Information
Date: November 20, 2004
City: Copenhagen, Denmark
Author: Dave
Review
We arrived at the Forum at around 7pm on Saturday, which had already been a very long day for us! After being awake from around 5am to travel to Denmark from England, we were pretty worn out already, especially after 3 train journeys, 1 flight and countless minutes of walking in the bitter cold! However, this was all to be worthwhile!
After being searched by security, we were let in to the main hall. There were six of us there and had no problems in bringing cameras etc into the venue. My friend even showed the security man his camera and was let in with it. Many people had camera phones and things of the like.
When we arrived in the main hall, it was pretty empty; probably a couple of thousand people had made it in so far. We were fairly lucky to get a place where we did, around 10m in front of the stage, directly opposite Paul and Olli. As the minutes passed, the atmosphere in the hall was beginning to become more intense, with periodic chants of 'Rammstein!' Finally, on schedule at 8pm the lights dimmed and a huge roar was let off by the crowd. It was time!
After many background noises, a huge boom of bass filled the arena. Your whole body pulsed with the beat! This happened a number of times, and Exilia walked out on to the stage. The audience gave a good reception to Exilia, cheering for them and clapping vigorously after each song. Although Exilia aren't really my 'cup of tea' they did warm up the crowd, and certainly gave it everything they had, the lead singer and drummer in particular. After the 'Thank Yous' by Exilia, the house lights were again raised, and more waiting was in order. Roughly around 35 minutes. The stage was prepared for Rammstein, with Flake's keyboard being brought on first. The Exilia set was taken away, revealing the full extent of the huge black curtain the hung over the Rammstein stage. The main event was about to begin.
The house lights dimmed, and a group of men in the Reise, Reise shirt and tie costume walked out with torches, shining them into the crowd. An amusing moment was when a crowd member threw a glowstick at the stage, and one of the actors promptly threw it back! Suddenly, the chanting at the beginning of Reise, Reise started. The black curtain was illuminated, revealing the silhouettes of Richard, Paul and Olli. As the main riffs broke in, the massive curtain fell, revealing a colossal stage and the band themselves. The hard, attacking riffs played but then died down suddenly to bring back the chanting. As this happened, Till walked slowly from the centre doors of the stage toward the microphone. As he began to sing, the whole crowd sang along, rivalling that of the audience participation from songs such as Du Hast. The crowd were extremely excited, everybody pushing forward trying to get a better view. Till messed up the lyrics a little, and a couple of wrong notes on the accordion by Flake....but we're not all perfect!
After Reise, Reise had finished, Links 2 3 4 kicked in. The whole crowd clapped and stamped their feet to create the marching sound, which was brilliant. A very solid song with pyro at the back of the stage, where a new block of lights had just risen from below.
Keine Lust was next. From what I can remember there was a little pyro at the end on the part of Schneider's drum kit. A very good song live, which Till seemed to enjoy singing.
Feuer Frei opened as usual next with all the old stuff - fire masks and all! The heat coming from them was immense, very, very hot. The fire masks were lit in spectacular fashion with a large fizz. This happened during a quiet interlude. The crowd was extremely excited as everyone knew what was coming!
Rein Raus began as usual with Richard shouting 'Rein!' and expecting an audience reply. As far as I'm aware not many people shouted back the first time around apart from us! However the second time 'Rein' was shouted, the whole room erupted with 'RAUS!' One of my personal favourites, so I can't complain! No pyro that I can remember, but correct me if I'm wrong!
Next was Morgenstern. Another of my favourites so I was really looking forward to this. Drumming by Schneider was excellent. The crowd got involved a lot in this one, with almost everyone joining in with 'Morgernstern ach Scheine', and 'Du bist hesslich' etc. Again, no pyrotechnics that I can remember, but A LOT of white light.
Mein Teil was up next. A brilliant song live, especially with all of the stage performance that took place. Till wheeled out a large cauldron which contained Flake and, during the screaming part of the song, prompty cooked him to a crisp in the pot! At the end of the song, Flake jumped out the pot wearing a pyro suit, and was covered in red flares running about the stage being chased by Till. A spectacular, and humorous sight!
