the NachtKabarett

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In collaboration with Gilles R. Maurice

Limited edition 'Rape Of The World' tour posters sold during the January to March 2008 Winter tour. Each poster was limited to 100 print runs each with a unique design available for, and exclusively in, each city of the tour. The dark themed poster designs featured serial killers (namely many of which the band members adopted the latter half of their stage names from), models and actresses (a handful of which the band members adopted the first of their stage names from), martyrs, iconic figures which represent the themes of 'Eat Me, Drink Me' (ie - Bonnie & Clyde) and various horror movies. All printed and designed by Print Mafia who have also been contracted to design unique city / venue posters for tours of other bands which have flirted with the occult such as Tool and The Smashing Pumkins.

"Murdercute happyrape / murdercute happy, happy, happyrape / killer..."

Marilyn Manson, You And Me And The Devil Makes 3
Eat Me, Drink Me

The following five posters all show black and white portraits of female beauty icons more or less related to the Celebritarian themes of fame, death and martyrdom, reworked in a Warholesque way by incorporating the aesthetics of the tour/era, specifically Manson's pink eyes stripe and dark red lipstick :

Ram's Head, Baltimore, Jan 2 :	The Fillmore, Detroit, Feb 4 :	House of Blues, Cleveland, Feb 1st :	Uptown Theater, KCK, Feb 11 :
Sharon Tate, American actress married to film director Roman Polanski and victim of the 1969 Manson Family slaughters.	Twiggy, the first prominent teenage model, also a hint to former bassist Twiggy (ex Ramirez) being back in the band right before this part of the tour.	Mia Farrow circa Polanski's 1968 film 'Rosemary's Baby', in which she dreams she is raped by a demonic presence and gets pregnant.	Elizabeth Short with a cut-out 'Glasgow grin', paralelling Manson's earlier series of watercolor paintings based upon her gruesome death.

Manson seeing pink... Left; on an early montage for the June 2007 issue of Spin. Center; during the Rape of the World Tour, wearing a glowing pink make-up eye stripe. Right; wearing the stripe on a January 2008 photograph from a shoot announcing Twiggy's return.

The most evocative of the band's identity is of course the fifth poster of that pink stripe series featuring Marilyn herself, also parallelling another poster showing a closeup of Charles Manson's face with bulging eyes, and the infamous Antichrist Svperstar Shock logo superimposed on a red background. In the same fashion, a diptych-like pair of posters showing Manson and Sharon Tate, a victim of his so-called Family, with a superimposed Mad Love heart, Marilyn Manson's disturbing logo for the era, upon their crossed looks :

Dodge Theater, Phoenix, Feb 27 :	Fillmore, Denver, Feb 13 :	The Wiltern, Los Angeles, February 22 & 23 :
The iconic Marilyn Monroe herself, tying together the band's origins with its new aesthetics, and bringing an even more Warholish dimension, which leads back to Manson's description of Celebritarianism as "Andy Warhol's worst nightmare."	Closeup of Charles Manson's face with superimposed Shock logo and angry red background. The spark through a killer's brain before commiting the infamy, in a revisitation of the band's ethymology and past iconography.	Similarly constructed portraits of Sharon Tate and Charley Manson on a vibrant blood background, sublimating the sharpened and twisted shapes of the hypnotic and disturbing Mad Love heart. The crossed looks and composition brings a "love unto death" scenario to this diptych, materializing the bond that unites the executioner and its victim, in an ironic evocation of the well-known Stockholm syndrom.

Most of the other designs were montages of famous American serial killers (most of them connected to past and present band members aliases), like an army raised to litterally "Rape the World", each killer associated with elements pertaining to his crimes/peculiarities. The following three were specifically centered on cannibalism, an omnipresent theme during Eat Me, Drink Me, with Fish and Gein's bloodied mouth-marks and Bundy's "toothprint" :

L.C. Pavilion, Columbus, Feb 2nd :	Rave Eagles club, Milwaukee, Feb 7 :	Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Feb 18 :
Albert Fish, serial killer and cannibal, with an evocation of the needles he had a fondness to self-embed into his groin. A double evocation of drummer Ginger Fish's stage name as well as the feeling of 'pins and needles' Manson describes in the song Heart-Shaped Glasses.	Ed Gein, murderer and grave robber (also involved in necrophilia and cannibalism), and the infamous walls behind which he used to store (and wear) trophies and keepsakes made of a wide variety of human body parts. He's also the inspiration for former bassist Gidget Gein's stage name.	Theodore "Ted" Bundy, serial killer and raper whose name former bassist Olivia Newton Bundy's pseudonym derives from, associated with a photograph of his teeth (an evidence to compare with bite marks found on a victim) reminding of Eat Me, Drink Me's cannibal imagery.

X-ray of Fish's pelvis with the needles that short circuited his lethal charge : at least 29 needles lodged in his pelvic region...	Old shot of Ed Gein's "house of horrors" in Plainfield, Wisconsin. The macabre place which would later inspire Leatherface's own dwelling in the fictionnal horror movie 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre'.	Photographic evidence of Bundy's teeth, to demonstrate matching with the bite marks found on a victim.

Tabernacle, Atlanta, Jan 22 :		"Police searched his apartment, and found it in a disarray, with graffitti on the walls -- Satanic symbols and smiley faces".
David Richard Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam", serial killer and arsonist (and inspiration for former guitarist's patronym: Daisy Berkowitz) in a montage made from selected fragments of his letters, including his infamous Satanic logo which was borrowed by the band amid its communication back during the Spooky Kids years.		Notice the last smiley, "demons torment me," to compare with Manson's line : "You can't escape all your demons," from the song 'Are You the Rabbit?'.

