rammstein facts
Rammstein is a six piece band from East Germany that has been slowly
but surely growing in popularity in the USA despite the fact that their
songs are sung entirely in German. They are the number one band in
Germany and very popular in Europe. Some people might have heard of
Rammstein from the Lost Highway soundtrack, which included the songs,
“Rammstein” and “Heirate Mich” and introduced Americans to the German
sensation. Rammstein also toured the western part of the United States
last fall in support of KMFDM, and quickly won over the hearts of many
KMFDM fans.
This time, Rammstein returned to headline a five city tour of the
United States. I was extremely excited when a Chicago date was announced,
but then saddened when the date was canceled two weeks before the concert,
because the Chicago Fire Marshals would not allow Rammstein, who are
notorious for their use of pyrotechnics, to use any of their pyro anywhere
in Chicago, whereas, the band had no problem using their pyrotechnics in
San Francisco, Hollywood, and Denver. But Rammstein cares about their
fans, and so the show went on, much to the relief of all Rammstein fans in
Chicago. But even without their pyrotechnics, Rammstein put on an
outstanding performance.
The band emerged to shouts of “RAMMSTEIN!” from the excited crowd
which was eager to see Rammstein perform for the first time in Chicago.
After the other members had taken their places onstage, lead singer Till
Lindemann came onto the stage wearing these rather interesting goggles
that had a single red beam of light emerging from his left eye, quite
reminiscent of scenes from the movie, The Terminator. Immediately the band
launched into their song, “Rammstein”, which tells a brief story of an
incident that occurred in Rammstein, Germany. (Normally, Lindemann would
come out engulfed in flames, which truly gives meaning to the first line,
“Rammstein. Ein mensch brennt.” which means, “Rammstein, a human being is
burning.”) After “Rammstein”, the band launched into “Tier” (Beast) for which
Lindemann removed the goggles, and came back onstage with pasty white
makeup smeared across his face. Following was “Bestrafe Mich” (Punish Me)
at which Lindemann, who was already sporting many bruises on his forehead
from past shows, proceeded to pummel his head with the microphone and slap
himself repeatedly with a cat-o-nine tails. Thankfully, this masochism
did not last the entire song, and keyboardist Flake performed a goofy
dance which drew cheers from the crowd.
Switching from songs from Sehnsucht, their second album, the band
went on to perform “Weisses Fleisch” (White Flesh) from their first album,
Herzeleid, which was followed by “Asche Zu Asche” (Ashes to Ashes).
But then the concert took a quite unexpected turn, from hard
rocking metal dance music, to a soft ballad, “Seemann” (Sailor). Bassist
Oliver Riedel provided the majority of the musical accompaniment for this
song, as Lindemann and guitarists Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers dropped
to their knees with looks of immense sorrow upon their faces as Lindemann
crooned the love song to the crowd, his face wrought with emotion, each
movement of his body, every expression on his face, communicating with
every member of the audience, transcending all language barriers between
himself and the English speaking audience. I was so impressed by
Lindemann’s ability to do this, that it almost brought tears to my eyes
and of those around me. The beauty of the song, the sadness surrounding
it was almost too much to bear. But before anyone could shed a tear,
Flake started crowd surfing in a rubber raft, much to the amusement and
enjoyment of the audience. Judging from the smile on Flake’s face, it
seemed he was having just as much fun as those passing him high above
their heads. The song ended, and Lindemann left the stage, only to come
back crawling on his knees with a wistful look on his face, and sang the
opening lyrics to their song, “Heirate Mich” (Marry Me), quite an
appropriate song to follow a ballad I would say. But the performance of
this song was quite charming, as Lindemann crawled on his knees from one
guitarist to the other, looked wistfully up at them and asked, “HeirateMich?”
Keeping with the common theme, Rammstein launched into “Du Riechst
So Gut” (You Smell So Good), which started off with vocals by Kruspe.
Rammstein then proceeded to sing their hit song, “Du Hast” (You Hate)
which had the entire audience singing along in perfect German withLindemann.
Then came the song “Buck Dich” (Bend Down) which involved an
interesting visual show, as Flake donned a leather mask and a ball gag,
and was led around the stage by Lindemann. About halfway into the song,
Lindemann unzipped his pants and produced a dildo, which squirted a
substance that resembled a mixture of water and milk onto the crowd and
pretended to sodomize Flake. While most of the crowd started laughing, I
noticed some of the guys within range of the liquid shied away, while
others cheered the band on.
After this interesting display, the band started into their song
“Engel” (Angel) which takes an interesting look at angels as beings who
are terrified of being angels. This was quite apparent, as every member
of the band stood looking towards the heavens, their faces masks of fear,
during the chorus of: “Erst wenn die Wolken schlafengehn
Kann man uns am Himmel sehn.Wir haben Angst und sind allein”
which translates into: “Only when the clouds go to sleep
you can see us in the sky we are afraid and alone”
to which Lindemann’s deep voice proclaims “Gott weiss Ich will kein Engel
sein!” which translates into: “God knows, I don't want to be an angel!”
This was the last song of their set, and the band left the stage
one by one, and then returned to take a bow, as the entire audience
cheered and applauded them. After they left the stage, the audience
begged for more. The band returned to perform an encore of “Laichzeit”
(Spawning season) and “Wollt ihr das Bett in Flammen Sehen” (Do you want
to see the bed ablaze) from their first album.
After the concert, the crowd left happy and thrilled by what they
had just seen, and probably wondering how the show could have been any
better. Before the show, Rammstein’s tour manager swore that Rammstein
would never again play Chicago because of their inability to use
pyrotechnics. Flake later said, “It was great for us to see it work
without any type of pyro. We don’t need it really. I think it was a good
evening.” And I must agree. As for the band returning to perform in
Chicago, that is not going to happen. They like their fire too much.
While they like Chicago, Rammstein will not perform again in Chicago.
They hope to play an outdoor venue outside of the Chicago area when they
come back on another tour of the USA in September.
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