The long awaited arrival of Rammstein and their legendary stage show has finally arrived in Newcastle. With the support act dropping out before they’d even arrived in the country and not being replaced, the £25 ticket fee might have seemed a bit steep.  However, what was about to be unleashed by the German sextet made it more than worth the ticket price.

The stage was cloaked with a huge black curtain which made it impossible to see what was going on behind it, even by those sitting close in the wings.  Suddenly the house lights went down and the intro music began. Unless you’d seen them before, which I hadn’t, then like me you were probably expecting to see the curtain swish to one side at this point.

However it didn’t and instead a bunch of security type roadies dressed head to toe in black came on carrying baseball bats and torches.  They strolled back and forth baying the crowd to cheer when suddenly an almighty explosion came from behind the curtain. The roadies spun around and stared at the curtain which was now lit from behind.  Together they grabbed the curtain and dragged it to one side revealing a monstrous backdrop which dominated the stage.  Perched on top was the drum riser and the band bar the lead singer, who emerged through a metal door mid way through the opening song ‘Reise Reise’.
 

The bands two guitarists Paul Landers and Richard Krupse-Berstein then both descended to the stage on two hydraulic platforms, which lifted them down from the immense drum riser. Although there was very little dialogue between the band and the crowd, Rammstein let their music do the talking. With their trade mark marching rhythms and pounding beat it didn’t matter to the crowd whether the band interacted with them or not, they like me just watched in awe at the spectacle that was taking place before us.

One of the most heart-stopping moments for me personally was during ‘Feuer Fre’ when both lead singer and guitarists came onstage wearing a small metal cage strapped to their faces, which were linked up to some mighty scary looking fuel canisters.  They then proceeded to shoot huge 15 – 20 feet flames from them, as they continued to sing along and play guitars without dropping a note.  My goodness if that had gone wrong their heads would be cinders!

Aside from the face gear that spit out flames, and flaming mike stands, the pyrotechnics equally took center stage with breathtaking effects.  For many of the crowd here tonight this was indeed what we had to come to see, a truly legendary stage show in its own right.

Driving through a set that included many of the bands better known songs which included  ‘Sehnsucht’, 'Engel’ and ‘Links 2 3 4'.  It was 'Du Hast' and 'Rammstein' that got the biggest reaction from the crowd.  Although the new song 'Amerika' taken from their new album also faired extremely well, with a cascade of red, white and blue glitter strips been blown out of three almighty smoke cannons from the front of the stage, the crowd cheered loudly and sang along to its cheesy chorus.

The crazy antics of keyboard player Christian Lorenz lightened the heavy industrial feel to the show with his constant comedy elements which ranged from goose stepping around the stage in lederhosen and helmet, doing some type of bizarre Bavarian folk dance, and then whizzing around the stage on a segway with a keyboard mounted on it. Indeed he certainly lived up to his nickname Flake by getting cooked in a giant cauldron during ‘Mein Teill’ by vocalist Till Lindeman, who at the time was dressed up as a crazed butcher type chef!

As the pyrotechnic display went on things just got better and better, perhaps the overall highlight being Till Linderman coming on stage during ‘Rammstein’ with huge metal flamethrowers on each arm, which shot out two towers of flames that  spewed out above his head, much to the delight of the now lightly toasted crowd. The bass player took crowd surfing to a whole new level and showed just how fearless these German rockers are as he leapt from the stage into a inflatable dingy and rode a wave a ecstatic fans, as they propelled him above their heads into the middle of the auditorium and back again.

Much to the delight of the rest of the crowd. He even took time to shake hands with as many of these helpful souls as possible and even helped cool them down by throwing a bucket of water over some of the crowd. What a great show.  Even though I didn’t understand a word of any of their songs, it was one of the greatest shows I have ever witnessed.  I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to go and see them again, even if that means polishing up on my German!

(Special thanks to Dan Shepherd for the photo's used in this review).