Information
Date: July 7, 2001
City: Seattle, WA, USA
Author: Laura Barton
Review
My day started at 7:00 AM, my friend and fellow Rammsteiner still laid asleep in her makeshift bed that my parents had made for her in the living room of our Sedro home. To excited to sleep I ran to my room and got dressed in a small white shirt, and a pair of shorts that had once been a ripped up pair of jeans. I eagerly bounced around the house until my father (Keith) awoke. I'm not going to get too much into the time before we left for the concert except to say it was along time from waking up to leaving for the concert.
It was around 2:00 Pm when we finally left for Seattle. That was after about what a half an hour of pushing my dad out of the house, we loaded up our foldable chairs and cooler and then head out, it took about two hours to get from Sedro to Seattle, most the way down we listen to Rammstein. My father and Cali sat talking about Gold Wings, I just rolled my eyes and watched the many familiar cities fly by my window, many of which I had been in many times or have lived in. It was finally around 4:00 Pm when we arrived on the street in front of the Moore, I first saw a parking spot in a parking lot right across the street from the Moore, but the spot was to small, even for our car. He kind of yelled at me for it and we pulled out. But then I spied a person pulling out of a slot right across the street, I told my dad and he hit the gas and took the spot just in time. For not ten seconds later another car pulled in looking for a spot. I jumped out of the car and looked up at the massive black and silver charter Bus that stood in front of us. I jumped up and down excitedly as my dad handed me my foldable chair. We started to head towards the theatre, my dad went to pay for the parking slot, and I ran to the front of the bus and started to jump up and down trying to see if I could see any of the band members changing or something. (Yes I know I'm sick, but hey I'm a teenage girl, what do you expect) my dad yelled at me to get over to where he was." I told you, if you run off, we're leaving, I'll sell the tickets." I just stared blankly at the bus, not really listening, for he had used the same threat for who knows how long now so I didn't pay any attention to it. We headed across the street, and sat down around the corner of the theatre, the line wasn't that long, there was only like eight people in front of us. For about ten minutes it didn't change, but then a family of three got in line behind us, we started talking, and soon became friends, that agreed to help each other get to the front of the theatre. Even though I was one of the ones that didn't talk to much I soon became fast friends with Nancy Waters, she told me "down at our hotel, we saw Paul walking by." my jaw hit the ground. " You saw Paul?!?!?!" I said picking my jaw up off the ground. Nancy nodded her head. I couldn't believe this, my new friend had seen and in fact waved and got a wave back from my favorite Band member, I sat in my chair somewhat fuming. After about twenty minutes, I noticed the Nancy and her son Jeff had left, and were now talking to a man in a tan cowboy hat, I got up and decided to find out who they were talking to (I'm nosey all right) when I got almost next to Nancy, I heard her ask the man how his English was, all I heard was "better", and I knew that it was one of the band members. For one he had a really thick German accent. I was so excited, it was either Paul or Richard I couldn't tell who at first, I knew it was one of them because he was only a couple inches taller than me. I grabbed a piece of paper that I had brought just in case I did see any of the band members. I held out the paper and he took it with out question, he then looked at me for a pen and I hit my self in the head, I had lost my pen, he smiled and barrowed Nancy's pen, and he signed my paper, he handed it back to me, and I got the guts enough to ask him something. "Can I ask you a favor?" he looked at me and smiled his cute trade mark grin, " sure." " Can I have a hug!?!?!" that took me totally by surprise, I was originally going to ask for a hand shake, but my mouth blurted out before my brain could think. He just kept on smiling and opened his arms and I practically jumped in them, but it was hard to because my friend Cali was holding on to my back belt loop of my pants. For me that was the best feeling in the world at that moment, having my arms around his neck, and his arms around my waist, the scent that was his, I will never forget. He smelled of peppermint, and something else. I still to this day can't put my finger on it. My friend Cali pulled me off him and drug me back to the spot where we were sitting, I watched as he entered the Moore, a smile still on his face. My dad who did not know what was going on just looked at me a silly grin on his face. "She got a hug from a band member." Cali says as she tries to get me to sit down. But that was hard since I was walking about ten feet off the ground :) finally after about three minutes of me going "oh my god, oh my god." Cali picks me up and puts me in my chair, but I get right back up. I look at the autograph. "Hey this is Richard's" I say in complete shock. Nancy looks at me funny, "yeah didn't you know it was him?" she said, I shook my head," well I knew it was either one of them by the height, but I thought it was Paul." I said still looking at the paper. At that point I decided to follow Nancy a little more closely.
