RAMMSTEIN

Discussion
1

Holy shit! Who’s seen these cats live? It was like nothing I could have expected. A surrealist assault on all senses. And, yes, a shit ton of fire and explosives. How these guys haven’t killed themselves and/or their audience is a miracle. And it’s not just the pyro. They have choreography, rehearsed visual gags, synchronized dance moves . . .

The music is not what I listen to typically, but it works excellently with the full package. And the low end bass and weird frequencies they use makes you really FEEL it vibrating your bones and punching you in the heart.

I think the fact that it’s all in German just makes it all the more creepy and surreal. These guys are really in a league of their own.

From a dude who thinks industrial music is a joke and hates pretty much everything that I don’t already like . . . don’t miss these dudes if you get a chance to see them.

Amongst a bunch of other stunts and tricks and effects, the lead singer, after hobbling around awkwardly during one number in which he wore a ridiculous oversized coat, rips off his jacket to reveal a big crazy “suicide bomber vest” . . . which they detonate and blow the guy up in a bunch of loud and blinding explosions.

Oh, and they had some goofy ass gas mask things equipped the flame throwers so while they were playing/ singing they were shooting long scary streams of deadly fire from their faces.

There was a bunch of other crazy stuff too but I really couldn’t explain it all anyway.

2

saw them twice, they sure fuckin’ work it!

the music is alrite, if you give a listen to their first two albums, you can clearly hear Ministry’s influence on early Rammstein sound, especially stuff from Psalm69 like Just One Fix. from 3rd album on and especially on 4th and 5th they started downtuning which made sound more blurry. on the last album which i think was 2009 or so they went back to E and D tunings but the robotic quality of the sound of first two albums was lost. well i guess they are evolving too.

the pyros and flames, it’s insane, i mean i was 15-20 meters away from front of the stage, and every time the flamethrowers behind the band shoot up in the air (it was timed to the count of the chorus in “Sonne”), i felt strong heat wave in my face. and they are there enduring that shit on stage!!

one of their dudes (i think it was Richard) said something like yeah we know that 98% people don’t understand the lyrics in the songs, so in order to keep the concerts from being boring, we use all kinds of theatrical stuff.

Amongst a bunch of other stunts and tricks and effects, the lead singer, after hobbling around awkwardly during one number in which he wore a ridiculous oversized coat, rips off his jacket to reveal a big crazy “suicide bomber vest” . . . which they detonate and blow the guy up in a bunch of loud and blinding explosions.

it’s a stage act for the song “Zerstoren” (destroy) which is allegedly about george w bush acting like a small kid in a sand box, destroying everything. at least they made only one song about him, unlike certain “uncle”.

Oh, and they had some goofy ass gas mask things equipped the flame throwers so while they were playing/ singing they were shooting long scary streams of deadly fire from their faces.

it’s for “Feuer Frei” (fire at will) song, they first came up with those masks in like 2002 or 2003, been using that stuff for this track ever since.

There was a bunch of other crazy stuff too but I really couldn’t explain it all anyway.

yeah. this was funny back in the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU6NS5KAHSw

(watch from 3rd minute on)

3

Yeah, i’ve seen them 3 times so far and am looking forward to seeing them again. I’ve been a big fan since about 2000 or so, when i first heard Du Hast. The fact that they’re singing in German doesn’t seem to deter people at all, it just adds to the sinister edge, hahaha. They’re a really great band and always phenomenal live.

4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU6NS5KAHSw

(watch from 3rd minute on)

I think it was Buck Dich that got them into a lot of trouble in the US on their first tour, they got arrested for obscenity or something equally puritanical. Weird, any time i’ve seen them they played that and the crowd, which had ages ranging from very young children to grandparents, absolutely loved it. Nobody gave a fuck about the simulated buggery, ejaculation and cannibalism, they took it in the spirit of theatricality in which it was intended. It’s just a fun show that anyone could enjoy, i brought friends who’d never listen to that kind of music (and who probably would have laughed at me for loving the band) and they absolutely adored them. The live show shuts the doubters up 100%, hahaha. Gunnar, did they still do the bit where the bassist goes out on the life raft over the crowd during one of the songs? I know there’s been a couple of injuries doing that part and one or two of them refuse to do it any more,but they’ve done it each time i’ve seen them. What a band [:)]

5

They didn’t do the raft stunt, but it would have been impossible (or a huge challenge at the least) at this fest as the press/security moat between stage and public was a good 20 feet.

