Information
Date: February 6, 2005
City: Manchester, England
Author: Debbie
Review
I first heard of Rammstein whilst channel hopping and saw them on the MTV music award about two years ago and were amazed that they sang in German the only other band I know who sings in German were Tic Tac Toe but I wasn't sure if they had been touring in England little did I know that Rammstein would be touring and thanks to the internet I found they were touring and on my 43rd birthday!
Apocalyptica were the support band and believe me they were amazing. Four guys from Finland playing Cellos plus a drummer and singing Metallica sounding songs making the Cellos sound like guitars were a real eye opener. They made each song their own.They were entertaining and "New" excting and purely a breath of fresh air. The only thing wrong was that we couldn't understand their english - maybe we should have learned a bit of Finish!
Rammstein started with "Ich habe keine lust" (I can't be bothered) which is one of my favourites from the new album "Reise Reise" the thunderous chords just blew me away. Till was looking every inch as sexy as his photographs although his vocals seemed weak on some of the songs.
I can't say song for song as it was listed on the night as the excitement of seeing this German sextet was enough to leave anyone dazed and confused but I know they sang most of the songs from the new album.
Mein Teil (My piece) I think was next and Till dragged a large cauldron type pot onto the stage and was wearing a large chef's hat and white apron and carrying a butchers knife. It didn;t take long to notice that someone was inside the cauldron and none other than the brilliant keyboard player Flake Lorenz. As Till's thunderous vocals spat out "Denn du bist wast du isst!" (you are what you eat) the lighting darkened and the atmosphere was just electric.
Till kept throwing flames at the cauldron and the flames lapped at the sides of the pot with poor Flake inside although he kept popping his head up in between the flames and when he got out of the pot he was wearing arm and leg bands that had tiny sparks shooting out of them and Till ran after him with the butchers knife... glad to say Flake got away!
"Los" (Go) was there somewhere and one by one the memebrs of the bad lined up along the stage with Flake first, then Christoph, then Oliver, then Till and they sang Los whilst Flake did a german dance like the one where the german guys in leather smack each other except Flake was smacking himself and his feet and arms etc. The crowd were really going crazy by then.
Moskau (Moscow) was excellent I think that it is my all time favourite from the album. It would have been better if they had got the girl to sing the chorus but it sounded like a backing track and in parts the vocals were a little weak (sorry Till no offence)
The band did not speak any English until they sang "Amerika" (We're all living in America, America, it's wunderbar we're all living in America coca cola wunderbra!) and also at the end of the gig when Till said "Thank you very much" and then Danke schon straight after that. I was a little disappointed that they said any english at all and wanted them to speak in German to the crowd as I am sure it would have turned all the women on, me included. Nothing like a sexy german accent to drive a girl wild!!
Reise Reise was very powerful and left me in no doubt that these guys meant business as the words came tumbling out through the speakers.
Dalai Lama was a little weak but on the whole the song was sung and played with perfection, but perhaps it was because I prefer the more rocky type tracks than the slower ones and Rammstein a far as I am concerned are best when they give it their all.*
Amerika got the crowds going and after a few minutes into the song there were red white and blue pieces of shredded paper pouring all over the audience below. The familiar salute was now spreading across the masses and Rammstein had them eating out of their hands.
There were lots of explosives shooting out infront and behind the stage and at one point Till dragged two large black tubes over his shoulder which were attached to two metal arms and when he shot the flames from it the long metal fingers would pull back and flames shot 6 foot upwards and hit two red coloured balls suspended from a tower and shot across the arena which was very effective.
The explosions were really loud and plumes of flames shot up at least 4 foot into the air - that was one gig where i couldn't say I was too cold!
Stein um Stein (Stone on stone) was a dark number powerful and instense and very loud. The lighting was sparse and gave an eerie glow to the song.
Ohne Dich (Without You) had me nearly in tears as Till looked out upon the crowd and then glanced toward me or so it looked! I was quite glad that I wasn't downstairs as more and more people kept rolling over each other to get to the front of the stage. Till kept on singing.
Toward the end of the gig the band sand Du Hast (You have) which I think is a song against marriage it can be construed as that anyway and the crowd went crazy. It was a good live number anyway as the crowd had had time to learn the words :)
They also played Ich Will (I want) I love this song it has everything a great video good lyrics and great punchy guitar and keyboards. The crowd was really going into a frenzy and were just not caring what they were doing by now.
They also played Seeman (Sailor)* and I think that was when one of the band memebers got into a rubber dinghy and made their way across the sea of heads to middle of the arena and back again whilst Till stood dutifully at the back of the stage with his arms behind his back.
They did two encores and it was great to see them back on stage as the pause between the end of the gig was just that bit too long and we all started to get a little restless. The second encore was just perfectly timed and off they went. It is awful when the lights go on after the second encore and I was sure that if no-one moved and kept chanting "Rammstein" "Rammstein" they would come back on stage again but in all the years I have been going to gigs no-one has ever done that and so two encores it was.
I am not a lover of Manchester coming from Liverpool but that gig will stay with me for a very long time to come. Both bands gave their all but all too soon their all had become their end and we were off to the hotel but for me they could have played at least another two hours for me to be truly satisfied that I had been bathed in Rammstein lyrics.
great night, great gig, great people, great lyrics a 20 out of 10!
Debbie
This description / review could only go half way to describing that night there was so much going on that I probably havent even scratched the surface but I hope it gives you all an insite into the antics of Rammstein on the 6th February at Manchester.
* Dalai Lama was not played at this show. Neither was Seemann, it was Stripped.