Dream Setlist: Marilyn Manson Edition

Today’s an eventful day for fans of Marilyn Manson, officially marking the polarizing shock rocker’s return to music with the release of the new single “As Sick As the Secrets Within” and his first live show in half a decade taking place tonight in Hershey, PA. To comment on the former, Manson’s first sign of new music since 2020’s WE ARE CHAOS is a fantastic step in the right direction, with his voice and overall vocal control sounding better than ever, and continuing to adopt the more introspective lyrical approach that he’s perfected over his last few albums. The video teaser mentioned in my first write-up about Manson’s comeback featured about a minute of this new single, and as a longtime fan, I’m not at all disappointed with how the rest of the song sounds. The music video, directed by longtime Manson collaborator Bill Yukich, is one of the best in Manson’s career, harking back to similar color schemes and camera angles/movements as the videos made during the Triptych era from 1996-2001, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the rollout for the upcoming album looks like.

As far as the live show goes, the setlist always intrigues me as a hardcore fan. Most of Manson’s tour dates are support slots for Five Finger Death Punch, most likely only allowing him 45 minutes to an hour max, but I’ll luckily be seeing him at his first one-off headlining show, which takes place tomorrow night at The Fillmore in Silver Spring, MD. I’m not sure how much longer his set will be at these headliners, but for this hypothetical dream setlist, I'll be sticking to my 17-song rule with no encores, just like with my previous dream setlist before seeing Creed last weekend.

When trying to come up with my ideal setlist for a Marilyn Manson show and sticking to the song limit, I had a harder time deciding what songs to choose than figuring out how to sequence them. Of course, the hits can’t be ignored and it’d be just plain wrong to take out songs like “The Beautiful People” and “The Dope Show,” but there are several other songs that deserve that level of recognition as well. There are only so many slower tracks that can be added to a live show, especially for a Manson concert, so having to omit songs like “Man That You Fear,” “Coma White,” “Disassociative,” and several others was also a difficult decision to make. On top of that, despite the fact that there’s a new album that will likely be out this year or next, I still wanted to have a healthy representation of material from his last album WE ARE CHAOS, because it’s one of his best collective works in his entire discography and he never got the chance to tour for it. With all of that being said, let’s dive right in.

1. “RED BLACK AND BLUE” (WE ARE CHAOS, 2020)

Manson’s had a history of opening his shows with a new song if there’s an impending album release (for example, opening with “Deep Six” in 2014 before The Pale Emperor’s 2015 release, or “Revelation #12” before Heaven Upside Down’s release), making it likely that he’ll start his shows on this tour with “As Sick As The Secrets Within” or perhaps another cut from the album, but I can’t get past how well this track would be as an opener. It may make for a moodier kickoff than being all-out in your face from the moment the curtain drops, but I envision hearing the spoken word intro playing over the monitors as the band walks out on the stage, with Manson walking out at the very end of the section, finishing the lines “All I can see are gods on the left and demons on the right,” before kicking into the first verse. Something about that feels like it would work really well.

2. “Use Your Fist And Not Your Mouth” (The Golden Age of Grotesque, 2003)

Here’s a song that deserves more appreciation, and it’s one of those tracks that will get the audience moving whether they know it or not. If “RED BLACK AND BLUE” was too calm for the younger fans dying to mosh, this will be the perfect one to set them off. Sure, there’s “Angel With The Scabbed Wings” or “Irresponsible Hate Anthem,” but they’ve had more than their fair share of representation in Manson’s setlist on previous tours. Also, with much of the marketing for this comeback tour featuring Manson holding up his fists, something about having this in the set would just be too fitting to leave out.

3. “Disposable Teens” (Holy Wood: In the Shadow of the Valley of Death, 2000)

This is a song that would be a crime not to play, with its high-energy chorus and driving drum patterns perfect for jumping and crowd participation. I also have a hard time not putting it towards the beginning of the set — much like Alice Cooper playing “No More Mr. Nice Guy” at the beginning to get the audience excited and to test their energy, “Disposable Teens” feels like it’s also tailor-made for that kind of slot.

4. “Deep Six” (The Pale Emperor, 2015)

Probably the most upbeat track from The Pale Emperor, Manson’s first collaboration with film composer Tyler Bates (who also partnered with Manson on the upcoming new album), “Deep Six” has become a live staple since its release for 2015 and it’s easy to understand why. This is a great track to keep things upbeat, but also to transition into something a bit more mellow.

5. “Great Big White World” (Mechanical Animals, 1998)

The opening track to the glam-inspired Mechanical Animals is such a unique, one-of-a-kind song — it has a great mid-tempo pace, but is still catchy enough to keep the energy up. After hearing “As Sick As The Secrets Within” and being in awe of Manson’s vocal control on that song, I’d be curious to hear how this song sounds live today, because even on prior tours when his performances were criticized for being sloppy, his voice always seemed to hold up whenever this song appeared on the setlist.

6. “This Is the New Shit” (The Golden Age of Grotesque, 2003)

Getting back into hard-hitting territory, this standout from The Golden Age of Grotesque is a fun track that features early 2000s hip-hop elements while still being an effective hard rock song. Also, as a hardcore fan of the film indie slasher film Hatchet, which features this song in its opening credits, the horror fan in me would love hearing this song live.

7. “The Dope Show” (Mechanical Animals, 1998)

One of Manson’s biggest hits, this anthem is another must for any Manson show — as a slower song, it’s mainstream popularity propels it to an exciting level, prompting a fair amount of crowd participation, hands in the air and all. Admittedly, the hardcore fan in me would likely vouch to replace this song with the title track to Mechanical Animals due to its similar tempo and slightly catchier style, but it wouldn’t feel right to leave “The Dope Show” out.

