Information
Date: July 18, 2005
City: Cardiff, Wales
Author: Scott F.
Review
i got to the show at about half six, you could tell it was going to be a good show by all the people queing to get in, age gaps were bridged as the young and old gathered to see the greatest show on earth.
The doors were opened and we were allowed entrance, although the girls got a bit of a que jump thanks to the door people.
The first thing i noticed as i entered the international arena was the stage, large, metallic, the little plasma electric screen things built into it. i positioned myself close to the stage as this was a formidible vantage point to watch the chaos unfold.
There were no supporting bands so there was an exciting wait ahead of us, getting inside at 7.15pm and the show actually starting at 8.30pm, but the cheerful drunken welsh people and a good selectiopn of background music made the wait less hard to bare.
At 8.15pm there were movements on the stage, and spotlights being tested, 6 men came on stage dressed in smart shirts and trousers like from the tour picture armed with night sticks and baseball bats, all with built in torches. These blokes started warming up the crowd as shortly the band were to appear.
The curtain dropped and the band were on stage, schneider top centre, flake with a mangled industrial accordion, richard in an awesome sailors coat, paul all greased up in his lederhosen, olli dressed relatively normally and till in a leather strappy costume.
The show kicked off with a storming rendition of Reise,Reise. Soon came the time for the legendery flamethrower masks as they blazed (lol) through feurer frei, we were close enough to feel the heat on our faces and man was it hot!
Now came the time for a truly spectacular show as till came onto stage dressed as a chef with a giant pot, followed by flake all greasey and bloody. The song began and till threw Flake in the pot, drawing a knife from his apron that had a microphone built into it. They proceeded with the song with amusing appearances from Mr Lorenz as he popped up to wave at the crowd. As the song drew towards the end till moved off towards the rear of the stage, quickly returning with a flamethrower. Now these flames were hot enough to be felt in the crowd again so the pot must have been heat proof as till cooked the skinny keyboardist alive in the pot. Flake soon popped back up and all was fine as he leapt from the pot and was chased by the burly chef as rockets were fired at him from the ceiling.
Then came the time for Links 234 and the crowd getting rough as all the hardcore skinhead chaps got down into mosh mode. All through the preformance built in stage flamethrowers went off and the air-con was working overtime.
Benzin from the soon to be released rosenrot was met with awe by the crowd, no one moved, just stnading watching.
Asche zu Asche was welcomed as till stood beneath a shower of sparks, closely followed by a tremendous performance of Los.
Till picked on Flake after he had done one of his well known dances by standing him on a box to perform a jazzy solo before taking out his harmonica.
Ohne dich was the right time to bring out the dingy into which oliver quickly leapt into and began sailing upon the crowd whilst trying to maintain his balance.
The night was coming to an end so it was time to bring out the big guns as the began Amerika, flake appearing onstage on one of those gyrowalker things surely as a joke towards president bush, and they began playing. It got to Flakes solo and he positioned himself over one of the vents on stage as confetti was blaster through from underneath him and dropped from the ceiling.
The band graciously returned to the stage to say thank you and take a bow as a quiet Engel played in the background.
Truly a memorable night that i am happy to share with you. If you ever get the chance to see them live take it, you surely wont regret it.
10/10 A*+ Excellent!