04.03.2012 Rammstein

Ahoy, Rotterdam (Netherlands)

Shortly after 21:00 the light at the Ahoy went out and several spotlights were targeting to the sideentrance of the infield. From there the musicians of Rammstein were cutting their way through the crowd towards side stage. Lead by the bassist and torchbearer Oliver Riedel first keyboarder Christian "Flake" Lorenz was following with the Dutch flag whilst drummer Christoph Schneider was waving one from Rammstein. Shortly before from the roof of the venue a bridge had been lowered connecting the small side stage with the big main stage. After the musicians found their formation on the big stage the bridge rose and with the opener "Sonne" it was directly going from 0% to 100%.
But not only on stage it got straight down to the nitty-gritty, also in front of it. As the first pits opened in parrallel on stage literally the sun rose pyrotechnically. Who was freezing at that time for sure also needs a thick winter jacket in the Sahara. The first three songs directly were a complete sensory overload. Permanently something was burning or exploding or somewhere on stage the sparks were spraying. The stage itself was from the stage setting principally identical to the one from the "Liebe ist für alle da"-tour. Only the backgrounds changed several times generating completely new sceneries by that. As usual the show was adapted to the particular song and so it would be somehow exorbitant to list all in detail. Only very few that were especially successful should be mentioned here: To the beginning of the song "Mein Teil" singer Till Lindemann is pushing an overdimensional cooking pot onto the stage. He is wearing a blood-smeared butcher outfit with a huge knife microphone. Out of the pot Flake is appearing and is boiled several times during that song by Till with a flame thrower. At the end Flake is jumping out of the pot and out of his smoldering butt again and again small explosions are fired whilst he is running across the stage. Additionally at him small fireballs are fired from the roof of the stage. Of course also the flame throwing face masks during "Feuer Frei" may not be missing turning the stage into a flaming inferno.
As it is the best-of tour the songs situated on the album "Made In Germany" were played. That however consists only of released singles by which pearls like "Seemann" were missing. Astonishing also was that "Mein Land", the only released single from "Made In Germany" was not played. Why it was like this only the band knows. Very interesting it was getting towards the end of the concert as suddnenly again the bridge was lowererd from the rooftop and at first only Richard Kruspe changed to the side stage where already a small keyboard was waiting. On this he was triggering samples encouraging the audience to the well known sing along games. After a few minutes a hatchway opened on stage and drummer Christof Schneider wearing a blonde wig and an apron dress was propelling his four leashed and crawling on all fours band members across the bridge to the side stage where they started playing the perfectly fitting song "Bück Dich". Also the next two songs were played there before the band returned onto the main stage to leave it for the first time. For two encores Rammstein returned onto the stage whereas the last one only consist of "Engel" at which Till with the well known wing rack entered the stage and at the end "Pussy" where a decent foam shower was provided (at least they spared out the feathering with small pieces of paper this time).
Two hours full of Rammstein. Although that because of the best-of show many great songs were not played it was though a very well chosen cross section across their former albums. The stage show does not need to hide and was in my point of view even better than the one at Arnheim. Friends of pyrotechnic were fully getting their money's worth as always somewhere something was burning or exploding. Added with the incredible idea of the bridge and the side stage so that also fans standing more in the back could experience the band very closely. From music point of view it was anyhow on the well known high level keeping the atmosphere permanently at the boiling point. An absolutely phantastic evening that was really worth it! I remain at my saying that although you are not a friend of Rammstein's music you at least should go and watch a live concert of them. I do not know any other band that is providing shuch a perfect show. Even if the tickets are some more expensive you can directly see where the money was used for.