A strong live effort from America's sweetheart, Marilyn Manson

While usually stealing headlines for shocking (well, I suppose at one time they were shocking) antics, Marilyn Manson has quietly assembled a group that has evolved into an admirable live act. "The Last Tour on Earth" provides the listener with a very enjoyable earful of Manson's live act.

By now, hard core Mansonites have a number of live recordings to choose from, ranging from a plethora of bootlegged recordings from the "Spooky Kid" era (and their varying sound quality, or lack thereof) to the more recent official live home video recordings ("God is in the TV" and "Guns, God, & Government"). Last Tour is probably the most tastefully mixed of Manson's official live releases, and is a very listenable recording, live or otherwise.

The material is compiled from Manson's "Mechanical Animals" tour, which was met largely with box office apathy, as Manson's gender-bending antics and all-around David Bowie jockeying was not received well with much of his audience: the knuckle-dragging metalhead contingent was "weirded out" by Manson wearing a body suit with breasts, while the more sophisticated among his fanbase called "bullsh!t" on the Ziggy Stardust androgeny.

While Manson's record and tour was maligned for the reasons above, the indictments are, by and large, missing the beauty of Manson's live show. By this time, Manson had moved on to lead guitarist number three (by my count) John 5. With the addition of the highly regarded 5--Tom Morello absolutely raves about John's "chops" and at one time considered him the most underrated rock guitarist--Manson's live guitar sound seemed much more "heady" and "sophisticated" than previous tours.

While the addition of John 5's guitar work adds to the more driving industrial rock-oriented material, Manson still is apparently led to pepper his concerts with perverse "responsive reading"-esque material. You've heard this stuff a billion times: mocking police officers, religion, heterosexuality, etc. In interviews, it would almost seem that Manson himself is a little bored with all the expectations of this freakish iconoclast Anton LeVey rhetoric, as he has appeared in many media outlets speaking eloquently and intelligently.

This notwithstanding, the energy that "Last Tour" builds up is often brought to anti-climax by Manson's call-and-response. Perhaps Manson can take a cue from other subversive artists--Maynard from TOOL, for example--who more effectively convey their "weirdness" through a "less-is-more" creed. Marilyn, you have a giant burning cross made of televisions behind you. You don't need to say much more.

Still, this record is a very nice retrospective of Manson's career to that point, dredging up old "Portait of an American Family" favorites "Lunchbox" and "Get Your Gunn," which is inexplicably sans NRA commentary. The slower paced songs like "Sweet Dreams" and the funky "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" lull the listener a bit, and tend to get skipped when I listen to the record, but as a whole, the vibe of the record is a steady, rocking pop industrial groove.

The real gem of this record is the studio track ending the album, "The Astonishing Panorama of the End Times," which despite its self-indulgent title, is a honest-to-goth-balls-to-the-wall rocker that foreshadows the direction that Manson ultimately arrives in "Golden Age of Grotesque," where he enlists KMFDM veteran Tim Skold as a producer and bassist.

The casual Manson fan may enjoy this one for a live "greatest hits" of sorts, and the completist already owns this one. Those easily turned off by Manson's 8th grade pretentious stage banner are warned.