Looking for a night of wholesome family fun? A place where your family can experience the beauty of culture, big city entertainment attended by manicured urbanites dressed to the nines? The you definitely went to the wrong venue because DJ Starscream, Marilyn Manson, and Rob Zombie rolled into New York City in a hell bent fury focused on one main goal to showcase the ultimate shock rock showcase yet to be seen through any unified collaboration on stage.
Bryan Sacred of Roanoke, Virginia traveled over 460 miles (8 hours) to attend tonight’s show. “I’m here to support all three acts. I remember my first cassette tape when he first came out and I had never heard music like that before and I have been a fan of Zombie’s ever since. Then a friend of mine turned me onto Manson and I became a fan immediately.” His excitement to see Manson and Zombie together exceeded his expectations and he anticipated a Hell on Earth performance from all three music artists on this night. “It’s gonna be good music. Just good family entertainment.” This said if you are a member of the Addams Family or The Munsters. India Sacred added, “Well I’ve seen Rob Zombie before on his Halloween Hootenanny with Alice Cooper and this will be my second time seeing him tonight. I really want to see Marilyn Manson and that is my main reason for being here tonight.”
When you think of concert duos of legendary reputation and impact you may remember Elton John and Billy Joel’s Face 2 Face Tours, you may even remember The Three Tenors (Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and the Italian singer Luciano Pavarotti), The Lollapalooza Tours, or the recent “Big Four” tour with Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeath, and Slayer. When you think of an axis of evil and terror you think of Saddam Hussein or Kim Jong Il, and then there is Manson and Zombie known on this tour as the Twins of Evil. The two traded the raw music concert experience in for the most theatrical staging comprised of busted skulls, giant sized dancing demons, and massive monitors and lighting which showed off exhibit of creativity performed on stage.
Nicole and John Stelmach traveled from Long Island. They were both equally interested to see Zombie and Manson and the staging and artistic performance from both. “Their music genres are close in sound and taste. As Halloween approaches the concert becomes more of a destination event to experience. They both have this horror Sci-fi thing about them. They were talking about this tour for a long time and they both are phenomenal performers and they are going to bring that on stage visually, in an auditory way and everything will match up right.” This show will set the bar for live concerts this year and the dichotomy of the music fans carries the tour forward and sustains the longevity of the artists on this tour. Bringing Zombie and Manson will create a crossover between fans and to do it near Halloween makes it even better. “Watching a spectacle on top of experiencing sensational music live is all I could ever hope.”
This was a night of debauchery, of macabre melodies, of ritualistic damnation for those in need of a dirty, naughty, sadomasochistic experimentation into sexuality initiated by a 21st century spaceman whose head gear illuminated in green and red lights. Bleeding images of dismembered bodies quenched the thirst of the frenzied concert goers. Blood pumping in the veins of fans, intense anticipation ramped up as the lights went down, and the long starved music fans feasted on this over due meal of metal music. DJ Starscream (A.K.A Ratboy of the Grammy Award winning group Slipknot) burst the levy walls of sound with a maelstrom drowning the Hammerstein Ballroom guests with intense industrial metal beats much the like of Skinny Puppy, a scrape of Nitzer Ebb, and a hint of Revolting Cocks (RevCo). His participation on this tour came at the unforeseen illness of Jonathan Davis of Korn who was planning to travel on under his new solo music project of DJ tracks under his new stage name J Devil. DJ Starscream jumped on the tour with out hesitation and shed light on his journey in music.
“I used to listen to Skinny Puppy a lot and other industrial stuff a lot. My music has elements of Punk Rock, Revolting Cocks, and my family is from England so I also got much of my influence and music exposure to the Dj’ing music, pop, punk, and the music from over there. Growing up a DJ my family would send me records from England that you couldn’t find in the record shops and I would get the music before anyone else. I just grew up with music around me because it’s where my family comes from. When you spend your childhood living between England and the States you get exposed to a lot of cool shit.”
DJ Starscream is a new solo act on the radar to Zombie and Manson whose exposure of DJ stems from his role with Slipknot. “I don’t know Zombie really well and I don’t know Manson very well and I’m getting to talk to them a little more on this tour. It was cool to asked to do the tour prior to actually knowing either one. I mean we’ve done shows together before but it’s not like we are best friends, but no that I’m on this tour I get to come a little closer with both of them. It’s huge for me to be on this tour. It’s Manson, Zombie and me. Three veterans in the business grinding our instruments together on one stage for one night.” and the fan response has been great during the limited view DJ Starscream is even able to see them through his fogged up mask. “I have the mask on and everything and it fogs up easily in there. So, most of the time I can only see the equipment right in front of me, but, yeah, the response from the fans have been huge.”
