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