Shock rocker Marilyn Manson didn't disappoint his fans, and made some new ones, with his first appearance in Prince George on Tuesday - despite technical difficulties that left some, seemingly including Manson himself, frustrated.
Prince George was the fifth stop on this stretch of Manson's Hell Not Hallelujah Tour, hitting smaller venues in North America, Europe and Japan. The stage production was correspondingly smaller than some other shows in the same rock genre -Alice Cooper and KISS, for example -that have played CN Centre.
However Manson's dynamic, dramatic and energetic performance - leaning out to touch the crowd, crawling and writhing on the stage at points, bringing a lucky (and inappropriate) fan on stage, and taking to a pulpit for a cover of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus - kept the crowd entertained.
Between songs Manson engaged the crowd - commenting on the city's reputation as the murder capital of B.C. - and thanked fans for being "the best crowd on the tour."
While it's possible every crowd is the "best on the tour," the 2,200-plus fans at CN Centre roared their approval anyway.
Fog machines, stained-glass windows showing Manson, an eye-blistering light show and glitter cannons set the tone: the gothic nightmare version of a glam rock spectacle.
The set list for the show started with a mix of Manson's newer material, including four tracks from his latest album The Pale Emperor: Killing Strangers, Deep Six, Cupid Carries a Gun and Third Day of a Seven Day Binge.
But the show hit its peak at the end with two big hits from Manson's multi-platinum 1996 sophomore album Antichrist Superstar: The Beautiful People and Irresponsible Hate Anthem. He slowed things down during the encore with Coma White from 1998's Mechanical Animals album.
The set list seemed to work for Manson's fans who ranged from people in their 50s to kids. The median age appeared to be people around their mid-30s who remembered Manson from their teens and early 20s.
Some fans used the show as an opportunity to get creative with costumes, including a man wearing a gas mask and skintight body suit, and a woman wearing a unicorn horn headpiece.
Manson - despite his reputation for theatric costumes and makeup -was fairly conservative in his costume choices: wearing a trench coat or leather vest for most of the show, before donning a hooded cloak during the encore.
The only disappointment - and it's a big disappointment for a concert - was the sound mixing made it difficult to hear Manson's vocals. For fans sitting in the stands at least, Manson was frequently drowned out by guitars and drums.
The mixing problem was first apparent while opening act Deep Valley performed, and little was done to improve it by the time Manson hit the stage. Manson appeared frustrated by the problem, at one point venting his displeasure at the sound team and kept the stage crew busy chasing thrown microphones and kicked mic stands.
The sound issue meant P.G. fans didn't get a fair chance to gauge Deep Valley's performance. The minimalist two-woman hard rock act from L.A. belted out their numbers with gusto, but the sound system turned lead guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Troy's singing to musical mud.
Nobody could say the left CN Centre Tuesday night without being entertained, but it's a pity the sound production wasn't the same calibre as the performances.