These crowds arriving by the droves to the 2012 Twins of Evil Tour, and they are arriving to be pounded, thrilled, and frightened by the on stage theatrics as well as the commonality and a cross obsession of monster meets sexual fantasy penetrating deeply into the bodies of these loyal and dedicated metal heads. It’s a diverse spectrum of phantom faces, vampire smiles, and zombie stares and then there is DJ Starscream. Zombie is an out of the box type thinker free of boundaries and formulating this show strategically combines a cross mix of music and music fans together in one theater. Behind the curtain reality kicks in and past tours with such stature ended early due to egotistic revenge and misunderstandings leading to bad blood of the bands sharing the stage of that tour. “Behind the scenes the relationships grow and turn into other things. There are a lot of cool things happening on this tour. It was shaky at first but now everyone is like hugging and everybody’s friendly and supportive. The quality of production, too, from Manson and Zombie are amazing and they are both pulling out all the stops on this tour.”
DJ Starscream (A.K.A. Ratboy) took center stage without so much of a formal introduction from Eddie Truck or Comedian Jim Florentine. The parade of skull masked men sandwiched DJ Starscream to his lit console. His cockpit of turn tables surrounded by LED lighting and a 52” flat screen television displayed taunting images of horror movie scenes with a serial killers decapitating his victims and using the heads like a bowling ball. The metal on metal sounds bled transitioned into a massive body thumping bass beat. DJ Starscream bounced from left to right behind his killing booth swapping in and out pieces of vinyl wax records in a wondrous motion of old school DJ’ing. “I’m bringing the whole DJ Starscream outfit with all the lights and electronics involved in it. I’m Dj’ing a different kind of set then I am normally known to bring with Slipknot in which he is executing sound manipulation and not holding down the beat to the songs. “I’m going solo on this tour and wearing all this stuff, so, I have to pay attention the entire time and also to see and focus on everything else and hold down the beat the entire time. It’s a jump being able to run around loosely doing sound escapes with a mesh of sounds like I am doing full time, all the time. Sometimes I can’t see the equipment and have to DJ blind which fortunately I’m good enough to do that.”
Fear and intimidation. Two words that never crossed DJ Starscream on this tour. His confidence supersedes his fears and doubts whether he is performing at a venue of 3,000 people or a stadium of 20,000 people. He feeds off the energy omitted by the fans. “The majority of these venues are full by the time I go on. So, to me, that shit tells me people want to get there early enough to see me go on knowing they will have to wait between a hour and a half or up to almost two hours to catch Manson and Zombie. They are actually filling up the stadium to see what I am doing, too. To me that’s hug, you know?”
DJ Starscream displays massive motion through his visual presentation utilizing his chop chop blender of a DJ console. His professional ability to unify nineties industrial with nu-metal and electronic music welds his reputation as a DJ high above the bolted construction he mixes his vinyl from. The set ended as deafening as it began with shrieking screams of metal on metal, heart thumping thuds, and scratches. He took his final bow off to the side of his console. An extended remote tangled off to the side in his metal grips. The roar of approval from the crowd was evidence enough. DJ Starscream brought his game with him to Hammerstein Ballroom.
A second wave of hysteria ignited the room with red lights highlighting shadowed silhouettes roving across the stage with instruments strapped to their backs and sides. The black shroud in front of the stage fell to the floor revealing a phantasmic scene of music artists dressed in their gory best. Thunderous bass hits and guitar rips cackled the room calling for the master of ceremonies to join them on stage. From the shadows a dark shadow approached breaking through the cloud bursts of the fog machines. The action appeared nothing short of a good old fashioned cemetery scene from The Omen. Step by step the man who has been compared to the likes of such animated characters as Jack the Pumpkin King from Walt Disney’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas” crept through the darkened catacomb from center stage finally making his way to the front of the stage with his face hidden behind a terrorizing mask.
Recent health concerns have put Manson into a tough spot according to news across fan blogs, news feeds and public forums, but is not slowing down. The tenacious momentum is on over drive on this tour and Manson’s recent bought with Scoliosis proves evident with his recent weight gain. His biggest gain isn’t in his belt size. His fans drown him with a gales of roof raising applause screaming his name out as he takes to the stage each night. Manson has a fire in his heart unlike any artist on the circuit. He has proven himself as today’s greatest shock rocker and will go down in history as the man who conquered a world of religious men of ego. He delivery may not be the most appropriate but his message is clear and defined.
