Theatrical shock rockers share headlining duties as Twins of Evil tour hits Bell MTS Place

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This article was published 08/08/2019 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson have a lot in common.

Aside from the tour they are co-headlining together right now, dubbed the Twins of Evil: Hell Never Dies tour, the pair of American rockers are both in their 50s, both kickstarted their careers with several smash hits in the ’90s and both are lovers of the theatrical side of hard music.

Manson was the first of the two headliners to take the stage Wednesday night at Bell MTS place. The floor crowd pushed to the front as the house lights went out prematurely, leaving the room in complete darkness for several minutes before Manson appeared in a floor-length black trench with blue make-up coating the top half of his face.

By the second song, Manson was already down on the floor, scream-singing into the faces of some aggressively adoring fans. He returned to the floor again during the next song, This is the New S–t, this time almost getting swallowed up into a group of outstretched hands and bodies.

A few unfortunate things lessened the success of Manson’s performance, including long, silent pauses between many of tracks which really halted the momentum, and the vocals, though ear-splitting, came across as muddy and almost impossible to decipher, especially when competing with a band as loud as Manson’s. His set also felt surprisingly chill; there was a lot of rock, but not much shock. Manson’s whole vibe now may be a kind of hard-rock infused ennui, but a bit more enthusiasm (beyond throwing his microphone on the ground after almost every song) would have gone a long way.

After one of those pauses, Manson returned to stage in a lush black feathered coat, smoke in hand, ready to take a few puffs before slinking through one of his biggest hits, 1998’s The Dope Show. He followed that up with Kill4Me from his 2017 album Heaven Upside Down, which marked a kind of turning point — the balance of band to vocals was much better, some interesting set pieces made their way to stage (including a walkway along the back with stairs going down to the stage floor), but still, the jerky pacing dragged everything down.

Manson’s 70-minute set continued with hits such as his famous Eurythmics cover, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), and ended with a rendition of Beautiful People which had the slam dancers slamming, the moshers moshing and everyone else belting the chorus.

When it was Rob Zombie’s turn, the tonal shift was tangible. Big screens spelled out “zombie” over and over again while a video montage of some his past music videos and live performances flashed by, and then the man himself popped up out of nowhere, rocking an undead cowboy look and taking his place behind an illuminated star before ripping through Dead City Radio.

Whatever energy was previously lacking was injected into Rob Zombie’s set; he lept back and forth across three platforms at the front of the stage at full speed during Superbeast, he head-banged his heart out for Living Dead Girl (which also featured a handful of giant balloons dropped on the audience) and jumped and kicked his way through More Human Than Human.

Quality live vocals isn’t necessarily what one attends a Rob Zombie show to experience, however he offered up a consistently strong performance throughout the night, both in the more melodic moments and during the tracks that are more… scream focused. There’s something weirdly enchanting about him; Rob Zombie channels elements of some of the most legendary rock frontmen such as Robert Plant, Joey Ramone and Freddie Mercury, and it’s hard to not get swept up in that hurricane of energy.

A very strange giant dancing robot (or rather, a person in a robot suit) joined Rob Zombie and his (very excellent) band on stage for Never Gonna Stop (the Red, Red Kroovy) adding to the sensory overload of ten video screens of various sizes playing rapidly changing video clips and enough strobes and spotlights to leave your eyes burning for a week. But all these elements compliment Rob Zombie’s on stage persona; chaotic, fun and over-the-top.

A giant dancing gorilla with a helmet and a giant dancing satan also made an appearance. You know, the usual.

While his guitarist was serving up a seriously blistering solo on stage, Rob Zombie — now wearing a Jets jersey — did the rounds in the arena, going up into the stands to give the seated fans some face time before winding down his 65-minute main set with Thunder Kiss ’65, Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones and Helter Skelter by the Beatles. Of course, he returned and played his biggest hit, Dragula, complete with a sparkly hat and jacket and a demonic-looking, smoke-spewing platform.

The Twins of Evil tour’s next stop is Fargo, N.D., on Friday, one of just a few remaining dates before the tour wraps up Aug. 18.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel