Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany28th May 2019
Rammstein - Europe Stadium Tour 2019 - Support: Duo Jatekok
On September 17 2018, RAMMSTEIN announced on their websites: “Almost done! Recordings of orchestra and choir in Minsk for the seventh studio album.” With it, the band released two photos of the session and a quote from their song ‘Adios’, which could also be the work instruction for RAMMSTEIN: “Geigen brennen mit Gekreisch, Harfen schneiden sich ins Fleisch.” (transl. “Violins burn with shrieks, harps cut into the flesh.”)
For almost 10 years RAMMSTEIN fans have been waiting eagerly for the successor of the album ‘Liebe ist für alle da’. No wonder the announcement of new music was like wildfire through the international media. Besides that, with the hashtag #gebtfeinacht one or another hint according the upcoming tour was spread. Now, RAMMSTEIN will do it again: Parallel to the release of their new, self-titled album, released on May 17 2019, RAMMSTEIN are playing the first stadium tour of their history from May 2019 onwards, starting in Gelsenkirchen on May 27 with two sold-out shows in a row, each one with more than 60,000 fans taking part! Anyone familiar with the band’s dramatic, perfectly staged live shows may have thought it would not be any bigger, but with RAMMSTEIN you can be sure that the band has also planned something out of the ordinary for these, now even bigger stages! https://www.rammstein.de / https://www.facebook.com/Rammstein
The tickets for this tour are personalized, so entrance procedure took longer than usually. Doors already opened at 16:00 so anyone could be in the stadium in time. Of course, the traffic situation before and after the show was tense as always and even the trains were more than crowded and too late. And of course there were problems with the personalized tickets as well where any visitor had to show his ID as well for a check. But promoters installed a trouble shooting team and special trouble shooting entrance. So anything worked well in the end, even though there were strict rules for entrance, which of course then took quite long.
RAMMSTEIN left nothing to chance for this tour. Already several days before the first show, they arrived in Gelsenkirchen to build the stage… and to play some warm-up shows where a few people could win tickets for. I guess surrounding neighbours were already irritated by the smoke rising from the arena during those test shows. Furthermore there was something special on this second day in Gelsenkirchen. The new single ‘Ausländer’ was out on that day. At 19:00, the audience in the arena heard an announcement that there would be the world premiere of the news video for ‘Ausländer’ here in Gelsenkirchen. And after a countdown of ten seconds the video was shown on the big video cube in the arena. One time of showing was not enough and so, after a second countdown, the video clip was shown for a second time. Besides that video, the waiting time for the audience was shortened by lots of other RAMMSTEIN videos shown on that cube and RAMMSTEIN songs sounding from the PA.
There was no support announced long before in advance, different to previous tours where we saw COMBICHRIST or DEATHSTARTS. Just a few days before the show, there was an announcement of the support act, DUO JATEKOK, on the RAMMSTEIN website. The two girls entered the stage at 19:30 to warm the audience up… as if this was needed at all! This support was indeed something special. DUO JATEKOK from Paris, France were playing the RAMMSTEIN album ‘Klavier’ four-handed on two pianos. Inventive and passionate, JATEKOK is currently considered one of the largest classical piano duos in France and worldwide. In their recordings and projects they combine a variety of musical genres such as Jazz, Hip-Hop and Metal.
Really seems RAMMSTEIN are always good for a surprise and so they are this time with their support act… nothing loud and rocking, hitting in your face, but more on the silent and artsy side. The support duo was playing on a small B-stage in the middle of the hall. The two girls told us that they were supporting RAMMSTEIN two years ago in their hometown and this was a great honour and something special since they are classical artist that played Metal all of a sudden. When the girls played in Gelsenkirchen, some of the songs being played could be hardly recognized. But then again there were others like ‘Ohne Dich’ the audience recognized immediately. Especially the mentioned one caused some goose-bump moments when the whole arena sang along and thousands of lights from lighters and some mobile phones were illuminating the stadium. DUO JATEKOK said goodbye with ‘Sonne’ to make room for the main act of the evening. All in all, a special support act, but as warm-up it only worked only conditionally.
