Sat. Aug. 4

 The satirical on-line mag The Onion did a great satirical piece on Marilyn Manson a few years ago. They had him going from door to door in some neighborhood, desperately trying to gross and shock a public too bored with his schtick to care. Is this where Marilyn Manson is now, as he and his band are set to play DCU Center in Worcester with Slayer Saturday Aug. 4? Manson's making noise that while he's not trying to shock - "Shock was never my goal. It's too juveline. Anyone can be shocking" he told Blender - he's still part of the freak show, one of the broken toys, one of those damaged by ... his own demons, America's right-wing, you name it. We've thought Marilyn Manson has had some good tricks up his sleeve, but we've never found his melodic ability to be near his idol (has to be his idol) Alice Cooper. Manson also likes to tell people that unlike Cooper (his fallen idol!) the on-stage Manson is like the off-stage Manson. (Cooper rather famously split from his on-stage character when he kicked booze decades ago.) Manson's latest disc, "Eat Me, Drink Me," contains the expected share of harsh, dark noise. Manson has said he'd been writing out of a dark hole and told Rolling Stone, "I think my lifestyle over the past few years has been a long form of suicide." Over the past few years, his marriage to Dita Van Teese went south; one with young actress Rachel Ward kicked up. So, that's personal. What's the concert likely to be like? Sweetness and light, as you might expect. Slayer, the Grammy-winning, opener has kept at its death/thrash metal so long, you'd think they'd have keeled over by now. Rather, they've kept the pedal to the metal so long, you have to respect them for it, even, if like Manson, melody isn't their favorite companion. They're in it for the horror fantasy and the sheer thrill of transgression, even if transgression gets less that way over time. Tickets: $48.75 - $28.50

50 Foster St., Worcester, 508-755-6800 www.ticketmaster.com