A Look At Deadly Apples’ Opening Set For Rob Zombie & Marilyn Manson At Jones Beach Theater

As formed by Alex Martel in 2002, Deadly Apples is a respected metal band from Canada. The group went on hiatus in 2011 after releasing — and touring heavily behind — two studio albums. Deadly Apples reunited in 2017 and recorded a new EP, Petty, in Nashville. Since reforming, the group — which also includes drummer/composer Antoine Lamothe, keyboardist/sampler Raul Campued and guitarist Dan Pelletier — has played shows alongside Rammstein, The Deftones, Slipknot, and Korn.

This summer, Deadly Apples is currently touring as part of the Twins Of Evil Tour. A co-headlining billing featuring Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson, the Twins Of Evil billing first went out for 39 shows in 2012. This current run, known as “The Second Coming,” kicked off in Detroit on July 11th and is set to run through August 29th with a big tour-closing show in Irvine, California.

On August 7th, Deadly Apples played a fine set at Long Island, New York’s Northwell Health At Jones Beach Theater. An outdoor amphitheater which overlooks the ocean, this venue manages to be scenic while offering state-of-the-art facilities. Deadly Apples hit the stage for its 30-minute starting promptly at 7:10 PM. 3 songs from the latest EP, Infected, were performed — “Self-Inflicted Oppression,” “Abuse” and title track “Infected” — in addition to “None Of Them” from the aforementioned Petty. In turn, it is clear that Deadly Apples is focused on the future, rather than looking back at its earlier years.

Most remarkable to me about Deadly Apples’ performance was the charisma display. Martel is a frontman that alternately sings, screams and growls, regularly getting in the face of those in the first row; he did a stage-dive during the set-closing song. Lamothe may have a chair behind his sideways-facing drum kit, but he spent a lot of the show standing and directly interacting with the crowd. Campued also made the effort to move around, even though he appeared to be overseeing all of the live set’s pre-recorded elements. Despite Deadly Apples performing in the daylight with a lot of the audience opting to stay by the food vendors — more on that to follow — the Montreal act definitely won over new fans as a result of its Jones Beach performance, this writer included.

Deadly Apples performance aside, the rest of the evening was a trainwreck at best. While Northwell Health At Jones Beach Theater has a wide array of food and beverage vendors, for this concert, the venue opted to confine all alcohol consumption to a particular area outside of the concert venue. In other words, if you purchased alcohol, the only place to drink it was outside of the view of the concert you were paying to attend. This led to a lot of unnecessary binge-drinking, since a person with a just-purchased $13+ tallboy of beer would have to chug it in order to leave that area and catch some live music. Or use a restroom. Or just simply go to a less noisy area without a loud DJ.

Within 20 minutes of Deadly Apples finishing its set — and within 15 minutes of Marilyn Manson’s anticipated on-stage arrival — the clouds got dark and heavy over Jones Beach. Thunder and lighting would start shortly after, as would rain. The venue would evacuate the crowd out of the amphitheater area, although some of the venue’s areas did not have functional speakers. For the next 70-plus minutes, attendees waited without updates as to if and when Manson would be performing. Finally a little after 9:30 PM, a barely-audible announcement followed that the sets by Manson and Zombie would not be happening. Refunds would be offered on tickets purchased with no rescheduling of the concert to be expected. Furthermore, no vouchers or future discounts after all that waiting.

What made this end-result especially ironic was that earlier in the evening, a venue staffer had approached me and my guest before Deadly Apples’ set to get us to fill out a satisfaction survey — and during this interaction had informed us of “the opening act” having cancelled. She had also discussed having checked the latest weather report and that good weather was ahead for the evening. In other words, the exact opposite happened with regards to the very 2 things promised to us.

So as a recap of the evening’s events:
– Deadly Apples provided a memorable and entertaining performance.
– The venue had an impractical alcohol policy in effect.
– Fans waited almost 2 hours to find out that the headliners were not performing.
– Some of the venue’s emergency communication systems are not functional.

As my 4th Jones Beach concert of the 2018 season, I expected a better overall experience. Hopefully that will come from my next intended Live Nation-produced show in Wantagh in early September.

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Tags: Deadly Apples, Jones Beach, Long Island, Marilyn Manson, New York, Rob Zombie

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."