Information
Date: June 25, 2005
City: Berlin, Germany
Author: Stephen W.
Review
After a stiflingly hot start to the day there was some welcome rain in Berlin on Saturday afternoon which brought cooler conditions for the journey into the forest of Wuhlheide.
The venue was nice and compact with great views of the stage from all vantage points. After hitting the merchandise stalls (where my fellow traveler invested in a t-shirt depicting Rammstein's version of Japanese erotica) and getting in some food, me and said fellow traveler positioned ourselves about 40 metres from the stage in the centre of the standing area close to a backpacked beer vendor.
Apocalyptica - fellows with cellos - starting proceedings with their unique style of 'classical metal with strings'. They got the crowd going with a few Metallica oldies: 'Master of Puppets' and 'Enter Sandman'. Their original tunes were pretty good too, but they would probably impress more in a smaller, darker venue. At one stage the fair-headed cellist resorted to trying to convince the audience that they wanted to hear more. A few natives - and some Danish lads - were getting restless towards the end of the set and a few woe-begotten pleas of 'F*ck off' were undeservedly directed at the Finlanders.
After a short wait a black curtain was removed revealing Rammstein minus Till; the opening chords off 'Reise, Reise' kicked in. Till emerged from a 'hole' underneath Christoph's drums like the antichrist from its mother's womb and we were off. Flames, fireworks and explosions were the order of the day, but they weren't gimmicks - the spectacle added excitement to an already palpable anticipation.
The first evidence of what an exhilarating show this would be was displayed during 'Feuer Frei!'. Flamethrowers were unleashed above the heads of the audience and I could feel the heat from my position of apparent safety. The heavy rendition of this Rammstein classic blew me away - bang bang indeed!
The set consisted of their oldest material 'Asche Zu Asche' right up to the brand new 'Benzin'. Missing was 'Dalai Lama' and 'Moskau' - two of my personal favourites from 'Reise, Reise' - however, the band gave barnstorming performances of 'Mein Teil' and 'Stein Um Stein'to keep fans of that album happy. Although I personally could have lived without 'Los' and 'America', the latter of which incorporated red, white, and blue paper canons; giving a strangely French feel to proceedings.
Till donned his psychotic chef outfit for 'Mein Teil', complete with a kitchen-knife microphone. The crowd went wild for the theatre and sound of this great cannibalistic anthem. Keyboard player Flake obliged as the chef's victim and was duly roasted alive in a flamethrower-heated oven before prancing around the stage with fireworks exploding on various parts of his anatomy.
Ironically the heavens opened for 'Sonne', but the cool drizzle felt good on a warm Berlin night and the crowd punched their hands in the air for each count: "Eins", "Zwei", "Drei"...They shouted back their responses during 'Ich Will'; "Wir hören dich", "Wir sehen dich", "Wir fühlen dich". Till was our fuhrer tonight and we saluted with horned hands. 'Links 2-3-4' was another stomping 'Mutter' anthem which had the assembled masses bouncing.
Oldies like 'Sehnsucht', 'Du Hast'and 'Rammstein' proved to be great crowd pleasers; while the performance of 'Du Riechst So Gut' consisted of man-mountain Till whirling a multi-barreled firework launcher around creating a spectacular fire- hazard.
Apocalyptica where wheeled out again for 'Ohne Dich'; it was a beautiful rendition and the cello boys finally got the praise they deserved.
Paul, Oliver and Richard were excellent as was drummer Christoph, but it was difficult to take your eyes off the lightshow and the antics of Till and Flake - you'd be afraid of missing something. Flake performed a keyboard solo and then proceeded to batter the unfortunate instrument into a pulp before tossing its remains into the audience. I witnessed one lucky punter leaving early with a piece of said instrument; conceivably thinking "das ist mein teil" and of the riches awaiting him on eBay.
Oliver got his moment of glory during the final song 'Stripped' when he crowd-surfed around the whole arena in a rubber dingy. It was a great moment - except maybe for the poor unfortunate whose hat he stole - and it might have been even better if entertained us with some close-up bass-playing while 'at sea'.
It was a great night of music, noise, theatre, pyrotechnics and adrenalin. Go see Rammstein live. Now.