Music & Performance
Finally at 20:30 it was time and fans from all over Germany and abroad welcomed the band for the second show of their tour. Of course it was huge! At least when it comes to the show. Musically, RAMMSTEIN always divide the masses… you either love it or hate it. At least the audience in Gelsenkirchen loved it! The music and the immense show! Of course expectations were huge… the last RAMMSTEIN tour was eight years ago and fans were eagerly awaiting the new show. I had seen the setlist of the first evening in Gelsenkirchen and was curious if there would be any changes. Now it is clear that there were no changes in the setlist at all. No wonder since the whole show was well-choreographed and I am sure especially for the first show the band did not want to take any risk with some setlist experiments.
The new album occupied lots of room in the more than two-hour set… besides lots of old gems especially in the second part of the main set the fans loudly sang along. The show promised a lot before and promises were kept when RAMMSTEIN burn down the arena in a huge show! There were fire columns (of course RAMMSTEIN use fire, lots of fire… no doubt!), there were burning guitars (yes, we know this), there was Flake in a pot during ‘Mein Teil’ who was kind of grilles by Till with fire (yes, that’s something we know from past tours) and there was… surprise… the support act accompanying RAMMSTEIN on piano during ‘Engel’ while all musicians were riding rubber dinghies to the stage. Short before the show, the so far closed roof of the stadium was opened… and this was good to release all the smoke that was filling the arena during the show. When the show started at 20:30, the audience was welcomed with a loud bang… good when you protected your ears! After the intro, ‘Was ich liebe’ opened the show.
RAMMSTEIN already provoked before the tour with the videos to ‘Deutschland’ and ‘Radio’. For the song ‘Deutschland’, there were some video sequences where the band members are on the gallows as concentration camp prisoners. The video caused huge discussions, some said that RAMMSTEIN did provoke too much… now we were of course curious how this song was put on stage. The song started with a long intro – the ‘Flake Remix’ of the song - reminding musically and visually a bit of KRAFTWERK. Towards the end, the band members moved as stick figures in white light to the minimal electronic sounds… In a whole, the live show convinced from beginning to the end… with good sound and a well-choreographed show. A RAMMSTEIN show is like a thunderstorm and a real experience. No matter if you like the music, you really should see a RAMMSTEIN show once in your life!
For their current tour, RAMMSTEIN have designed a gigantic stage reminiscent of a mix of Game of Thrones, sci-fi stories such as Star Wars and a strangely futuristic yet backward dictatorship. It reminded a bit of a huge building in a dystopic world… maybe the house of a dictator… with huge banners being shown. In the whole, the stage show was a composition of tremendous lighting effects, filigree video sequences and a lot of pyrotechnics… just as the fans love it! The stage changed its character and style during the show just to fit the songs… sometimes it looked like a mystical landscape, then again it seemed to come from a post-apocalyptic period. But it was always following the dramaturgy of the evening, towards the climax. During ‘Du hast’, Lindemann fired flares into the stadium, followed by a pyrotechnical chain reaction. Thunders and lightning makes the crowd go wild… or standing still in pure fascination.
After about 90 minutes, the band bowed in front of the audience and left the stage. And then, familiar sounds arose in the arena… from two pianos and as already mentioned, the support act DUO JATEKOK played ‘Engel’ from a tower within the audience, surrounded by the band singing the song while thousands of voices from their fans accompanied them and lighted up thousands of lights in the hall. It was a calm version of this song, very different to the past where Lindemann was wearing angel wings spreading fire all around. Somehow I missed this picture, but then again this version hat a special charm too. When the song had ended, the band members were carried in their rubber boats back to stage where they were welcomed by Till Lindemann, who took another way back.
The whole show was like a big staged drama with pretty loud music and pretty impressive special effects. No much interaction with the audience though, but no one wants to interact during a RAMMSTEIN show… the audience always expects something huge and with the current tour, they were not disappointed. After more than two hours the last explosions of the evening set off the evening in Gelsenkirchen and the fire goes out until the next show…
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Was ich liebe
03. Links 2-3-4
04. Sex
05. Tattoo
06. Sehnsucht
07. Zeig dich
08. Mein Herz brennt
09. Puppe
10. Heirate mich
11. Diamant
12. Deutschland (Rmx by Richard Z. Kruspe)
13. Deutschland
14. Radio
15. Mein Teil
16. Du hast
17. Sonne
18. Ohne dich
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19. Engel (Scala & Kolacny version accompanied by Flake on Piano)
20. Ausländer
21. Du riechst so gut
22. Pussy
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23. Rammstein
24. Ich will
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 10
Total: 9 / 10
Pictures: Fan pictures
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