MARILYN MANSON - THE LAST TOUR ON EARTH

"The Last Tour On Earth" is a companion piece to Manson's "Mechanical Animals".  It's an edited show from the "Mechanical Animals Tour".  A lot of bands around this time were releasing these live companion albums.  I guess they used them to drive up ticket sales.  For the most part, I'm OK with these, but I'm also disappointed.

"Mechanical Animals" is my favorite Manson album and I saw this tour in Vegas at the Hard Rock on New Years Eve.  As many times as I've seen Marilyn Manson live, this was also my favorite tour.  And that's why I'm disappointed in this release.

Some bands would release an entire show on CD and video, but Marilyn Manson released this edited version of a show.  It certainly contains most of the show's highlight numbers.  The most famous and notorious of the bunch being 'I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)'.  At this point, I don't really remember the entire show, but I do remember being extremely upset certain songs didn't make it on this release.

I really feel like Manson's band was in the pocket during this tour.  The show was tight, the special effects and onstage art was beyond amazing to see.  At one point, Manson appears crucified on a cross made of televisions.  

I've never been a huge fan of Manson's earlier albums.  I did buy them because I thought they were interesting but compared to the subsequent music he would record and release, I find a lot of it useless.  If you could delete the first couple Manson releases and start his career with "Antichrist Superstar" I'd probably be a bigger fan.  The inclusion of 'Get Your Gunn' and 'Lunchbox' over a number of "Mechanical Animals" tracks that were cut out like 'Coma White' or 'The Speed Of Pain' is absolutely painful.  As thematic and conceptualized this album and tour was, those earlier numbers just seem out of place and distracting.

The disc also features a segue way intro dubbed into the first live song from the set and the last track is an unreleased song they added.  It's kinda cool to have a new song, but I still feel like this particular release would've fared better with a full version of the concert and none of the bells and whistles they added or edited out to make what they thought was a more commercial product.

My final words:  A LIVE DISC I HATE AS MUCH AS I LOVE.  IN THE END, THE ALBUM LEAVES ME UNFULFILLED AND IN THAT SENSE, I DEEM IT A BUST.

MARILYN MANSON - THE LAST TOUR ON EARTH
01. Inauguration Of The Mechanical Christ
02. The Reflecting God
03. Great Big White World
04. Get Your Gunn
05. Sweet Dreams / Hell Outro
06. Rock Is Dead
07. The Dope Show
08. Lunchbox
09. I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)
10. Antichrist Superstar
11. The Beautiful People
12. Irresponsible Hate Anthem
13. The Last Day On Earth
14. Astonishing Panorama Of The Endtimes