What a night at the Warfield! It all started with finding a great parking spot literally around the corner from the entrance to the Warfield. Then, upon picking up my tickets at will-call, I was given a pair of VIP passes with reserved seats at the back of the floor. How cool is that? I knew there was a pair of tickets waiting for me, but a VIP pass?
Walking into the venue at around 8.30pm, I was a little surprised to see the place only about half full. But by the time Manson and Co. took the stage, the Warfield was most likely about 75-80% full. Not a sold-out show, but impressive considering the lack of radio friendly hits from the new album so far.
The opening band, September Mourning, was pretty impressive as far as openers go. It was the first I had heard of them, and they played more traditional hard rock, but with a female lead singer who was very nice on the eyes. It was one of the few recent opening bands that I wasn't constantly looking at my watch to see how much longer they might be on. This time, it was a short 35 minute set, and with another 30 minute set-change, a curtain came down over the stage and the fog machine started to spew. We knew that within minutes, Manson would be taking the stage to blast us away.
For those of you new to Manson, the 'shock-rocker' has been around since the early-mid 90's getting his/their big start under the guidance of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails.) Since then, the two bands have parted ways in some respects, but have retained some of the same musicians that were so crucial to both NIN and Manson's success.
Jordie White, who was a founding member of Marilyn Manson and their bassist and/or guitarist took a brief break a few years ago from Manson to tour with Nine Inch Nails as the live bassist. He's since returned to Manson to play lead guitar and it was nice to see him back onstage next to Manson where he belongs.
In addition to Jordie, Manson picked up the talents of multi-instrumentalist Chris Vrenna on keyboards. Chris was a founding member of Nine Inch Nails and who continued for nearly 10 years with NIN before leaving to write/perform his own music under the name "Tweaker". If you haven't already, definitely check out his stuff. And in addition to his keyboard duties, Vrenna is an incredibly talented studio engineer and again helping Manson write and record their next album while on the current tour. Chris has got to be one of the busiest guys in the music industry these days.
You can learn more about his background and his studio rig in this video here:
Back to the concert, the show will not disappoint if you're into Manson. One thing to take note, if you're going to head into the pit, you're going to get wet as Manson loves to spray/spit water out to all in the front of the pit. You'll also be treated to a number of costume changes and overall, just belligerent rock. You've been warned. As above, here's another video I shot using my Sony Cybershot. Enjoy.
And lastly a picture of Chris Vrenna and I:
