Information
Date: February 6, 2005
City: Manchester, England
Author: KeineLust
Review
I had been waiting for this event for a long time. I've been an obsessive fan for about three years in which time seeing Rammstein live was a constant dream. The day finally came on the 6th of Feb 2005. I went with my best friend, and fellow Rammstein-obsessive, Chris. We arrived in Manchester a good six hours before the doors were even supposed to open. Ironically it later transpired that queing early did not advance us, as we thought it might, in the race to get to the front of the mosh-pit. However, we managed to stay in the middle of it for the duration of the gig, which gave us a fantastic view of the band and all the antics. Before Rammstein however, and after tediously queing for ages, we firstly had to endure the supporting act, Apocolyptica. For anyone who doesn't already know, they are a finnish band consisting of four cello's and a drummer. Basically they play their instruments as fast and as loud as possible and for the majority of their set they played Metallica covers (at least three anyway). This sounds a lot better in words than it does in reality. The idea is perhaps somewhat intriguing, but the reality of it can only be described as "boring". They are all fantasic, classically trained musicians and masters at what they do, but for me it did nothing. I kept thinking, "why don't you create more of your own songs, rather than covering Metallica so much?". The music in itself was not very riveting at the ebst of times, each song sounding tediously similar to the last. I still clapped them and gave then the devil sign a few times, as they were good at what they did, although it was far from my cup of tea. The audience reaction to them was very mixed. The crowd remained, albeit the very odd one or two, as static as a stagnant pond. Finally, Apocoliptica left the stage and the audience prepared themselves for the main event. It seemed to take a life time before Rammstein came on. Men dressed as Rammstein (in the inspectors uniforms) firstly checked that all the instruments were set up correctly and all was as it should be. After this was done, mysterious music played out of the speakers slowly building up the tension as Rammstein look-alikes, in the same inspector uniforms (which was quite comical), scowered the stage, shining flash lights into the expectant faces of the audience. The tension continued to rise until finally the first notes of Reise Reise sounded and the crowd went wild. Richard, Paul, Christoph, Flake and Ollie were revealed in all their glory. I was shell-shocked. Completely stunned. They looked just like they did in their pictures!
Finally, Till emerged. A door opened on the set, and Till seemed to float out of it surrouned by smoke.
After Reise Reise they went on to play Links, which got the crowd jumping
around madly. Keine Lust, a personal favourite of mine was next, which
was also very good. Im not sure what was next, but soon Mein Teil came,
which was for me the sure highlight of the evening. A the keyboard intro,
which sounds a bit different live, started up and antipation began to
build as people readied themselves for the super-heavy riff. Paul and
Richard stood next to each other, bending over slightly as they battered
out the riff. The riff lasted a bit longer than normal I think. After
the riff the keyboard came in as normal, playing the same thing but lower.
This went on for a long time however before the song got any further.
Till and Flake were no where to be seen at this point. Richard and Paul
built up the suspense by adding some little funky bits 8into the song,
as the crowd clapped waiting for Till to appear. The set door opened
and out came Till dragging a mammoth pot behind him, in which was Flake
who popped up to look out every once in a while. Till was wearing a chef's
uniform, his face smothered in blood. His microphone also doubled as
a very large butcher's knife. Everyone was cheering and laughing. Till
was really getting into the role, signalling to random people in the
crowd as though they wanted to eat what he was cooking. Finally he lifted
the microphone and began to sing in the funny way he does for that song.
The best bit was when a crew member handed him a flame thrower and he
proceeded to roast flake inside the mammoth pot. After this Flake jumped
out, as though he were half-cooked with explosions erupting all over
the suit he was wearing. He then, extremely comically, began to run away
from Till as random balls of coloured fire and sparks streaked down from
above, just behind him as he ran, missing him. Another highlight for
me was Los. It was exceptionally funny when Flake stood on a platform
and did a one-note solo on his keyboard, gradually getting faster and
faster until at the end he finished it off with a discordant sweep down
all the keys and ran back to his normal position. All the songs were
great and it was interesting to see how they sounded live. Feuer Frei
was very good as Till, Paul and Richard wore the usual face masks that
spurted out fire. Sonne was also very good and had much fire. Rammstein,
the song, was another highlight. Till no longer wears the flaming coat,
but instead wears a rather freaky looking pair of gargantuan robotic-looking,
flame throwing arms with long claws on them. Du Riechst so gut was another
great song, similar to the live aus berlin version in what they did on
stage. The best thing for me that night however was having Ollie pass
over me in the rubber dingy! I got to see him really close up and it
was great! He almost fell out and looked worried trying to, somewhat
frantically, balance the damm thing! I think I made quite a lot of eye
contact with Paul during in a song or two as well, though I can't be
completely sure. I had, like many people seem to, pictured Paul as the
funniest and most immature member of band, although live Flake is certainly
the most comedic followed by Till. They make a great comedy double act.
I sincerely enjoyed the gig, although it seemed to fly by sp fast. It
was also a very surreal experience. My best Friend, Chris, and I had
hyped it up so much and fantasized about it for so long, but when we
finally experienced it, it was different (as things always are in reality)
as we imagined it would be in our fantasies. Don't get me wrong, it was
absolutely amazing and we enjoyed every second, but it was very surreal
and dream-like in a way. We were finally seeing our heroes after having
for so long merely fantasized about them. This gig has done me no good
in terms of quenching my thirst for Rammstein or diminishing my passion
for their music. Now I simply must see them again and as many times as
I possibly can. You must try and see them if you can. You will not regret
it. Here is the tracklist of what they played (im pretty sure I haven't
missed a thing out, although the order is a hundred per cent correct):
Reise Reise
Links 2 3 4
Keine Lust
Feuer Frei
Mein teil
Morgenstern
Rein Raus
Sehnsucht
Stein Um Stein
Moskau
Los
Du Riescht So Gut
Du Hast
Encore
Rammstein
Sonne
Ich Will
Encore 2
Ohne Dich
Stripped