6

Ah, yeah, that could make it tricky, haha.

7

If they’d built a bridge from the stage to the audience so they could conveniently “launch” the raft it could have probably worked okay. The crowd was packed so tight that I don’t think the raft could fall even if people failed to participate, haha.

8

oh yeah one more thing of note is that they usually do bring new visual/theatrical stuff almost every new tour - not just new costumes and look, but usually it’s also new stage set up, new pyro and other stuff. certainly for the new songs, and sometimes even changing the stuff that already got visually familiar over the years for the old songs that are still in the setlist.

also their albums are usually 46-max 48 mins long, which is just right. no need to fill whole 78 min of the CD, that would be awful.

9

I’m actually not even sure if the version of the show I saw was “full-blown” or maybe even chopped down a bit. The cancelation of the “Hell and Heaven Fest” in 2014 had pyro as one of the reasons for why it had the plug pulled (that was just a cover story for some shady political bullshit, though).

Anyway, during Dee Snider’s set, he complained about how they made them use only steam / CO2 geysers during “The Fire Still Burns” instead of real fire. He also shouted about “I bet you fuckers let RAMMSTEIN use real fire and not this CO2 shit!!!” . . . . There was a lot of steam, and I wondered if that was where there would normally be fire . . . . but as the show continued . . . holy crap. There was still a shit ton of fire.

I was so impressed by the professional execution of the whole show. I saw a Motley Crue clip a while back and there was a lot of hoopla about them putting a flame thrower on Nikki Sixx’s guitar. He shot it one time and everyone stayed the Hell away and Nikki (and everyone nearby) looked properly nervous and awkward.

But the two dudes on bass and guitar looked like stone-faced golems without a fuck to give. They didn’t just shoot fire at some key times . . . . they were PLAYING the songs AND doing choreographed moves AND shooting fire the whole damn time. It was fucking AMAZING.

The whole show blew my mind. I was exhausted from expending all my energy during TS so I couldn’t go nuts like all the other fans were, but DAMN!!! The whole thing was just a complete spectacle.

The best comparison I could think of, actually, would be of a far more sinister and dangerous Blue Man Group. The combination of intense industrial music (which, for me, was actually the least important element of the whole thing, haha) dark surreal humor, props, pyro . . . fuck.

If you are like me and think that the world should be recreated in the vision of every Mad Max movie ever made and want to see your wet dream on stage . . . see these guys. Seriously. Worth every penny whether you give a shit about the music or not.

10

If it was a festival show, then I’m sure it was cut down a bit.

11

I was so impressed by the professional execution of the whole show. . . . .

But the two dudes on bass and guitar looked like stone-faced golems without a fuck to give.

it was two guitar guys, they are to the side of the stage, but more at the front. the bass guy usually hangs in the back “row”, to the left of the drum set and almost doesn’t get involved in the theatrics other than riding the rubber raft surfing the crowd. the other skinny guy who is at keyboards is also at the back but to the drum riser, to the right side.

funny how the keyboard guy also is a target of constant abuse from the vocalist both live (gets “fucked” during Buck Dich, gets “boiled” in a huge cooking pot during “Mein Teil”, gets hot sparks poured on him during “Ich Tu Dir Weh”, etc) and in various music videos, which they also have alot of and those are pretty great too by the way.

as for explosion and flames they started doing that stuff way back i think even before they released their first album, but in a minor ways. since then they got more and more experience and also had (i guess by this point several) pyrotechnic training, whatever it is called.

