In the 90’s, if you wanted a controversial person, then look no further than Marilyn Manson. From the mid to late 90’s, he always seemed to be the scapegoat for something. Of course that made him a household name which makes perfect sense for him to play Ozzfest 1997. Let’s take a look….
Of course having him play the main stage at Ozzfest makes perfect sense. His album Antichrist Superstar was one of the biggest selling albums both nationally and internationally at that point and he was gaining attention not only from the bible thumpers but politicians as well. This was during the Dead To The World tour cycle which ran from September 5, 1996 to September 15, 1997 which of course included Ozzfest. Playing 175 shows in that short amount of time is no easy task and this was during the peak era. The stage show for Ozzfest may not have been as grand as his headlining performances but the band was on fire for this tour. Watching the performances on YouTube (for as old as they are) sound amazing and I can only imagine what it would have been like to actually be there in the audience. Of course as it is with Marilyn Manson back in the day, there were protests from the bible thumpers and the Ozzfest dates were no different. In fact, The New Jersey date of Ozzfest was cancelled by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, who cited Marilyn Manson’s scheduled appearance as its reason. This of course resulted in a lawsuit from Ozzy Osbourne where he stated “Nobody has the right to tell me
who I can perform with. I will not be putting any limits on any of the
Ozzfests.” Looking at the website setlist.fm, I noticed that he actually changed the setlist for a lot of the dates which I think is great and wished more bands would do that.
Marilyn Manson played:
- Angel With the Scabbed Wings
- Get Your Gunn
- Cake and Sodomy
- Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World
- Tourniquet
(with Prosthetic Dance Mix outro) - Lunchbox
- Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
(Eurythmics cover) - Little Horn
(with 1999 spoken word intro by Prince) - Apple of Sodom
- Antichrist Superstar
- The Beautiful People
- 1996
Sinister Reviews 