Information
Date: November 11, 2004
City: Barcelona, Spain
Author: Running Naked in the Park
Review
The concert took place in Palau Olimpic, Badalona, Barcelona. The hall can fit easily 12,000 people, donīt think they were that many, but still were lotsa thousand people in. Many of them were French!
Anyway, at the entrance there was this sea of people waiting for the gates to open. There was a long line at tickets, good i got mine months ago :P, tho still made me wonder, mind you in other countries the tickets been sold out first our the cashier opened and months before the actual concert.
They were supposed to open the gates at 8 pm, but they opened them, i think, after 8:30 pm. But, hey, this is Spain, and usually it happens at concerts, not onl here.
Inside, i barely got to do a slash and have a cig, cause Exilia started their show. Guess kids and metal-heads there enjoyed it, but itīs not my kind of stuff anymore. Deh, iīm getting old :P
And, bad point for me, if i wanted i could have get a camera in, lotsa people had their cams, but i was afraid i wont be alowed and that i might lose it (mind you, itīs not my cam, itīs my sis and her bfīs cam).
Anyway, i stood near the stage, pretty close actually. After Exilia, there was this sooooooooo long, very long break, i couldnīt go out, just waited there, fearing might lose my place near the stage if i leave :P Good i could smoke in there (lotsa were smoking pot :P) and they had A/C, so wasnt that bad, cept just that standing for too long makes my back ache really bad, due to my screwed up kidneys.
Anyway... finally THEY started! Have to tell you that the stage was covered by this black courtain, covering the most of it. The lights went out and here came these Rammstein look-alikes, wearing blue short sleeve shirts, black pants and some with torches, others with baseball bats, other with briefcases, just like in the promo pics. After they wondered there, in front of the courtain, on the intro of Reise, Reise, the courtain lifted, revealing the rest of the stage.
On the stage was this construction, like an entrance in a mediaeval castle, having a door in the middle, sort of a gate, though which the R. guys were comming and getting off the stage. On the top of this construction were the drums, with Christoph on them :P, and above him and back, were the lights.
They started with Reise, Reise, during which they were wearing these 18th-19th century navy officers black uniforms.
Now, i donīt remeber the exact order of the tunes they played, so iīll just write about them as i remember them.
After Reise, Reise, was Keine Lust, and then Morgenstern. By now they dropped the navy uniforms. Till remained in this black net-like tshirt, and black pants up to his knees; he wore this big belt, though, probly to hold his 40 yo man beer gut :P. But he was looking great otherwise, with some black eye liner, thocould see the white roots of his hair.
Richard was wearing these black pants, a lil large at the bottom of the legs, first with a black net-like tshirt, then shirtless. Man, would love to look like him when iīll reach his age :P Very fit, hats off for this guy! He wore somekinda make-up too, his side burns drawn along his face.
Paul wore this Tirolese uniform, with shorts and coat, and his Tirolese hat with a feather. Olli wore only some gray pants. Dunno if it was make-up or just ash from all that fire, cause iīve noticed only at the end, but his face, shoulders, back n chest were covered in this gray thinggie.
Flake wore this black latex suit, with short pants, and, at first, some kinda plane pilot black helmet. And Christoph was wearing this black latex suit too, with short pants, right under his buttocks, but from behind he looked like this really sexy woman in shorts ROTFLMAO (hey, im a perv, what do you want??:P). Think he wore somekinda stalkings too, but i dont remember now. What i remember is this black leather, metal spiked collar he was wearing around his neck. He also had huge make-up around his eyes.
Anyway, they had fireorks, fires emerging from the floor of the stage, lotsa lights games, confetties, but all so good staed up and so well timed and controled to the second. During some of the songs (like Sehnsucht) they had fire works exploding right at a certain beat of the drums. They also had fire crackers exloding from the drum kit itself, again, at a certain beat, not just randomly. Also, they had colored fire flames, yellow, blue, red sometimes.
During Mein Teil, Till came on the stage wearing this huge chefīs hat, apon and a belt with knives, dragging this huge cooking pot on the stage. Then he took off the huge lid of this sauce pan, dropped it on the floor with a loud thud, and started to sing the lyrics, during which, from the saucepan, Flake, wearing his black latex suit and a black mask on his face, with pink lights, was emerging from the saucepan. Till was also puling faces, showing the knives to the audience, etc. When approaching the end of the song, Till set fire under the saucepan with this flame-thrower, and Flake jumped out of the cooking-pot, started running around the stage, while pink lights and pink fire-crackers wereexploding from his suit, and Till started chasing him around the stage with the knives in his hands.
They also sang Los, my favourite, Christoph on drums, Richard on a blac shiny acoustic guitar, and Flake at an accordeon, and Till, of course, vocals and harmonica (my dream of seeing him playing harmonica came true :P). I enjoyed the song, though the others around werenīt that thrilled. Guess itīs too bluesy, too ī60s-ī70sfor them metal-heads.
At Du Riechst So Gut, Till came with his arch-bow, from wich fire-crackers were exploding, and fires, and he rotated it few times - very spectacular.
