Tonight was apparently supposed to be a night of wrath and raptures, but for me and my homeys Jay and Liger, it was a night of Rammstein. Departing souls be damned, I kind of had been waiting for this show for a few months for numerous reasons. First off, I like Rammstein. You know.. The German industrial metal group, with that classic, 'Du Hast'. Now, I don't care if you only listen to country music or harpsichords, there's certain shows that if they come around, you should attempt to see them, regardless of whether you like them or not. This is a prime example. If you aren't already aware, this band is notorious for pyrotechnics and flames galore, which I reveled in first hand. But never mind those formalities, let's skip to the reason I did this blog, which is to give a slight bit of insight to those that might not have been lucky enough to go, or even in the know.
The show started with an opener called 'Combi-Christ', or something. Meh.. Like most openers, they seemed pre-chosen to fit into Rammstein's fan base. They were okay I guess. In the time waiting between the opener and the headliner, my Dactyl friend, Liger, was obviously very excited. When he becomes excited he does this pterodactyl screech from Hell that has many variations, which if you've ever had the misfortune of meeting this poor soul, you'd know he does it quite often. This fool is loopy, but has yet to really get obnoxious or even do the scream yet, when this overweight, stiff, red haired woman in front of us snaps around to tell him, "Excuse me. Can you please be quieter for awhile, you're very annoying and blah blah blah, burp burp burp." Well, something of that nature, Liger couldn't make out a hundred percent of it, either. He just slumped in his chair like he had just been spit on. He shook his head to us, and explained what he'd heard her say. Now, granted this fool can be mad annoying. As a matter of fact, a lot of my friends really don't fuck with him, and hate on him a little bit, because he can be boisterous at great lengths. But mind you, THIS ISN'T A GODDAMN BANQUET OR COUNTRY CLUB MEETING for Christ's sake, it's a damn Metal show. Was she serious? Anyway, this would pave the way for many laughs had at her expense (and her back), as we would make sure to be as loud as possible for the remainder of the event.
Up goes the curtains. Actually, there was no curtain. It was a hole in the metal, Alien-like, H.R. Giger reminiscent stage's floor that opened, and in darkness a single lighted figure emerged. It was the lead singer. That fool is buff, and looks like an escaped mental patient. Now keep in mind, I'm not going to regale everything, or even attempt to remember most, but I did want to do this band justice, and explain some of the dope stuff I did remember.
Sound was perfect. Very, very loud and thunderous, everything as it should sound. The stage was bomb like I mentioned before, a factory like set-up, with a huge backdrop of lit tears through a huge fabric. The first two songs went on through mostly darkness, with very little pyrotechnics, other than a pretty dope amount of light hanging from everywhere and fixed to everything. After that it was straight flame-on, no-homo?
Everything from suits the guitarists wore with flamethrowers on their arms, to flame spitting devices on the back stage, foreground, and sides, to spark firework things that emitted stuffs from the heavens for us heathens. A particularly bomb inclusion was mid-way through the show, the lead singer and very animated keyboard player tussled and as an outcome, the keyboard player was put in a bathtub, while the lead singer rode a device high upward, just to drop tons of sparks and flames into the tub on this poor guy. Fortunately, like a magic trick, this fool emerged somehow wearing a sequined shiny suit, and a wig (I think)to return to his keyboard set-up, which now became a friggin' treadmill while he played. Lasers, huge and many fog machines, conveyor belts and trap doors, on this multi-leveled stage were just some of the perks.
Two of my favorite parts of this concert was when at the very end half of the stage floor opened up to have the lead singer ride through the bottom on a gigantic tank-angel-metal hybrid that spit long, long flames out the wingtips. I couldn't even figure out what the fuck this Robocop wet dream was, or really looked like in the dark, but I knew it was huge and beastly. I can haz it, please? The other part that I enjoyed most, but was probably lost on a few people because of so much dope stuff continually happening, was at the three quarter mark, the lead singer picked up a numerous headed blue flame crossbow thingy, and shot it straight forward into the audience. The shot burst into purplish, spinning, sparking, loud whirling dervishes, that journeyed to a poll across the event center, and then returned. What the fizzle? These damn Germans. Oh, by the way, I noticed not a single black person at this event. Damn, SMH..
A few of the other times out of the many I'm desperately trying conjure in my mind are the keyboard player riding a river raft around the audience, the second encore of the biggest flames from even the ceiling, and the four electric pillars forever behind them, popping and sparking while they simultaneously shoot fireworks and supposedly self-destruct. Hopefully, if I've done this well enough, you'll no longer be questioning why I would go to such a show, but rather, why YOU didn't go to such a show. This band hardly tours in America, and I was lucky to see them to be able to put them somewhere in my top ten shows I've ever seen. Granted, I most likely have seen as many, or more shows than a great amount of the people you know. I don't know exactly where I place it yet, though.
I've added some lame pictures, but they aren't too great, and really don't help too much. Anyways, hoped you enjoyed reading this, a fraction as much as I enjoyed psycho Germans playing with fire on stage. Mostly, keep an open mind of stuff you might not be too privy on, you might experience some stuff. Or something.. I don't know, whatever that means.. Peace
.,CAStLE,.
