Information
Date: February 6, 2005
City: Manchester, England
Author: Dave
Review
I'd been a Rammstein fan for 6 years, ever since id heard them do Du Hast for the matrix soundtrack, and ever since id been collecting every single song I could find of them. Theres just something about them, a beauty, untouched by anything in this world. How could I ever say no to standing tickets for their gig at the M.E.N?
When I arrived with my mates...who werent as big fans as I am but knew a few songs I started chatting with other fans, never been to a gig where fans talked to each other about lyrics and songs which have to be played before.
We got in and right to the front, literally 6 feet from the stage and I had a view of the entire stage as Apocalyptica went out with their cellos and played classic Metallica songs which the crowd actually got along with, but they nearly got bood off when they played the song they did with HIM and the RASMUS. Once theyd left it felt like ages as things got set up behind the big curtain, but you could hear strange screams and moans from the sound system building up, shivers were going down my spine, I knew it was nearly time.
The lights went out and the screams built and built as men in white shirts hit the stage, the same white shirts with black ties as Rammstein wore in the publicity pics for Reise Reise. They were flashing torches into our faces and gettin the crowd hyped by trying to get us to shout louder. The screams came to a climax and morphed into the opening to Reise Reise as the back lights came on to show a silouette of Richard, Flake, Christophe, Ollie and Paul on top of a stage.
The curtain drops to the sound of the chordal opening to Reise Reise and the crowd screams to see the five of them on a 7 foot structure, with a space-age door in the middle. The intro plays twice then stops to hear breathing, the door opens and theres Till, smoke all around him....everyone goes crazy as he walks forward and sings, then during the chorus Richard and Paul are transported off the top onto the main stage by two lifts.
The next song starts with only christophe at his perch on the top stage behind his drums clapping...can only mean one thing..."Links Zwo, Links Zwo, Links Zwo Drei Vere."
The end of Links morphs into the harmonised bass riff of Keine Lust, which everyone knew and everyone erupts to it. Here is the first appearence of the Till head bob. From here you begin to think there hasnt been much in the way of effects....think again. Goes straight into Feuer Frei and everyone who knows anythin about Rammstein knows the effect here, the half dragon/half armadillo fire masks that Till, Richard and Paul wear go off, making our faces feel the heat.....I stopped singing and could only say "WOW", could never have expected that kind of heat. Drum intro, into the "IN""OUT" intro to Rein Raus. Richard yelling "REEEEEEEEEEEEIN"and I had to tell all my mates the reply but they got it just b4 the riff came in.
Big operatic opening to the next song, as the light effects produced a sun rise over the high stage which looked well cool, drum intro into Morgenstern, which had a great effect during the bridge, balls of red and yellow flame descending from the ceiling to light up the entire stage. The biggest winner of this song is of course Ollie, the one thing you can hear the best is the bass riff.
Lights go out, the single intro to Mein Teil begins, the sharpening of knives and the radio thing at the beginning slowed down, the big riff hits in and Paul starts stomping round like an idiot. The doors open as the verse electronic sound comes in, but with more of a dancy feel, and Till walks out, with a chefs hat on and fake blood around his mouth, a butchers knife in his belt. Hes dragging behind him an enormous cooking pot with a keyboard attached, takes off the lid, throws it down and cracks a big evil smile to the crowd, motioning them to look in the pot which Flake pops out of, and back in again as Till starts singing into his mic/butchers knife.You hear everyone in the place sing along to "Denn du bist, was du isst, und ihr wist, was du isst", then the music stops, slight drum beat as the doors open and a stage hand hands Till a rather sturdy flame thrower which he uses to great effect under the pot to cook Flake...again the heat is incredible even in the pit. Flake gets out of the pot as pyros start going off on his body, he looks so scared as Till chases him rather comically with the knife and explosions follow him round the stage until he goes through the doors.
Stein Um Stein follows with not much action to it but everyone gets along to the song...especially the pause then...STEIIIIIIIN!
Then in the dark we see Richard with an acoustic guitar and Christophe making his way down to a mini kit at the front of the stage, they all stand in a line off christophe and Richard hits the riff to Los, which Paul joins later. Surprises in this song to me were that Paul actually does half of the solo and the harmoica sound IS Till playing a harmonica, I always thought it was an electronic sound effect. The song ends with a keyboard, single note solo into a plugged guitar version of the Los riff, which blew us away. DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM... something didnt quite fit, lights show from the big light set at the back....then you kinda hear MOSKVAAAAAAAAAA and the riff settles into Moskau. Id taught all my mates the Russian parts to this song, not many other people knew them which was kinda a laugh. But i did notice that Till hasnt quite picked up the pronunciation yet hee hee. And for the first time, to the chimes of the accordian solo, the pit was actually dancing instead of moshing...a sight to behold.
An electro intro which sounded familiar, into the fast intro to Du riescht so gut....wed hit classic Rammstein as Till set up in the middle of the stage with his bow with pyros on it, just as he did in Live Aus Berlin which id seen so many times. The moshpit was jumping! But then there was somthing that wasnt there before, as Richard and Paul went for the solos then walked to the middle of the stage, Paul with his back to us and pyros were going off all along their arms......BRILLIANT!
Another classic followed, the first Rammstein song I ever heard, the electronic intro that everyone knows so well and the heavy guitar intro, stright into thousands of people shouting "DU, DU HAST, DU HAST MICH!". But then there was only one question, the big effect, what was it, in Live Aus Berlin it was the telephone...this time during the quiet bit Till grabbed what looked like a sniper crossbow, stood on his little pedestal and fired it above the stage setting off more pyros which rocketed down into the pit right over our heads. Then during the "JA, NEIN" part there were pyros coming up from the stage seemingly everywhere.
Another classic followed, the middle eastern style cry, the heavy riff, it was Sehnsucht. The pyros going off overhead to every hit of Christophe's snare drum. The sound of indian drums and a keyboard riff signalled Flake's entrance on a Segway scooter and then the riff to Amerika, the song with probably the most confetti ive ever ever seen dispersed in an arena. The keboard solo had an updraught and smoke effects that blew up Flake's amazing long hair. They said "Thank you Manchester" and left the stage to their outro but everyone knew that couldnt be it...of course not.
A spinning sound begun, which built and built until morhing into a crash sound and then into the DUM DUM DUM intro to Rammstein. The lights at the back moved to make the Rammstein "+" symbol and the guitar riff hit in. Everyone was expecting the fire coat, but as the doors opened and we see this hulking creature moving through the smoke, our only reaction is "What the hell is that?" Its Till, with giant robot claws with flame throwers on the inside which he lights when he gets to the mic. At the first break he fires them into the air, the heat is even more amazing than the other effects, then on the guitar solo I swore he was firing them closer over our heads and as the guitar solo finished he was walking offstage and the guitars started into Sonne. Big pyros in this one, tall explosions.
Then you hear the speakers blow out Ich Will...which of course still many people dont know the responses to they all just sing along, which is the wrong idea....so i was just singing "ich...dich" to whatever they said cos i was one of the few who did hear, see and understand them.
Everything slows down for Ohne Dich, the highlight of this is the sparks shower over Tills head.
Finally they end with Stripped, which is probably my least favourite Rammstein song. I'm not a fan of Till singing in English, but the dinghy did pass right over my head, yes i was one of the first to touch it even though we were bundled out of the way by the security. The outro played as Flake sat on one of the lifts, it pulled him up and he walked off with bows and kisses. Best gig of my life and i lost so much weight, next time im taking a belt hee hee.