A poem that was found in Berkowitz's car, part of which is written in blood over his portrait on the poster above. Also note his "Son of Sam" satanic symbol, prominently re-used on early Marilyn Manson printed documents.	Early 1992 "Spooky Kids" flyer featuring Marilyn Manson's inverted version of Berkowitz's disturbing "Son of Sam" pictogram. (top-left corner) Image courtesy of SpookyKids.net.

Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, January 29 & 30 :		Great SaltAir, Magna UT, Feb 14,	Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Feb 17 :
Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, partners in crime. Sadomashochistic lovers and convicted killers responsible for the 'Moors Murders', in complementary scenario of colors. The couple can both be connected to Manson's male/female duality and fascination for serial killers, as well as his recently depicted theme of 'mad love', particularly through the "Bonnie & Clyde" identification.		Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker and Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow holding guns, from the 1967 film adaptation of the bank-robbing couple's life, acting as another diptych to illustrate both Manson's recent words of romance and his multifacetted obsession for guns, but also forming a quadriptych with the two preceding ones, giving them an all new meaning through the use of colors.

Original mugshots of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.		Photograph from the shooting of "Bonnie and Clyde", 1967.

Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Jan 26 :	San Diego House of Blues, Feb 25 :	Warfield Theatre, SF, Feb 20 :	Dallas House of Blues, Feb 29 :
Richard Ramírez, Satanist serial killer who was the inspiration for newly re-integrated band member Twiggy Ramirez's (removed since) last stage name, with carved pentagram.	John Wayne Gacy with a superimposed drawing he made of himself as Pogo the clown, also a hint to former keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy better known as Pogo.	Combined fragments from the Zodiac killer's letters, including an enigmatic cipher with the serial killer's mysterious signature symbol, over a depiction of his infamous hood.	Montage of the Kennedy couple with sights on the president's head, closeup of JFK's killer Lee Oswald's eyes, an old add of the rifle model he used and some kind of solemn epitaph.

Richard Ramirez hailing Satan at his trial with a provocative grin. This photograph, from which the pentagram carved hand was borrowed on the montage above, was prominently reproduced on several early 1990s Spooky Kids flyers.	Photograh of John Wayne Gacy, serial killer and raper of 33 young victims dressed as "Pogo the clown" during the parties he was throwing for friends and neighbours, which brought him notoriety under the name of the "Killer Clown".	Card was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle containing the Zodiac's still unsolved 340 cipher and his infamous sights symbol. Other featured fragments are the introduction of most of his messages, and a line from his 1978 last letter (actually deemed fake).

The four following prints were echoing other concepts and imageries previously exploited by Manson :

The Fillmore, Miami, Jan 20 :	Myth, St. Paul, February 8,	The Pageant, St. Louis, Feb 10 :	Verizon Wireless Theatre, Houston :
Composite montage referring to Manson's satanic incarnations, with a red ecstatic angel, and to his own duality with the remarkable backgound alchemical engraving related to the Tetragrammaton.	Interchangeable Antichrists with respective marks of the beast in a Christic propaganda. A parallel already drawn in the 'Personal Jesus' video, showing subliminal alternated images of both leaders. A tribute to Manson's omnipresent theme of fascism in expressionism, and the capitalism/fascism dichotomy evoked in the lyrics for The Beautiful People. Also premonitory of the High End Of Low era's dollar signs being interchangeable with the nazi emblem, the song 'Pretty as a Swastika' becoming 'Pretty as a ($)'.		Reversible depiction of a doppel-christ assembled like a playing card figure and reworked with pastels to reflect Manson's duality, with references ranging from the Antichrist to Vampires and Frankensteins.

A few posters were inspired by the murderous aesthetics of American horror movies posters, still around the theme of serial killers :

Electric Factory, PHI, Jan 27 :	Austin Music Hall, March 1st :	Hard Rock, Orlando, Jan 19 :	Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, Feb 5 :
The illustration is actually reworked from a poster for British horror film 'Scream and Scream Again', with more acidic effervescence, right leg straightened and tagline intact.	Low-angle shot of Leatherface's black silhouette and tagline borrowed from the Texas Chain Saw Massacre movie poster. A deliciously à propos choice given the venue's location.	Unidentified horror-themed picture pertaining to the theme of beheading, developped within the song Eat Me, Drink Me and during the Heart- Shaped Glasses live performance.	A heavily fetish-themed photograph, somehow connected to the theme of unconventional loves present in Eat Me, Drink Me, and Manson's corsetted aesthetics in general.

Poster of the 1970 horror film that was retouched for the Philadelphia concert. The movie actually involves a series of killings dubbed "the vampire murders" as well as an excentric scientist, Dr. Browning (played by Vincent Price), increasing the list of 'Mad Doctors' Manson identified to during the era.	Original poster for the 1974 horror movie starring fictional serial killer and cannibal Leatherface, whose environment and habit to wear masks elaborated from human skin were borrowed from Ed Gein's. The chainsaw blade is slightly lengthened on Manson's poster, making it more identifiable.

S e e   a l s o   o n   T h e   N A C H T K A B A R E T T :

THE RAPE OF THE WORLD TOUR | 'Eat Me, Drink Me' made fully animate, live and onstage around the world. The tour of 2007 - 2008 marked a return to the dark theatrical presentation of the new era, full of allusions to the album's themes and influences which range from Alice in Wonderland, Hamlet, Dracula, Elvis Presley to David Bowie.

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