This past weekend, the Metal Insider crew had the chance to catch Rammstein’s Made In Germany North American Tour (Bram saw it in Uniondale, NY while Zach saw the Worcester, MA date). And to say that Rammstein’s two hour plus show blew our minds is an understatement.
Rammstein has been undergoing somewhat of a renaissance in America. After 2009’s Liebe ist fur alle da, the band tested the waters at the end of 2010 by booking their first show in America in almost 10 years at Madison Square Garden. That show sold out in an hour, which led to a handful of North American dates last year (six of those in America). Since those were successful as well, the German sextet is in the midst of a 21-date run that’s the most extensive touring they’ve done in America since 2001. While the majority of the country hasn’t seen them since then, that didn’t stop the band from dramatically changing both the stage show and set lists from the last seven shows the band played in the States.
Similar to their hometown show in Berlin last year, Rammstein started the show by walking through the crowd with torches and flags (the closest we’ve seen to an industrial goth Olympics opening ceremony). Then they crossed a bridge hovered over the crowd from the small stage (where they performed a short set about 2/3rd of the way through the show) to the gigantic, monstrous stage. What followed was nonstop insanity, with pyro and fire coming from every direction you could think of (including from the band members themselves). The German industrial metal group not only transformed their stage as their personal hellish playground, but the entire arena itself.
There were about seven songs switched out from the last tour, most interestingly the addition of “Buck Dich.” Ironically, it was their performance of that song in Worcester that got singer Till Lindemann and keyboardist Christian “Flake” Lorenz” band arrested in 1999. The original performance (which still happens in Germany) consists of simulated rape with a dildo, but their current performance is a bit more tame. And even though all the pyro and set pieces still wow after seeing them multiple times, the band switched things up enough that it was still a nonstop sensory overload. By the end of the night, even if you weren’t covered in foam from singer Till Lindemann’s “love cannon” (used while closing the set with “Pussy”), you still witnessed a show that you likely won’t forget anytime soon.
