June 3rd, 2016 was a dark day for Slipknot fans as Corey Taylor announced he had to undergo emergency surgery for a broken neck, putting this summer’s tour in serious jeopardy. Jump forward two months, and other than a large black pillow of a noose around his neck, there was zero evidence that Taylor had undergone anything. In fact, he sounded even better than on previous tours hitting high note after high note. I can only ponder on whether most of this is due to him being forced to let up a little bit on stage, and thus he now has better control of his lung capacity.
Opening with “The Negative One”, the show lasted just under 2 hours and featured all of the usual maggot request…including the show-closing fan jump during “Spit It Out”. Corey took us all the way back to 1999 with “Wait and Bleed” off their debut album, and referring to playing local rock club Harpo’s and thanked the fans for making Detroit their second home. The night was truly a powerful performance by the masked men including new drummer Jay Weinberg and bassist Alessandro Venturella.
Unfortunately the same can not be said for Marilyn Manson whose set was plagued with sound issues including his saxophone opening to “mOBSCENE” and almost the entire first verse & chorus of “The Beautiful People”. On the flip side, there was no evidence of the recent Manson drunkenness, self-mutilation, or other debauchery. He had broken out the entire realm of props including his stilts, various weapon-oriented mics and the famous pulpit & burning bible from 1999’s “Rock is Dead” Tour. Manson pissed off his pit full of photographers when he twice doused them with some form of red powder before dropping to his knees and giving them the shots of a lifetime. Ending with “Coma White”, Manson skipped his usual show-closing arena walk around and simply dropped the mic and walked off stage.
Of Mice and Men’s set was bland and the songs lack any form of diversity. They did nothing to engage with or warm up the crowd, and lead singer Austin Carlile spent most of his time hiding around the drum kit looking at the floor. A total waste of time, effort and a great Steinbeck name.