At Ramstein he had only these fire-throwers attached along his arms, and when he was rising his hands, he was releasing the flames. Iīm not sure if it was during this song or another one, but at one point Richard and Paul had these special sleeves with 6-8 thinggies from which was coming blue fire. So they got in the middle of the stage, one near the other, one facing the public, the other one with his back towards the public, and, while they were playing their guitars, they had these 6-8 blue flames coming out those special sleeves.
On the stage they also had these 2 platforms, so time to time, when they got on the upper part, near Christoph, they could come down on the stage, near Till, using those platforms. These platforms had each a vertical bar, probly so they can rest their back, while coming down to the stage, and these bars had, on top, the Rammstein sign, the R and the cross, carved in metal.
During Feuer Frei Till, Richard and Paul (or Olli) put on the masks on their faces, and they were blowing flames. The flames, like those 4 that were emerging from the floor of the stage as well, were really huge. From the floor, were emerging, time to time, those flames, 2 of them on eachside of Till, but could feel the heat from where i was, and i wasnt that close to the stage.
During Du Hast, Till got this arbalette (spelling??) and he fired 2 rockets, and, even if he was with his back toward the audience, he aimed them to the roof, and the rockets flew above us, exploding over our heads.
During Ohne Dichthey had some sort of candles ligned along the edge of the upper part of that construction. And, when the intro started, Till was standing near Flake, with his head leaned on the keyboarderīs shoulder in a very romantic posture :P
During Moskau they had this incredible lights games, and also fires along the edge of the lower part of the stage, not huge flames, but these fires like those commemorative flames they put on monuments (see the one in Moskow at, i think, Leninīs mausoleum or something commemorating the revolution). Anyway, i think it was during Moskau. And Till sang the Russian lyrics too :P
During Amerika they had these white, blue and red confetties. When nearing the end of the song, from under Flakeīs feet, this huge air current started to blow, and was blowing confetties, upwards, making his hair float too; it looked so sur-realstic with him, his keyboard, his hairwaving and the confetties floating around him. And at the very end of the song, confetties started to be blown and to fall all around, like in a 4th of July parade.
The last song was Stripped, during which Olli did the inflatable rubber boat thinggie, being carried around by the crowd.
And then they went 'That's it, Gracias Barcelona!' and they left !!!!
While leaving the stage, Paul was blowing kisses to the audience, and Christoph threw one of his dumming sticks into the audience, and some guy there caught it.
During Du Hast, Christoph threw one of his sticks, but it landed near the stage, and he grabbed quickly another one, as he was talking with Paul, who was near him in that moment.
At one point, during the 3rd tune, i think, Till said īBuenas Dias, BarcelonaĻ, mind you it was night time :P and then ĻVamos, vamosĻ to make the crowd agitate, jump and scream even better. Also, they werenīt introducing their songs, they were just getting from one into another. Anyway, the crowd knew them by heart, and the lyrics, and all, so it wasnīt needed an introduction.
Till was many time just standing, with his arms wrapped around his chest, looking at the crowd, sometimeshe was standing with his back toward the crowd; he didnīt need todo much anyway, tho he did his head banging, knee hitting thing lotsa times. He looked more like amaster of ceremonies watching his followers LMFAO. Lots of facial expressions, he poked this long tongue at one moment, some suggestive hips movements during Rein, Raus. He was also pounding the left side of his chest with his fist, during Links 234, and doing those marching steps, but on the spot.
The show was realy spectacular, donīt have any regrets for the money, time spent and the 4000 miles trip made to see them, but, they seemed a bit cold, like doing a routine (though could see they were putting efforts on doing it) and like they sorta just wanted to get over with. But, they played the day before too, and they are playing today too, so probly it explains it. And, probly was too that the crowd was screaming Rammstein, but like Spanish and French would read it, not with the correct pronunciation, so probly that added too. Dunno.
Besides Christoph at his drums on the top of that castle-like construction on the stage, Till was standing and singing right in the middle of the stage (and i was just in front of him :P few feet/meters away). He moved a bit around the stage, from one side to the other. On his right was Olli, then Paul, on his left, Flake and his keyboards, then Richard. Paul, Richard, Olli, think at one point Flake too, were getting, time to time, to the upper part of the stage, on the top of the construction, near Christoph, and then coming down, back near Till, back on their places.
At one song they had one of the look-alikes guys that wasplaying a guitar, along with them, but standing in a dark part of the stage, near Richard. Or he was just holding the guitar. Anyway, the last tests of the instruments, before the show starting, were made by those look-alikes.
Now, the tune list, as i remember them, not the real order they played: Reise, Reise, Morgenstern, Keine Lust, Mein Teil, Sehnsucht, Los, Du Riechst So Gut, Ramstein, Ohne Dich, Moskau, Stein Uhm Stein, Sonne, Amerika, Ich Will, Feuer Frei, Du Hast, Rein Raus, Links 234, Stripped.
Might be one or two i missed, and, for my dissapointment, they didnīt sing Amour, which i read they did in other shows. Id really would have loved to hear n see it live.
The crowd was really supporting their act, probly they would have deserved an encour, and more communication from te band, they were all jumping, howling, singing along, shoving and pushing, etc.The athmosphere was hot, not only from the fires and so many people in there, but the show was still good.
Well, thats my 2cents worth, hope i made some sense in here :P.