This is our first visit to the main arena at the old Millenium Dome, having been put off by swingeing ticket prices and the sheer size of the place, but RAMMSTEIN are not charging too outrageous a sum as our tickets were £42.50 plus charges which is cheaper than for most things at the O2. Certainly less than Noel poxy Gallagher wanted for the next night and under half what Aerosmith charged when they played there.
We were also lucky enough to get tickets for the standing floor area rather than being in the rafters that seemed miles away. Once we'd walked what seemed like miles to get in stopping only to speak to some friends on their way to the Gods. The place is huge and we got in just as Deathstars finished their set. It sounded very thin and quiet, but I only heard the last 40 seconds so not enough to judge them in anyway.
So after the house lights went down suddenly there are sparks and smoke coming from the gangway that is descending from the ceiling seemingly right on top of where we are standing as some ambient noise intro music is playing. Once the gangplank has come fully down to be about 3 feet above us and maybe 5 feet from us it meets a small dias just in front of the sound desk. The band then appear in the seats following a torch bearer who leads them through the crowd and onto the dias and along the gangway onto the stage!
Damn we are so close to them we can see that all the band are in make up and doing their best to look stern and scary as they walk the plank to the stage. This is how to make an entrance! They immediately launch into a count to ten in German before playing Sonne and of course the gangplank rises back up and the first of the nights pyro goes off with the song. They also sound monumentally loud and tight.
Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen follows without much pause and more fireworks to punctuate the lyrics as well as a few bangs. This is as spectacular a start as you could want. Keine Lust continues the mayhem and even when some of the keyboards sound off it is only a game between Till Lindeman and Christian Flake the keyboards player who for much of the show plays his keys while on a moving walkway as usual. In this case he is playing the wrong notes and Till ticks him off, its all a game!
Sensucht sounded amazing even if it took me half the song to recognise it, but they uppped the pyro on Asche Zu Asche as both of the guitarists, Richard and Paul's Mike stands, were on fire as they sang into them as was Till's mike - really you need a burning mike stand! Oh and a few explosions to go along with it. Feur Frei just kept up the pace and was followed by a great version of Mutter. There was so much going on it's hard to remember what went with what song.
But I do know that on Mein Teil poor old Christian got put into a cauldron that had a set of keyboards in it and Till got out his flame thrower to heat it up. It was hot enough were we were let alone in the cauldron and as Christian kept popping his head back up, Till switched to an even larger flame thrower that looked pretty immense as he made Flake for dinner again...Still Christian had flames shooting out of his ass as he tried to go back to his keyboards.
Links 2 3 4 was one of the bigger sing alongs and it's weird being with such a large amount of non-German people all trying to sing in pidgin German. I think it was on Du Hast that Till turned himself into a human Catherine wheel and the rest of the band seemed to be trying to get out of the way. Haifisch is the normal point for Christian to take a trip in his dinghy and he sailed out into the crowd and towards us taking an alarming turn before righting the ship and continuing on past us and round the sound-desk right to the back. Then he went right over us on his way back in to the port (or should that be stage?)
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Then the gangplank descended again and we noticed that one of the guitarists had materialised on the dais playing a keyboards solo and then the rest of the band were now in harnesses and being whipped on there knees and forced to crawl across the gangplank right by us onto the dais which had turned into a small stage about 10ft square. Once they had all been whipped and the ball gags taken off, the band started to play again and yes we were now right up front about 6 ft from the stage!! As they played Buch Dich and Mann Gegen Mann, Till mimed buggering Christian and walking around wanking himself off afterwards and when he came it shot out all over the place and all over us, I can say with certainty that the "spunk" that ended up in my mouth tasted of aniseed. Ahem.
The little mini set finished with Ohne Dich at the end of which the band took some serious applause and took a slow walk back along the gangway waving and smiling at us before closing the main set with a great version of Mein Herzbrennt. That had Till firing a gun that sends sparks flying up wires towards and above us and back down to the stage before a great ticker tape machine blasts out at us. We got showered with their blue and sliver foil paper. A great finish to a brilliant set.
The first encore opened with Amerika which was the first song with English lyrics of the night. However ironic they are, it's a great song. Then they did the anthem Ich Will that worked as an almost perfect closer as Till said thank you to us all and the band took a bow.
They came back for the second encore with Till wearing his wings for Engel. The wings of course spout fire so he looks like a burning Phoenix as he sings and those flames were really hot. It was amazing and is a brilliant song, leaving just enough time for Pussy where Till mounts his massive motorised dicke that has a saddle for him to sit on and he rides arond the stage as it "spunks" all over the place with bubbles and foam. He managed to cover most of the front 50 feet of the audience we got a little of it but nothing major.
They knelt onstage and thanked us all before they left one by one until Flake was the last one left and he finished his keyboard outro and they were gone at the end of one incredible show. We were drained just watching it and somehow managed to make it to a bar for a pint before getting the tube home.
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