8. “Tourniquet” (Antichrist Superstar, 1996)

It’s probably a cardinal sin to go this far without having a song from the fan-favorite Antichrist Superstar album making an appearance, so what better of a choice than “Tourniquet”? At a slightly faster pace and a bit rougher around the edges, it also makes for a fitting transition from “The Dope Show.” This epic single, driven by an infectious bassline and catchy guitar intro, is a perennial live track that rears its head in Manson’s set every couple tours, so one can hope it’ll make an appearance during this comeback tour.

9. “KEEP MY HEAD TOGETHER” (WE ARE CHAOS, 2020)

This is perhaps one of the more high-energy tracks on WE ARE CHAOS, and a favorite amongst fans that definitely deserves its time in the sun. The drums are the driving force with this song, and the bassline is sure to get stuck in the listener’s head. As an album highlight, it’s hard not to wonder how it would translate in a live setting.

10. “Rock Is Dead” (Mechanical Animals, 1998)

This hit single, featured in the 1999 sci-fi blockbuster The Matrix, would be sure to get the crowd back on their feet and in the palm of Manson’s hand from the opening note. Additionally, this sentiment can likely be placed with most of Manson’s songs, but when you consider how relevant some of the lyrics to this song are today (as much, if not more, than when it was first written), hearing this song live in 2024 would just hit different.

11. “mOBSCENE” (The Golden Age of Grotesque, 2003)

While this song has normally been a fixture of the first half of Manson’s live shows, thinking about the transitory feel from “Rock is Dead” to “mOBSCENE” felt just too fitting to ignore. A shining example of the burlesque influence that The Golden Age of Grotesque contained, this banger would be a great way to avoid the second-half slump that some live shows from other bands suffer from.

12. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” (Smells Like Children, 1995)

It’s always a fun surprise when an artist is able to cover a song and put it into their own style instead of replicating the original note-for-note — sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but Manson’s interpretation of the Eurythmics track was a home run, instantly becoming one of his biggest songs. Having a slower and creepier tone in comparison to the original, it’s no wonder why this has been a live staple for almost three decades now.

13. “Antichrist Superstar” (Antichrist Superstar, 1996)

Alice Cooper’s always expressed how there are some songs that appear on an album with the live show in mind, with their status as “stage songs” making them mandatory to perform live night after night, and this is one of Manson’s greatest stage songs, featuring him singing from a 20-foot pulpit and desecrating the Bible, whether that’s in the form of ripping pages out of it and throwing it into the crowd, or setting it on fire. Songs like this add to the theatrical spectacle of a Manson show, and it’d be foolish to leave it out.

14. “The Last Day on Earth” (Mechanical Animals, 1998)

Much like Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson’s excelled at slower songs, whether they’ve been in the form of ballads, anti-love songs, or pensively introspective tracks, and I’ve always felt that this song in particular deserved more time on stage — its only performances came acoustically on the promotional tours for Mechanical Animals when it was first released, along with a couple times in Russia in late December 2012 to acknowledge the Mayan apocalypse. This is a hypnotic track that instantly pulls the listener in and one of my all-time favorite tracks from Manson because of how much it sticks out from the rest of his material, so despite its late placement in this hypothetical setlist, it’s at the top of my wishlist.

15. “The Fight Song” (Holy Wood, 2000)

This is another purely selfish pick, made even more selfish by getting to hear them back-to-back. When one thinks of Marilyn Manson, they likely think of an eccentric artist that unapologetically goes against the grain and may offend some people in the process of doing so — this song is one of the most apt embodiments of that sentiment, particularly during the chorus. With its fast pace, catchy chorus, thought-provoking lyrics, and impressive vocal performance, its one of the first songs I recommend to anyone wanting to get into Manson’s music, as well as one of the top songs I’d love to hear performed live.

16. “WE ARE CHAOS” (WE ARE CHAOS, 2020)

Manson has been known to close his set on a bit of a somber note, with tracks like “Coma White” or even “The Nobodies” fulfilling that duty on some of his more recent tours. While there’s certainly no shortage of options to put in that position, I feel it’s appropriate to insert the title track to his most recent album — while not as melancholic, its softer musical nature and anthemic chorus makes it just as fitting as the previously mentioned tracks.

17. “The Beautiful People” (Antichrist Superstar, 1996)

I mean come on, do I really need to explain myself with this one? I’d prefer it to be the show closer so that the crowd leaves on a high note, but these are minor details — the fact of the matter that this is a must-play song, even for the most hardcore fan. I don’t care how overplayed this song may get, it simply wouldn’t be a complete Marilyn Manson concert experience without it.

As I mentioned previously, this was a more difficult experience than creating a dream setlist for Creed, simply because of the wealth of material that Manson has — I didn’t even touch his debut album Portrait of An American Family or Heaven Upside Down, along with several other studio efforts of his. Honestly I probably could’ve made two or three different setlists and still came up short on some songs, but at this stage right now, taking the last album cycle and lack of touring into consideration, along with the “greatest hits” style that will likely be prevalent for this comeback tour, I’d like to think I found a middle ground to appease most fan demographics.

At the end of the day, it’s just great to see Manson back and healthy, with a promising look on his future album release. As a longtime fan of his who will finally be seeing him live for the first time, I’m excited for what this new era of his career entails and I’m here for all of it. Let me know what songs you’d put in your dream Manson setlist in the comments, and see you in Silver Spring.

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