San Francisco, CA

The Fillmore

08.23.09

After photographing Marilyn Manson at the Rockstar Mayhem Festival last month, I knew I was not going to be happy until I had the opportunity to shoot him again. Not only were the photographers only given one song (approx. 4 minutes) to shoot him, but we also had to deal with poor lighting, a big floppy hat, and Mr. Warner himself, who kept his back turned to us for more than half of the song. It was less than an ideal situation, and I ended up getting 3 barely usable shots.

Well last Friday night Marilyn Manson returned to the Bay Area, and this time I was prepared. With only three photographers in the pit, I managed to stake out a spot in front of his catwalk, twisted on a prime lens, cranked up the ISO, and hoped for the best. And although we were still only allowed to shoot the first song, his kooky spook-ness seemed a bit more willing to have his picture taken, and even looked right at my camera on more than one occasion. Of course he also spit beer on me, and at the end of song I was covered in Marilyn Manson's DNA. So instead of getting over to the Great American Music Hall to catch the end of Ludicra, I went home to take a shower and proceeded to burn my clothes and boil all my gear.

And I will say that although I have never been a huge fan, Manson seemed to be on top of his game, and the one song that I saw/heard ("We're From America") wasn't bad.

These images are still mediocre at best, but under the circumstances, I'll take them...