mercredi 9 Mai 2012, 11h45m
Tue 8 May – Rammstein: Made In Germany 1995–2011 Tour
The show started 30 minutes late with the music stylings of DJ Joe Letz. He got up on stage, behind his laptop, wiped his brow, hit “Play” on his laptop, and took a huge gulp of water, since walking to the stage and hitting a key must have been exhausting.
What blared out of the speakers was something unimaginable: dubstep remixes of Rammstein songs. My first thought was, “Does he know who he’s opening for? We’re going to be hearing these songs within the next couple of hours!” All my friends and I could do was exchange glances of “is this guy for real?” while loud bass beats drowned out any attempt at talking. Consensus was that this was a joke act. As he hit Next on his playlist a few more times, we knew it was real, and not, in fact, a joke.
You couldn’t actually look at the stage at any point, due to a seizure-inducing “visual remix” of Rammstein videos that was being projected on a screen. Out of all the people at the show, I could see one person dancing to the music, though I’m pretty sure she was on drugs. The only way he got the audience’s attention was to give them glow sticks. At one point he brought out a unicorn for some reason. No one cared.
In summary, DJ Joe Letz was absolutely and unequivocally terrible. An opening band should pump up the crowd for the headliner, not the opposite. The music was generic to the extreme, uninteresting, and a complete waste of everyone’s time. Let’s hope that he has a fallback career, since music really isn’t panning out for him. Maybe a barista at a hipster coffee shop, or an Assistant Manager at a Hot Topic.
After about 30 minutes of subpar, even by dubstep’s already low standards, music blasting into everyone’s ear, it was time for the main event.
Rammstein opened with Sonne. A good and powerful opening song. Pyrotechnics galore. They followed that with Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen, Keine Lust, Sehnsucht, Asche zu Asche, Feuer Frei!, Mutter, and Mein Teil (*not the end of the set, but I’m stopping here for a reason that will soon become evident). Every song was absolutely fantastic. It only took about 14 years for me to finally see them live, and it was totally worth it.
Near the middle of Mein Teil, I was tapped on the shoulder. Thinking it was the two people who were between my group of friends and the other large group on the opposite side of the section, I moved out of the way to let them through. One of them mouthed something about me being in their seat. I gave up trying to talk to them after the 3rd or 4th “What?” and started typing things out on my phone. They said they were in section , Row , seat . I showed them my ticket, but they complained still. I told them they must be mistaken, and they walked off … to get a member of the event staff.
He checked my ticket, and motioned to follow him. I tried talking with him, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He took me to the wrong section and pointed down to my row (from the top row, around 15 rows up) and said my seat was down there. I pointed to the sign that said , and then pointed to the section number on my ticket, but he wouldn’t have any of that. I visually showed my disgust with him and walked off to cool down for a bit.
After about 10 minutes, my friends managed to track me down, and, while I’m not clear on the exact story, the two people were gone and yes, I was right and those were actually our seats. Walking past the same event staff member on the way back down to my seat, he just smiled and nodded for some reason. I’m still not really clear on what happened in my absence.
I had missed Du Riechst So Gut and Links 2-3-4, but made it back in time for Du Hast (which everyone went crazy for, since I’m guessing this was the only song most people at the concert had ever heard by the band) and ending the set with Haifisch.
The first encore was performed on a small stage in the center of the venue. Songs were: Bück Dich, Mann Gegen Mann, and Ohne Dich. This smaller stage was connected to the main stage by a bridge that was raised and lowered when needed in the performance.
The final encore was amazing. They played Mein Herz Brennt, Amerika, Ich Will, Engel, and Pussy. The encore was full of unique and amazing pyrotechnics. Till’s voice, which started quite soft, was in full power at the end.
Every song was mind-blowing, the performance was top-notch. You can really tell the band loves their fans. Many thanks to Rammstein for taking time away from their friends and families to tour.