12

Yeah, the bass player, then, must have been the guy to the left of the drums. Never did much with the theatrics, stayed in one place, and wasn’t even really themed out. He just stood there looking sorta like Jesus and playing.

The guitar dudes and the singer are themed out in black/gray industrial post-apocalyptic stuff, but the keyboardist is wearing funny Limp Bizkit looking track suits, shiny glitter suits . . . all kinds of funny stuff.

The keyboard guy is great! He plays up a really funny out-of-place character and yeah, gets to be abused, walked like a dog on the singer’s leash and ball gag, immersed in a tub of flaming magnesium to emerge all sparkly in a glitter suit . . . it’s just hilarious. Also, for a good part of the show he’s performing on a treadmill and just walking in place the whole time, hahaha!!!

I loved all of it.

13

If it was a festival show, then I’m sure it was cut down a bit.

Not sure how long they typically are, but they were the headliner and they went for a solid 90+ minutes. It was already too long for me, hahaha!!! I really just wanted to get the Hell outta there (I used up ALL my energy for Twisted Sister and could barely stand), but as I was stuck I’m glad I stayed and got the experience.

I would love to just see them on their own tour without a hundred other shit ass bands . . . . There were two stages, side by side, to reduce set change time and allow them to just run acts one after the other.

Twisted Sister was the final act on the “Heaven” stage, and then right after them Rammstein headlined the “Hell” stage.
Before Rammstein on the Hell stage . . . . . . yes, this truly is a vision of Hell . . . . uhhhhh . . . Five Finger Death Punch. What a bunch of trash, hahaha!!!

14

Does Till still have his glowing mouth?

15

I don’t recall the neck feathers or glowing mouth. He had smeared black oily makeup for the most part.

I also thought he looked a bit like a much burlier Stephen Baldwin.

16

The keyboard guy is great! He plays up a really funny out-of-place character and yeah, gets to be abused, walked like a dog on the singer’s leash and ball gag, immersed in a tub of flaming magnesium to emerge all sparkly in a glitter suit . . . it’s just hilarious. Also, for a good part of the show he’s performing on a treadmill and just walking in place the whole time, hahaha!!!

That’s Flake. (pronounced flocka) He’s hilarious.

17

Some of their schtick actually evoked a very DEVO feel . . . yes, that’s a very good thing.

18

judging from setlist.fm the usual set in their current tour is 18 songs, which is a nice amount. i wouldn’t say it’s shortened or cut down.

they haven’t released a new album since 2009, and the last live tour was in 2011-2013 (in support of greatest hits compilation), so right now they are doing a festival tour, i guess to get back into it all a bit, i mean they aren’t getting younger, maybe they got rusty since then.

19

I saw them twice, first time was maybe 15 years ago. And I made a huge mistake, it was a very cold December day, and I had this very warm and big jacket, unfortunately the venue didn’t have cloakroom. So I had to have the jacket with me all the time, because if I left it in a corner somewhere probably someone would stole it, and I didn’t want to take the risk. So you can imagine, fire flying everywhere, explosions, flamethrowers, really hot, and me jumping around like a madman, sweating like hell, with a huge jacket tied around my waste dragging to the floor… anyway, it was fun.

At that time some people made the very bright deduction that if they were german they were nazis. So there were like 3 or 4 bright specimens in the concert making the nazi salute.

20

I used to listen to their first two albums and enjoyed them a lot, but once I got the 3rd one (Mutter) I thought they were out of ideas. Seemed to be stagnating in a rut.

I’ve never seen them live, but I don’t think I would enjoy a show with even a fraction of this much pyrotechnics and theatrics, as they call it.

I did see them performing a few songs at a festival in Europe on Paladia and the lead singer was a the front of the stage playing a keyboard (intermittently) and walking briskly on a treadmill. The festival audience was rawkus and throwing plastic bottles at him faster than he could bat them away. Of course, he had a camera mounted to himself (theatrics) and they spliced in a lot of that footage so you could see when the bottles hit him in the head.

My preference would be a band that sounds like Rammstein but just stands on stage and plays, but oh well…