that I still like this song, but DAMNIT it's overplayed! Seriously, I don't think that there's been one show so far on this tour that they haven't played it at. They really need to give it a rest.
-IV-TV: "This one's the story of our lives - it's what made us what we are today." Cool background is brought out for the first time in the show - it's that giant television that they've had behind them the entire tour and it had all kinds of scenes from past concerts spliced between scenes from counterculture/underground-type movies.
-I Put A Spell On You: another one that they play at virtually every show, I still love this song. In the background, there's this bizarre film playing on the TV of a drunk guy outside a girl's window and the girl inside her room trying to hide from the guy. It fit so perfectly with the performance - the guy was singing IPASOY and it matched Manson's vox perfectly (yes, I know most of you have seen this plenty of times before, but that doesn't keep it from being really cool.)
-Son Of Man: "People say we ripped off Kiss or Alice Cooper, but that's bullshit - the only band we've ever really ripped-off is Black Sabbath." Rockin' cover. Sounds much better live than it did on those demo tapes.
-Get Your Gunn: This was really weird. Manson actually went back to singing the chorus the POAAF way instead of the demo way (originally heard in the 4/17/93 Ft. Lauderdale show) as he's been doing for the rest of the tour. I guess he figured the Pope and the rest of the crowd would be used to the recorded version. *shrug*
-Junk The Magic Dragon: Very pronounced guitar, not so drowned out with live drums and less emphasis on the keys. The samples ("LSD!") came through loud and clear as well. The TV screen in the background was showing all kinds of scenes from cheezy '60s/'70s films like "The Trip".
-She's Not My Girlfriend: This was normal except that the song didn't end the way it usually does. Instead, the guitar riff just started getting faster and led right into...
-1996: Manson had a huge grin at the beginning of this one (as if to say "yes, it's the same damned riff") and gave the audience a huge surprise: the TV screen in the background was showing the Pope from his balcony. Apparently, there was a camera in the balcony with him, and the Pope was rockin' out to this song. When Manson came to the line "Anti-gay and anti-dope", he didn't sing the next line and John Paul II screamed into the camera "I AM THE FAGGOT ANTI-POPE!" That was SO amazing.
-Dope Hat: The camera was still on the Pope for this song and Manson intro-ed it with "I know someone who has the 'dope'-est hat of all..." Then there was a blinding flash of light and Manson was standing on the stage with a large Pope's hat on while the Pope had quickly slipped a large black top hat onto his head. Instead of the normal Lidsville sample, the Pope said "The great HooDoo will perform a feat of prestigidization..." into the camera and began the song. MM played it the way that they normally do and ended with the Pope saying "Who put the godblessed hat on the bed?!"
-The lights went out at this point and people began to wonder if the show was over. Then a spotlight came down on Manson so that only he could be seen. I thought that he was going to perform Man That You Fear, but they hadn't done that yet this tour and he wasn't wearing the bloody rags either. Instead, he said "initially, Anton LaVey was going to sing background vocals on this song, but I've found another religious leader to take his place" , then launched into Tourniquet. I didn't hear anybody else singing so I had no clue what he was talking about, but when it came to the chorus another spotlight appeared out of nowhere and there was the Pope standing about 6 feet away from Manson. The Pope sang on the choruses and the ending was spectacular, with the Pope and Manson facing each other screaming "You never ever believed in me!" at each other.
-After that I figured they couldn't do another encore, but I was totally mistaken. With the Pope safely returned to his balcony, the lights came back on and MM played "Negative 3" as their final show stopper. It was definitely the most beautiful thing that I have ever heard. They showed the Pope on the screen afterwards and he was in tears.

Well, that was the show. A few tidbits: the paper quoted John Paul II as saying "This was the best birthday that I have ever had." in a long article about the show. He also said that he would invite MM back to the Vatican again any time as he was enchanted by the many love songs that they played as well as the hard rockin' groove of theirs that most old world music lacks.

As always,

Thy JoiK