Marilyn Manson Melts Down Onstage in Weird Freestyle Blues Jam

Anna Gaca
Updated

By Anna Gaca

Marilyn Manson cut short last night’s concert at the Paramount in Huntington, New York after displaying “bizarre” onstage behavior, including a rambling freestyle jam and repeated demands for applause, according to multiple reports. Fan-shot videos show the 49-year-old shock rocker with his back to the crowd, delivered a half-mumbled, half-sung monologue as his band plays an aimless extended blues jam. By the end of the show, local paper Newsday reports, the crowd was chanting, “Refund! Refund!”

“Manson came out with a bang but the whole thing deteriorated very quickly,” Instagram user @saturn.ascends wrote in a recap of the show. “Once it got to be 10 minutes of begging for adoration and no music, I think we all started to realize something was wrong. Once he was temporarily satisfied, it didn’t improve. They would start songs only to screech them to a halt a minute in. There were very drawn out versions of songs where Manson mostly rambled on about our lack of love and other bizarre things. After an hour and fifteen minutes of this, he threw his microphone and left the stage.”

As Brooklyn Vegan points out, the Paramount’s own Instagram comments are full of disgruntled fans demanding refunds. “3 songs in and the dude had a mental breakdown or was a drunk dick,” wrote one commenter; “He [even] had the audacity brag that he was ripping us off,” wrote another. “Comments like ‘you’re already in the [crowd] so I can do this all night.'”

Not much has gone right for Manson and his band in recent months. Manson launched the current tour last October in support of his new album Heaven Upside Down, but was forced to cancel dates after suffering a dramatic onstage injury when a gun-shaped prop fell on him, breaking his leg in two places. Shortly after, former guitarist Daisy Berkowitz (real name Scott Putesky) died from complications of colon cancer, and longtime bassist Twiggy Ramirez (real name Jeordie White) was fired from the group following allegations of sexual assault. Manson returned to touring last November with his leg in a cast, but immediately sparked controversy when he aimed a fake rifle at an audience in San Bernardino, California.

See some fan video and commentary on last night’s performance in Huntington below.

I wish I could say last nights show was amazing, but it was just awful. Manson came out with a bang but the whole thing deteriorated very quickly. A couple songs in, he went into a conversation with the crowd about how much we loved him (or not). Asked for cheering and the usual rock star ego stuff. That’s fine, and everyone did their best to scream as long as we could. But once it got to be 10 minutes of begging for adoration and no music, I think we all started to realize something was wrong. Once he was temporarily satisfied, it didn’t improve. They would start songs only to screech them to a halt a minute in. There were very drawn out versions of songs where Manson mostly rambled on about our lack of love and other bizarre things. After an hour and fifteen minutes of this, he threw his microphone and left the stage. House lights came on a couple minutes later. I don’t think they completed more than 4 songs. ▪️ It’s clear he was under the influence of something. Which, let’s be honest, is not that strange for a rock star. But this was something different. He couldn’t seem to pull it together to deliver a performance even mediocre at best. It was distressing to see an artist you care about in such a bad state. Many people were yelling “Fuck you!”, chanting and booing, especially at the end. But I wasn’t really angry. I was sad and bewildered. He seemed desperately in need of emotional and physical care. With the injury, the situation with Twiggy and the death of his father hitting him within a few months, it is easy to see how this could happen (though I can’t speak for how he really feels inside, of course). Maybe it was a one-time bad night. We all have those sometimes. But if not, I really hope he gets help because what I witnessed was not good. It was the strangest, saddest and worst concert I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to a lot. #marilynmanson

A post shared by kim (@saturn.ascends) on Feb 16, 2018 at 5:17am PST

This is basically how it was for the majority of the time they were on stage (or worse). #marilynmanson

A post shared by kim (@saturn.ascends) on Feb 16, 2018 at 5:32am PST

What a spoiled little bitch, I am so disgusted with the disrespect Manson showed his fans tonight. At least if he got crushed by a prop tonight there would have been some sort of entertainment

A post shared by ⚡️❤️ (@chasin_wolves) on Feb 15, 2018 at 8:53pm PST

This post Marilyn Manson Melts Down Onstage in Weird Freestyle Blues Jam first appeared on SPIN.