By Bobby Lopez
April 5, 1997
It’s Saturday morning and we’re getting ready to leave because we have a long drive ahead of us. The concert is in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. From the cities it’s about three hours away. The drive to Lacrosse was long and boring because my friend’s car has no stereo, but the scenery was nice in some places. We finally arrived in Lacrosse and we all started going crazy. We didn’t know where the civic center was and we’d all been in the car for so long. After asking for directions from ten different gas stations we finally found the civic center. Since we had no tickets we instantly ran to the box office. After we bought the tickets we found out that it was general admission, so it was going to be crowded on the floor.
Now as you all know Marilyn Manson is somewhat on the different side. So all of the people had on face paint, leather, spikes and other bondage wear. Lacrosse is a very religious town with thirty-seven churches or more. So all these ministers tried to get the mayor to cancel the show, because of Manson’s anti-religion statements he makes in his music. They failed and the show was scheduled to start at 7:30. They started letting people in at 6:30 after a thorough search and pat down. Anyone wearing spikes and chains had to take them back to their cars. Since the show didn’t start for another hour they told us to sit down until the show started. The whole time over the loudspeakers they played stupid church songs. It was ridiculous.
Finally, the opening band, N.Y. Loose, came out. They started and ended fast and furious. They played for about 30 minutes. The crowd moshed the whole time. Now it was time for Marilyn Manson. It was all dark and I saw the band walk up on stage. Everyone was yelling and screaming. Suddenly two spotlights shined down upon the stage, there was Manson. The lights turned up to reveal the stage. It was set up to look like the front of a church. It had a stained glass windows and even an altar. I was cool. He grabbed the microphone and broke into “Angel with Scabbed Wings.” After that he played a bunch of old and new songs. It was a good set. It was during the song “Antichrist Superstar” that the stage was set up to resemble WW2 Nazi party rallies. They had huge banners with the Manson arrow and a podium and Manson was wearing a cool red and black suit. During the song he grabbed a Bible and tore out the pages and threw it in the crowd. It was one of the best shows I had ever seen and I’ve seen a lot. The show ended with the song “Man that You Fear.” It’s one of their best songs. I recommend if you like Manson then you should definitely go and see them in concert.