As some of you already knew I am an avid Rammstein fan, and I have just returned (Friday night) from seeing them at the Brixton Academy (stage is just 50ft wide), aren't you all so jealous
Just to let you know, the only name I can remember of the band if Til's, so everyone else is going to be known by the intrsument they play
I could tell it was going to be a good evening when I arrived at the venue a little before the doors opened, and the queue has managed to circle round the block was getting near to its beginning. There was a lovely varied amount of people from Motorhead patriots to teeny Green Day fans and 'normal' people.
It takes about 20 minutes to get into the venue, not bad considering how longbthe queue was. Once we've been appropriately dismissed as not being terrorists with bombs in our bag, we head over to the merch stand to find some hideously expensive but gorgeous stuff.
The standing area itself is, in terms of venues, a good size and slopes forwards to give everyone a good view. Its quite busy early in the evening which is another sign.
Anyway, the support band were Apocalyptica from Finland, and man do they ever rock! A quartet of cello players and a drummer. SOoooooooooo cool! A good 40 mins of hard rock played solely on cello's and a drum kit! Just brilliant. And two of them had really long hair and were waving it around whilst playing, so cool.
Then its time for Rammstein. Before they come on the stage has been arranged, everything was behind a curtain apart from the keyboard. The first people to come on are the roadies, who are incidently all wearing shirts and ties, with torches. Then you see movement behind the curtain and the lights go up to reveal a two tiered stage set up. Some background music is playing while the roadies look out into the crowd. They turn round, with their backs to us as the lights behind the curtain come on. The band are silhouetted, a central drum kit on the upper platform and a guitar player on either side. The keyboard player comes on and starts tp play. Its the beginning of Reise Reise, the curtain goes up and the song kicks in with all instruments playing. The set is lovely, industrial style with a door in the middle where Til goes in and out and from, theres two levered platforms which lower two guitar players on the lower stage whilst they're playing.
Reise Reise has some lovely smoke jets in it, coming up from the front of the stage filling the auditorium with smoke. The next song is Links, swiftly folllowed by Freur Frei with flames thrown high into air, flaming mushroom clouds at the back of the stage and the rudimentary face masks with attached flame throwers. The rest of the songs largely blur into a maelstrom of flames, guitars and varying events on stage. At one point the little keyboard guy was in a massive cooking pot hiding from Til (who's dressed in a apron and chefs hat, wielding a large knife) and pops up every now and then to play on the attached keyboard. Towards the end of that song Til gets out his flame thrower and 'cooks' the little guy in the pot by blowing flames straight at it, getting closer and closer.
The set list is a mixture of old and new, including Rein Rhaus, Du Hast and others. Some of the pyro inlcudes fireworks hanging from strings above the stages, flame throwers at the front, back and upper levels. Smaller flame throwers along the forn the stage, sleeves with blue flares on for two of the guitarists, sparkling flares for the drummer and a 'bow and arrow' for Til that actually had spark throwing fireworks along the length of it that he swirled around his head. He had a similar crossbow style one that he used to fire fireworks at the cables over head running from the stage to the balcony, which then had mini flames running along the length of them. He also had a set-up where he had flame throwers coming out of his hands through these specially prepared gloves, so he'd be blowing flames above his head, so cool! There was also a ring that rained golden sparks over Tils head as he was singing one of the songs. (So he managed to incorpoate a golden shower into this tour and the last one
)
I think they managed to incorporate two encores into the set as well. The first was Amerika and Ich Will, followed by Links and Strip. At some point the bald guitarist (perhaps a bass player) surfs over the crowd in a blow up dinghy, it looks really cool because the dinghy is a light blue, and under the lights, whatever it is he's painted hinself in also looks light blue. Pretty cool stuff.
During one of the songs the little guy spends the whole time speeding across the stage on a personalised segway with attached keyboard.
Overall I'd say that in terms of a show, this one was amazing, so much stuff incorporated and so many pryo's! Definitely worth seeing and it explains why the band are known for their incredible shows. In terms of the music, their new stuff is quite similar to Mutter (which they didn't play) but does hold its own, Reise Reise and Moscow standing out in particular. If you've got a chance to see the show, for gods sake go and sell and a kidney to get in, definitely worth the money!
Oh and I took loads of pictures, I'm not how well they'll come out because I'm quite short and peoples heads did tend to get in the way, but once they're developed I'll get them uploaded, and I might even put my old Rammstein pics up too