I watched as the line became longer, and the crossbreed Rv try and get into the back parking lot of the theatre. I suddenly spy Nancy and Jeff once again leaving but this time towards the front part of the theatre, around where one of the tour bus' sat, I followed and got there just in time to see her getting a picture with Flake, I see her thank him and then both of them leave, with paper and pen in hand I confront Flake and started to talk to him. " Hi Flake" (flaka: hee hee I know how to pronounce his name.) Flake looked down at me a startled look on his face. I looked up at him and she shook his head and kept walking, " Hi" he mumbled, " can I have your autograph?" I asked as we walked in front of the Moore, I quickly looked down at my feet, I couldn't believe it mine and his paces were the exact same, I knew I had a long stride, but not that long. He mumbled something so quiet that I could barley hear him, I caught maybe two words, " I'll, shower." that all I got, I stopped and watched his retreating figure, " ok, that was interesting, either he's that quiet, or I'm going deaf." I stood around and watched as Dad and Nancy's husband Glenn talked. Glenn had taken over my dads chair, and Jeff had taken over mine, my cd's and Cd player lay on the ground behind the chairs, I watched as Nancy went ballistic, " did you guys see him." I look at her like she's gone crazy. " Saw who" I said " Till, you didn't see him." I look quickly down the line and sure enough heading for the back stage area, is till dressed completely in black. Once again my jaw hit the ground, even though Till was not one of my favorites ( that would be Paul, Richard, and Schneider.) it was still the fact that I had seen three band member with in an hour of each other, two with in the last five minutes. It took the sighting of three band members, and the hopes of more that my dad finally decided to go and buy a couple throw away cameras, he was gone for about twenty minutes, and he had just gotten back when Flake came back out, I approached him once again, but he just pushed right past me ( that reminds me, Flake if your reading this you owe me an autograph!!!!!) I turned to dad once he had disappeared around the back of the bus. " I got two." (Meaning pictures) he said happily, I smiled. Talk about red hair, man you could stick those guys on top of a fire truck and they would light up the entire block. We all laughed at my dad's wisecrack. But he was right they had bright red hair.
The line soon got to be really long, we made friends with to other boys named Adam and Mike, which we referred to as 'little spikes' and 'big spikes' both had their hair spiked, Adam had a row of three little spikes on either side of his head, and Mike had many 2ft tall spikes lining his head. And we met another lady that I sadly say that I did not get her name. We were soon handed bright orange flyers saying that the city of Seattle had denied the permit for Rammstein to perform pyro at the theatre. There were a lot of unhappy people, especially this one man; he wasn't quite all there. If you know what I mean, but he kept coming up and saying that he had every Rammstein bootleg, and that he had been waiting two years to see Rammstein. Then him and me got into the half hour argument about why Rammstein couldn't use pyro's in the theatre. " This theatre is 100 years old, it's small so Till won't be able to do any of it, if he did he would light the place on fire and in the panic would probably kill hundreds of people." I tired to explain to him, but it took about a half hour for him to finally get it. I walked over to my dad and hit my head against the one light pole where I had first seen Richard. " God that guy was annoying" I thought as I went back to my seat, but soon was up again as Nancy spotted a short Red haired figure cross the street, she pointed to the man, and I knew whom it was. Paul had crossed the street to get to the bus with out having to fight the crowd. Nancy, Jeff, dad and me all went slowly across the street and met up with Paul as he got to the corner. " May we have you autograph, Paul." Nancy said holding out her piece of paper. Paul turned to what I believe was his bodyguard, and said something to him in fast German. (And I thought I talked fast, man, he ain't no machine gun, he's ten of them.) We have a feeling he was asking if he could do just us three, my dad was taking pictures. The bodyguard nodded, and so Paul took our papers and signed them, by that time I had found my pen. (It was in my front pocket the entire time) but I didn't need it; Paul pulled out a black sharpie, and took Nancy's first. " You were ready for this." I said as he took my paper. He smiled and nodded his head not saying anything. I asked him if I could get a picture with him. But at that exact time we had a group of people running from across the street to get an autograph, his bodyguard was pushing him away. " Ah... no.... maybe later" he said as his bodyguard pushed him into oncoming traffic. We watched as Paul grabbed the guard and pulled him back " CAR" he said as a red ford came rocketing by, in the exact spot that Paul would have been standing. We watched in mock humor as the bodyguard drug Paul across to the bus, his face as red as Paul's hair. We got to the other side and dad took the chairs and my CD player back to the car along with Nancy's the one lady, that I shall call sue, and our camera's to, cause they told us that no camera's were going to be aloud. We got into line. Jeff said he saw Olli come across the street, and that he had a little strip of bright red hair on his head. " Ok now all I need to see is Schneider." I thought to my self as a man came out and told us how we were going to be separate, and that small throw away cameras were aloud, dad instantly went running for ours, along with Adam to get his and mikes. Dad returned about ten minutes before the allowed us in, I stood there my chest starting to hurt with excitement, I spotted a tall almost bald figure come out around the front of the bus, for the last time that night my jaw hit the ground. " Guy's Olli." I said and we all said "Hi" as he walked past. He said" Hey man" as he walked past. Once he was gone Nancy turned to me. " I'm surprised you didn't ask him for an autograph." I shrugged, " it looked like he was in a hurry so I didn't want to get him mad or something." Nancy smiled and my dad patted me on the head. " Your learning." " But I must admit that was an improvement, he actually had hair." every one laughed. Just then the lines began to move. We raced in and got searched, but the minute I was about to go through the doors they closed it so no one could get in. so we stood there for another good ten minutes if not longer, me and the lady who was searching us got talking about what they were going to be performing to night, she said that they were doing Buck Dich, cause she heard till saying that he had filled it with a strawberry tasting liquid. I turned to my dad who was being searched right next to me. " Dad their doing Buck Dich." my dad just shrugged, and we heard Adam who was a couple people away say, " we he squirts you just open your mouth and say AAAHHHHHH." we all laughed and soon they opened the doors, I waited for my dad to get through, and grabbed my free T-shirt and ran down to the man who was checking the main floor tickets, he did mine and I raced down to the front row. (What helped is that I'm a track runner, and I can run a 100-meter dash in 12.4 seconds) Cali and I got one of the last front row center seats. We sat watching the guys play with the lights, and my dad let us get one of the last few Rammstein key chains they had left.
