Marilyn Manson @ Challenge Stadium, Claremont, WA

13th October 2007 | Canon 400D

Say what you want about the man, the band, or the music, but Marilyn Manson shows remain great camera fodder, even if you only get access for one and a half songs, in a pit segmented in two, with all the photographers having seemingly chosen the one side.

I remember going for a quick lens change and leaving my bag on a PA to the very front and left of the stage (note: not actually on the stage). Manson stormed over and booted it. Luckily (it contained my car keys, iPod, and lenses), it landed in the photo pit. If Manson was a better athlete, I’d have been screwed for getting home that night.

This show was a couple of days after the Virginia Tech massacre, and it was already incorporated into some of the video projections used during the show. More like a Pink or Britney Spears show than their old labelmates Nine Inch Nails, Manson’s performance featured a ton of costume changes, sets, and shenanigans, including a boxing ring for “The Fight Song”, and a microphone, ring-announcer style, hanging from above that, to be perfectly honest, sounded like shit.

Still, one of the more interesting dates I’ve shot at, with the coolest photo pass I’ve ever recieved: a fabric sticker with an old-timey camera on it, also containing the only time I saw the tour’s official name on anything pertaining to the Australian dates.

For the record, it was the “Rape of the World” tour.