I had not seen Marilyn Manson since the previous summer at Ozzfest and had only been to Los Angeles one time since moving to San Diego eight months prior. I did not learn about this show until the 11th hour, but never miss a chance to see one of my favorite bands, which was touring for their Lest We Forget – The Best Of album that had been released on September 28th. There was only one song on the album I did not already have, a cover of “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode, but I had to buy the album for it since I did not have a good computer to steal it. I hated when bands did that but at least this album came with a nice booklet and a DVD of several of their music videos.
I ended up being the winning bidder on a pair of tickets from eBay and lightly twisted Marvin’s arm into driving us up to L.A. for this, the second of a three night stand for Manson. The Wiltern is a cool little theater in the Koreatown area of L.A. that holds 2,300 people when it is configured for a standing room only crowd such as this show. I get really excited when concerts are general admission because of the freedom you have to move about where you want. One thing I was not excited about was the departure of guitarist John 5 since the last time I saw Marilyn Manson. Filling in was a guy named Mark Chaussee, who joined for this tour. I liked the experience of going to see Marilyn Manson in L.A. at the last minute but rank this as one of my least favorite times seeing the band and I think Mark had a lot to do with it. He is a great guitar player that played the songs well from a technical standpoint but his playing just seemed to lack that “it” factor. Maybe that had something to do with his departure from the band after this tour…
