Information
Date: June 15, 2002
City: Seinäjoki, Finland
Festival: Provinssirock 2002
Author: Aisling
Setlist
- Mein Herz brennt
- Links 2 3 4
- Sehnsucht
- Feuer Frei
- Rein Raus
- Adios
- Mutter
- Halleluja
- Zwitter
- Weißes Fleissch
- Asche zu Asche
- Du hast
- Bück dich
- Engel
Encores
- Rammstein
- Sonne
- Ich will
- Stripped
Review
Settings: Provinssirock is now the biggest festival in Finland with about 60,000-70,000 visitors in 3 days. The town of Seinäjoki is not that big and it's a bit outside the most densely populated area in southern Finland, which explains the name Provinssirock (provinssi=province).
Before the festival we decided that we would go there just to hear Rammstein and not stay over night and enjoy the whole festival. We, that would be me, my boyfriend J who is a Rammstienfan but also a bit fed up with his girlfriends obsession, our male friend C, Rammmsteinfan who doesn't know that much about them and finally K, my female friend who isn't a Rammsteinfan but interested in everything and probably wondering why I'm so obsessed. We went to the festival by car, it's about 310 km (about 190 miles?) north of our hometown and we (that would be me) also drove back the same night.
When we got to Seinäjoki, we first parked the car and then changed our tickets into these "bracelets" you get, so you can go in and out of the area. The weather was great, sunny and warm. We took a bus to the actual festival area and one of the first things I saw when I stumbled out of the bus was a man, dresssed just in some small shorts and completely painted with silver colour. Above his left nipple he had the Rammstein logo in black and on his back it read Rammstein. Great! His friends also had silver hair etc. and a lot of people had Rammstein t-shirts, silver hair, mohawks and so on. It really looked like people were there because of Rammstein, even if a whole lot of different bands played.
Rammstein was due to start playing 11.30 p.m. so we had a lot of time to spend checking out the area, eating, drinking beer (not me), enjoying other bands and buying t-shirts. I would have wanted the longsleeved Mutter t-shirt, but they just had it in size S and it was a bit small for me, so I bought the tour t-shirt, it's not that special, but at least I have one now. About half an hour before the concert was announced to start, we moved closer to the stage. My friends didn't want to get into first row, so we stayed about 10 meters (30 feet) away from the stage, a bit to the right, in front of Richard. I would have liked to get as close as possible, but I do understand my friends, it got quite rough when they started playing. While we waited, we checked out this big, silver gray German bus that was parked near the stage, behind the fence. "So near, but soooo far away" was my comment...
Rammstein entered the stage just a few minutes after 11.30 p.m., after the crowd had chanted "Ramm-stein!" for some minutes. Flake in his doctor's coat and bare legs was the first one to enter. I can tell you, he has got really skinny legs and he looked thinner than usual. They started with "Mein Herz Brennt" and the setlist was the following (I think):
[Setlist moved to top of review]
Everything was as it should be, Till ripped his burning heart out of his chest, the crowd cheered and jumped up and down. I have never seen so many Finns being so excited! I had to jump among the rest to see anything, but it was fun! Even if people were forcing their way through, some wanted to get nearer the stage, we had a great time. Some young girls were forced to leave the first row, they told us not to go there, it was hell. So we tried to stay put, not the easiest task, especially when I was jumping around like mad!
Already in "Links" Till was trying to get the crowd to sing along and it went very well, everybody seemed to know at least the chorus. I must say, Till's voice wasn't in it's best condition, he was really husky during the first few songs. Then it got better. After "Sehnsucht", the fire masks for "Feur Frei" came on and they started shooting these huge flames. It looked great, of course, even if the Finnish summer night was very light, as it should be. Some of the effect of the fire was lost there. In the end of "Feuer Frei" I saw Flake spraying Till, Richard and Paul with something that looked like a fire extinguisher....
During "Rein Raus" Richard lead the chorus, he shouted "Rein!" and we all answered "Raus!". After that my throat started getting a bit sore, but of course I had to sing along all the time, I was about the only one where we were that was doing that. Richard sounds really German, by the way, his pronunciation is a bit different from Till's, I think.
I don't remember anything special about "Adios" and during "Mutter" Till sucked his thumb as usual, what can I say, how on earth can a man be sexy while doing that? But he pulls it off! And then they played "Halleluja", one of my favourites, I was really happy!
There were some fire and effects in every song, I don't remember them all, I was too excited. After "Asche zu Asche" a huge cloud of reddish orange smoke rolled over the crowd and after that "Du Hast" started, then everybody was singing along, I think. During "Bück Dich" I felt someone grabbing my backpack, my friend C was trying to close it, because it was open I my things were laying on the ground! I tried as fast as I could to collect them, but of course I missed some of the show! I wasn't too happy over that..... I just wonder how it got open in the first place, was someone looking for something? One funny thing happened in "Engel", the female part wasn't sung at all, it was just quiet. I wonder what happened?
After Engel they all left the stage and I knew, now it is probably time for "Rammstein". And yes, Till entered the stage in his burning coat. What a sight! I had to check out my friend K, her eyes were huge and she looked really excited! She liked the show, I can tell you! During "Sonne" we all counted along, but then, during "Ich Will" I think my boyfriend and I were the only ones where we were standing that answered the questions. I tried to shout as hard as I could, but then my voice was really hoarse! Afterwards my friends laughed and told me I sounded like a man....
Then finally, "Stripped" and I knew this was it, my second Rammstein concert was nearly over. Before it started, Paul was standing near the drums and it looked like he and Schneider had some kind of fight and Schneider hit him, just theatre, but it looked dramatic! There were no dingy in "Stripped", which didn't surprise me, it could be quite dangerous in an outdoor concert. During "Stripped" Paul started playing around, first he ran to Flake's keyboard and hit some keys there, while Flake was gone, then he started collecting spotlights and put them around Ollie!
And then the concert was over and we started walking away. My overall feeling was that Rammstein really enjoyed to play and they liked it, when I saw them last time in Helsinki in November 2001, they seemed really tired. Now they were much more into it and did some extra things and Till really looked at the crowd this time. It was a lot of fun!