The lights went out and everyone that was in the front row made a leaping jump for the gate, I got in right next to Adam, and me and him were about the area in between where Paul and Till would be. Camera in hand I was eager for the first two bands to get their act over with.
Crossbreed was really bad, their bass was turned up to loud so you couldn't hear any of the music, about the only thing cool was their costumes, which were black light reactive, Godhead was just weird, it looked like the lead singer was having a seizure, and their music was the same way. After both bands were done I had to pop my ears about twenty times to hear again. And then it was time for the moment to see if we just sat through two sucky bands for nothing. A guy came out and said that Rammstein refuse to bow down to the Seattle Fire Marshall and will play for the sell out crowd here at the Moore theatre. People cheered as Flake came out in a long white lab coat, with out looking at the crowd he went to his spot on an elevated spot on the right hand side of the stage, where his key board sat on what looked like a dentist chair thing, he adjusted it and I watched as the second band member come out in nothing but a cloth diaper. My jaw didn't hit the floor it went through the floor, and all the way to china. " What the HELL did he do to his hair?" I said as I saw Schneider for the very first time that night, all he had was a short bight red Mohawk. The scientist person that led him out to show the crowd lead him up to his drum sets, and sits him down, and hands him the drum sticks, Schneider starts playing with them and hitting the drum set. Next the same man brings out Olli. Olli walked around like a robot, I don't remember what he did exactly but...next they bring our Richard, the man brings him to the front and presents him to the crowd, Richard looks around like he's unsure, he looks over and makes direct eye contact with me. He smiled as he noticed that I had hung my key chain on a chain necklace that I had been wearing all day, he smiled and was lead away to the front of Flake's keyboard were he placed his guitar around him, and placed a pick in his hands, a dr. pushed him to the front area were his microphone was. Last but not least the guy brought out Paul. Paul was the funniest. When he brought him out, he just plain and simply refused to walk. And then when the man let go of him, he started to walk back to the back stage area. The man ran forward and drug him back to the front and let go again, this time Paul turned around and headed back towards Schneider's drum set, were he suddenly collapsed, he lay sprawled out on the floor, the man shakes his head and picks him up and places him in front of him mike which is just to the left of me, he put the guitar on Paul and gives him a pick, Paul examines it finds he doesn't like it and throws it to the ground, the man picks it up and gives it to him, and Paul hits the strings on his guitar, they make a high pitch sound, and jumps about three feet in the air. They then played a little and then left (this is getting to long) we waited and then saw till come out in a smoking coat. The concert after that was fantastic, even thought there were no pyros, during the song mutter till came out sucking his thumb and acting like a wide eyes curious two year old. It was so cute. During links 234 Flake played a snare that shot water every wear every time he hit it. I don't remember what song it was but at one point Paul got so pissed that he screamed at the top of his lungs and kicked his mike over, and went and stood in the back fuming. One time we had one crowd surfer that no one in the front knew was coming so no one was there to catch him, and he landed on Adam, Jeff and I, sending all three of our heads into the railing. I still remember the look on Till, Paul, and Richard's faces when the guards took him away, it was one that was pure loathing... during Weisses Fleish since Till didn't have the flaming boots, he instead took the liberty of when the song started to hit the head of one of the main bodyguards. When Till was done hitting him on the head, the guard turned around and looked at him like what are you doing, Till just stood there this huge grin on his face, Richard was funny during Du Hast, when he sang " Du.. Du Hast..." he would point to a girl in the audience, and then when he said " mich" he would point to him self, one time when he pointed to him self he made this sad puppy dog face, and turned away, just to start playing again. Olli and Paul's new guitars are the coolest. But at the end after Flake sang, "Pet cemetery." Schneider came forward and threw his drum sticks out into the crowd, I got a hold of one but some kid behind me grabbed it out of my hand and it then flipped three or four rows back, I turned around and punched the kid...after the concert was through, we said good by to our new friends and left for home, and a nice cold bed....