Manson muscles through each song delivering a night full of trick and treats and achieving more respect and greater success as an artist from new fans and veteran fans alike. He shows no signs of fatigue or apathy in his physical condition, and he is in no way shape or form slowing down. He made that ultra clear with his opening song “Hey Cruel World” followed by “Disposable Teens” and The Love Song.” Manson’s playlist celebrates a long career created by striking poignant messages to bring awareness to taboo subjects society still turns a blind eye to. Something Manson has projected in his costumes and body art. Yet, behind the make-up, under the Papal Camauro, behind the blackened goggles is today’s greatest theatrical thespian who has faced his biggest challenges and diversity in order to express his messages through his freedom to speech. “Mobscene,” “Dope Show,” “Rock Is Dead,” and his two classic covers of “Sweet Dreams,” by the Eurythmics and “Personal Jesus” by “Depeche Mode” rounded the song selection.
Manson has battled his inner demons and still faces personal challenges that he will have to face and overcome. He continues to march forward stronger than ever much to the dismay of those who fear his presence and who wish to shut him down. Yet those who have challenged him vanish as quick as they appear. Today, Manson still stands as a memorial reminder that old world thinking needs a shift of consciousness. His dark fantasies may be not be kosher to the norm but the fans reaching out from in front of the stage love him world wide. The falsified accusations circulating among the anointed scripture readers will eventually become ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Greatness comes in threes. Lights, Cameras, ACTION! Another drop screen entrance and a new scene choreographed by the director of terror himself. Rob Zombie. His wing men Piggy D (Formally of Dope and Murderdolls) on bass, former Manson guitarist John 5, and Ginger Fish (Manson and Murderdolls) on drums raised the volume and the heat in the creepy eerie fog under a velvety blanket of deep blue lighting. Through the fog the Zombie slipped into view from the shadows of backstage. The thick fog lifted by the thrashing waves of Rob Zombie’s massive grappling “Jesus Frankenstein” arms tricked out with even more monster sized hands and claws.
The music set off like a discharged grenade of music with the greatest hits Zombie ever produced including “Superbeast,” “Meet the Creeper,” and “Living Dead Girl.” There was even a special appearance on stage by the world’s favorite resident from Hell. Satan himself who was foiled and beaten back to his berth below by an insanely outrageous John 5 guitar solo. This battle of wits between John 5 and Satan out shined that of Ralph Maccio vs’ Steve Vai in the movie “Crossroads.” John 5 is a truly gifted guitarist and his guitar abilities add to the tremendous overflow of talent that Zombie brings out of his on stage band.
The White Zombie classics, “More Human Than Human” and “Thunder Kiss” mapped out a retrospective timeline for Zombie fans and the songs continued to pour out from the throttled energy displayed on stage. Zombie, revs up energy trading licks and places with his wingmen. Jumping and racing across the stage from the forward platforms to skeletal rib caged stairways in what appeared to mimic a metal speed game of musical chairs. Rob Zombie’s talent has transformed from a lead singer of a self titled band into a megastar from his smash hit albums, endless credits as an award winning musician, producer, and now film direction. His past films have become cult hits including House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. His first love maybe arguable to fans and his motivation may just be the little blonde bombshell Rob Zombie calls his killer half. Sheri Moon is Zombie’s living dead girl with an amazing talent for acting. This beautiful vixen will love you and slice you with her killer smile at the same time while holding you still beating heart on a rusty fork. This present day Medusa will lock you in with her stare for a lifetime of cinematic horror so frightening and thrilling you can’t help but watch and yearn for her lustful cinematic presence. It’s a raw talent and something among many characteristics this Munster-like power couple share between each other.
Zombie’s obsession with the 1950’s horror classics and cult films created his vision in which he expanded on in massive capacity musically. Zombie is an ever evolving artist who knows no boundaries. He isn’t afraid to take a risk and his successes are monumental to any artistic community in the truest sense of the word. As he continues on the 2012 Twins of Evil Tour he develops new avenues for his epic resume of music and films including his upcoming film starring Sheri Moon “Lords of Salem” which Zombie promotes with a movie trailer on stage to the audience. Zombie is a current day Hitchcock with a flare for creating the most vivid infectious metal music illuminated by fun house like staging and performances.
This hearse of a locomotive is traveling at full speed to a city near you before it jumps the tracks and heads over seas. Meet the creeper with your pussy liquor because mars needs women while school’s out and this is your chance to be face to face with both superbeast and dragula. It is rare you can get a such a glimpse into a show of this magnitude. It is even more rare when it includes three super acts all for one admission price. There is plenty of swag to collect and a the memories that will haunt you forever. Sweet dreams, school’s out, and be take witness to that which is about to rock the world.
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