Stein Um Stein followed. Once again, no special pyrotechnics that I can remember off hand. The crowd were encouraged to sing the 'Schrein' at the end of the song, and also the 'STEIN' after the bridge.
Los started next with some simple chords. They gradually built up into the full riff and the whole song was sung as normal. Plenty of orange lights in this one. Flake had a 'dancy' keyboard solo towards the end of the song, after which Paul and Richard broke out into a hard version on their electrics guitars. A friend next to me was convinced they were playing WIDBIFS! Wishful thinking perhaps ;-) The band seemed to enjoy this one a lot, smiling to each other.
Plenty of lights and pyro in Moskau, which was nothing short of a disco! No Russian backing during verses and bridge, but Till had a go. Although I did hear her during the chorus. The wall of lights from Links 234 made another appearance here and was put to great effect! However, I would have preferred to hear Dalai Lama instead, and I felt Moskau was the weakest track of the night. Nonetheless though, a solid performance.
What followed was the high point of the concert for me - the classics! Du Riechst So Gut began and the crowd went WILD. I thought the roof was going to come off the place! The pyro crossbow made an appearance as usual, as was very spectacular. Richard missed the 'Ich finde dich' at the beginning of the second chorus, but I'm not sure if he wanted to audience to do it, or if the mic was just not working! Cool pyro during the guitar solo.
Du hast was next. Do I really need to explain?! The whole crowd again went crazy, especially during the middle part. BRILLIANT pyrotechnics, I wont spoil it for those who have not seen it yet ;-) Everyone sang along.
Sehnsucht was next. A fantastic song, once again. Everybody sung along, an identical performance to the LAB version in terms of pyro and audience participation. Excellent! Some extra explosions during the intro made it even better, which was a perfect build up to the attacking guitar riffs. Maybe it was just me, but Till seemed to enjoy singing this, as with all the classics in fact.
Amerika was fantastic also. LOTS of confetti was used in red, white and blue which covered the whole room. The crowd sang along really loud, frequently drowning out Till in the chorus! Flake was on a motorised vehicle with two wheels (the name escapes me!) with his keyboard on the front.
Encore 1
Rammstein followed, as we had all expected. Although the jacket has been lost, Till has two HUGE flamethrowers which produced flames well exceeding the height of the stage. We had moved a little further back into the hall, but could still feel the heat generated from them. VERY HOT! For someone in the front row it must have been extremely intense.
Sonne was next. WOW! The lighting effects were fantastic. Bright orange lights during the quiet parts and verses, and intense strobe lighting during the riffs. During the chorus everyone held their hands up and put up the correct number of fingers for the counting. The numbers were also displayed in huge lights behind the drum kit. I didn't count how many, probably between 8 and 12, huge flames rose up on the stage for each number. A fantastic spectacle.
Ich Will. Brilliant as always with a lot of audience participation. Everyone sang the replies in the chorus... 'Wir sehen dich' etc. The lights were brilliant also. Till did a lot of his trademark knee banging in this one, something we were all pleased to see!
Encore 2
Ohne Dich was next. A powerful song live, which in my opinion matched that of the studio version. Many lighters were held up during the song. The balcony was a sea of small flames!
Finally, Stripped. A brilliant performance, the band kept up 100% effort through each and everyone song to the end. Olli went out in the raft, which I nearly got a touch of! After the song, Christoph threw his drum sticks into the crowd and a signed part of the drum kit? I'm not sure about that one. The band stayed out for a while and applauded the fans, who equally applauded them back! Flake was the last to leave the stage, receiving a huge cheer after his final bow!
The band seemed to really enjoy the evening, as did the crowd. Their outfits were great, especially Till and Richard's. Those jackets were fantastic. I cannot fault the concert at all. Everything ran smoothly with little to no technical hitches, and the band gave it their all. The audience was well behaved and the lights/pyro were simply incredible.
The freezing cold outside after the concert did stop us from chatting about it all, and I'm sure we will continue to reminisce about this one for a very long time!