I was making good money at the time and I love Tool so I decided to fly up to Spokane to hang out with a couple friends and see Tool for the third time in the last seven months. I was already cutting it close by flying into Spokane just a couple hours before the show started but that margin shrank even more when JetBlue delayed the flight. Lucky for me Ryno was able to pick me up at the airport and we hightailed it directly to the arena. Even luckier for me – once we started wading through the floor towards the stage (I love general admission) I ran into Roscoe who immediately smoked me out. Two minutes later Tool was on the stage. Whirlwind. It was pretty much the same stage show as the last two shows I saw but this was one of the only times I have ever seen them play “Flood.” I lost my shit when they played that. Epic.
SETLIST: Jambi, Stinkfist, Forty-Six & 2, Schism, Rosetta Stoned, Flood, Wings for Marie (Part 1), 10,000 Days (Wings Part 2), Lateralus, Vicarious
Lucky me, I got to see two concerts within a week of each other. It was random that they both happened in Spokane. Rose was the person responsible for getting me into Sunny Day Real Estate and she was the only one that came to the show with me. I also went to the show with her because I was still driving the Mustang and didn’t trust it to go out of town. They had released the album What It Feels to be Something On about 6 months prior to this. This marked their comeback after temporarily disbanding when Jeremy Enigk found God and the rhythm section decided to join Dave Grohl ‘s Foo Fighters. The Met was a really cool place to see a show because it was a real theater and from our seats in the balcony we could see the show perfectly. It didn’t sound too bad either. They played a good mix of songs from all three albums they had up to that point. It turned out to be my only visit to the Met and the only time I saw Sunny Day Real Estate.
Back in the day there were CD clubs like BMG and Columbia House where you could buy 1 CD and get 10 free. I was in the midst of doing one of these deals with Columbia House when I came across Marilyn Manson. The only album they had out was Portrait of an American Family. I noticed that it was produced by Trent Reznor and since I was a fan of Nine Inch Nails I figured it couldn’t be that bad. I got the album and it rocked. The band looks semi-freakish in the CD sleeve but nothing that would make one think twice, after all they are a rock band. Sometime after this is when the Smells Like Children EP came out and “Sweet Dreams” was getting played on MTV. Everyone freaked out because he cut himself, dressed weird, etc. The only thing that mattered to me was the music and it rocked. I bought Antichrist Superstar the day it came out and I only became a bigger fan after reading “The Long Hard Road Out of Hell.” For some reason I never got to see Marilyn Manson on the Antichrist Superstar tour, so when Mechanical Animals came out I knew I would get another chance when they went on tour for the album. That chance came on the opening night of the “Beautiful Monsters” tour in Spokane, Washington. Spokane is about a two hour drive from the Tri-Cities and I made the trip with Marvin, Roscoe, and Jason. We arrived in Spokane a few hours early and were bored so Marvin suggested we go get makeup just for the hell of it. I’m always in for costume time so I basically blacked out my eyes and had Roscoe draw a shock symbol on my forehead. It was still pretty cold outside but we braved the line in T-shirts, knowing how hot it would get inside. Outside of the arena had plenty of religious types protesting the show, which I thought was funny since all they really ended up doing was giving it more publicity. This tour featured Monster Magnet and Hole as the opening bands. I am not a fan of Monster Magnet so they were pretty much just filler with pyrotechnics. Then Hole came out really late. Courtney Love was in typical form – she showed us her tits and gave away a guitar to a female in the crowd. Besides that she would not shut the fuck up. She just kept talking and talking and eventually got hit in the head with a flying shoe, which caused her to break down in tears. I’m pretty sure all of her antics kept Marilyn Manson from going on stage until after midnight. The delay may have been a blessing in disguise because when they finally did take the stage they were fierce. I smoked a joint right before Manson came on and couldn’t move for the first two songs in. Their whole show was a spectacle and to this day sits as my #2 favorite concert of all time. Manson came out on the stage hoisted up on a cross made of TV’s which later burst into flames at the peak of “Rock Is Dead.” I was at the front of the stage during that song and when he sang the lyrics “shock is all in your head” he was looking right at me, which I thought was cool since I had the shock symbol on my forehead but it also weirded me out. Marilyn got onto giant stilts and creeped around the stage when they performed “Mechanical Animals.” During “Speed of Pain” massive confetti combined with proper lighting gave a great effect. During “I Don’t Like the Drugs” a huge Vegas style sign dropped down with the word “Drugs” lit up. I believe they closed with “Coma White” and Manson strapped on a flying V guitar, which is the only time I’ve ever actually seen him play guitar. By the end my mind was blown, my shirt was ripped, and we had a long drive ahead of us in the middle of the Washington night…
Sidenote: the tour only lasted eight more dates after this until Hole dropped off the tour…
