Sweet Dreamers

Marilyn Manson's children of the scorn bustled about their suburban bedrooms early in the evening of Friday, January 24, applying makeup and fish net in prep for the pop-industrial-shock artist's first Valley concert since his new recording, Antichrist Superstar, was released last October and went insta-platinum. Then they flocked by the thousands to Phoenix Civic Plaza, where New Times lay in wait. Photographs by Timothy Archibald. Interviews by David Holthouse.

Shelly Santiago, 14; Nikki Hocevar, 14; and Adrie, 13
Nikki: He's so hot. I was screaming on the floor because my friends met Marilyn Manson at the Fiesta Mall yesterday, and one of them got to lick his face and touch his hair.

Jason Leivian, 18; Katherine Manson (yeah, right), 17
J: He's sort of a martyr. Not like Jesus dying for our sins or anything, but he puts himself up there for people to point fingers. If everyone hates him, that's less hate directed at the rest of us.

K: He looks at society from a deviant angle, and he speaks the truth. Without him, who would do it?

Bill Caroll, 18
Artistically, he's a fake. But intellectually, I like him, because his lyrics are against religion and everything else society wants to oppress and crush us with. That song "Beautiful People" is about capitalism, mainly, and how it builds some people up to positions where they can laugh at you, but really they're just hollow shells.

Dezicia Valencia and April Sutton
Q: How old are you?
A: Ageless.
Q: Where are you from?
A: Nowhere.
Q: What does Marilyn Manson represent to you?
A: Nothingness.
Q: What else?
A: Nothing.

Jason W. ("I'm old"); Tim Low, 27; and Tommy Lorenzo, 28
Tim: He's a creepy fuck, but we're not out here for his Satanism. He's just entertaining, like Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, and Rancid. Rancid rules!