Live review – Rammstein, Stockholm 14/8-19
5/10
How do you approach a concert by Rammstein? Are you going for the songs (in German for those who still are unknown of the band). Are you going for the spectacular and stunning stage shows and production?
30000+ people are anyway gathered here at ancient and legendary Stockholm Olympic stadium for tonight’s show .Built before the 1912 Olympics it is now rarely used for live shows. Next year the band plays two sold out shows in Gothenburg in front of around 100000 people.
As you expected they go out with a loud bang and continue to do so for more than two hours. The stage set looks like some forgotten industry from DDR. Amazing and lavish is words that comes to mind all over again.
The band doesn´t seem to care if a song is a hit or not. A song like “Mein Herz Brennt” is put on early with Til´s heart spewing flames. “Du Hast” is also performed early and it brings the audience to their toes singing along as good as they can. During “Puppe” a giant baby carrier is brought on stage and of course set on fire in the end. Morally maybe very wrong but during a show with this band just another effect.
From my point a way back in the crowd it´s sometimes hard to see what is really going on the stage (why no big screens somewhere on the stage for us further back). Innovative is also the intro to “Deutschland” where the band members are glowing like stick men. Guitarist Richard Kruspe doing a techno version before it´s head on into the real song. “Radio” is performed much heavier on stage than on record which is very nice.
After they´ve performed “Ohne Dich” they disappear from the stage for the encores. They appear in what looks like a boxing ring but without boxers, there are instead two pianos and the support act Duo Jatekok joins them for a very stripped down version of “Engel” with the lyrics shown on a display on stage so the whole arena can sing along(those who wasn´t sure about the lyrics).
Rammstein wouldn´t be Rammstein if they didn’t create an odd way for the band to return to the stage.
They paddle canoe over the fans of course! Til welcomes them back “home” with a sign who says Wilkommen. If it is just humor or a political input – I don´t know.
I can go on about the amazing stage set but the volume tonight! If the band or organizers isn’t going to be punished for breaking the (ridiculous) sound level we can all go back to the glory(?) days when Motörhead and Manowar competed for the loudest band on earth. It isn´t even disturbingly loud. The band’s sound engineer must be mentioned. Clean sound and nothing went wrong and the bass sound made this arena sink at least one meter.
Thank you Rammstein for this magnificent show. But I don’t really know what to make out of it. The performance sometimes are so static and expectedly grand so you have to know the songs to appreciate the show.
Who: Rammstein
Where: Stockholm Olympic Stadium
When: 19-08-14
Rate: 5/10
(photo credit Sven Gerhardts
