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| Rammstein at London’s The O2 Arena on February 24 2012 |
Feb 24 2012 – What does an average person do when in London on a business trip? Go see Big Ben, go for a curry, hang out at a pub – well not us folks. First thing we do is check the local concert listings to and see if there are any gigs that would be suitable for our tastes. Unfortunately nothing really showed up that I was interested or familiar with. Nothing until my colleague from Finland pointed at the screen and said with a very excited voice – “HEY Rammstein is at the O2!!!” I thought quickly and seemed to recall that that group had a song on Rock Band (or was it Guitar Hero). My Finnish friend quickly notified me that this was “German industrial and heavy metal at its best” and the shows are spectacular. That is all the encouragement I needed, and after a few clicks we got 2 tickets (which we payed double face value) to see Rammstein in a few hours.
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| Rammstein on stage at a very sold out The O2 arena in London, England |
The last time I was at The O2 was in May for 2011 where I witnessed the most magical moment of my concert going career. It was the night that David Gilmour joined Roger Waters during The Wall tour for Comfortably Numb. The commentary and video of that night is found here. The O2 is a wonderful concert venue located just off the river Thames, slightly east of central London. Tonight’s show was 100% sold out and as we approached the venue we saw a great buzz both outside and inside the venue.
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| Pyrotechnics used at a Rammstein gig are incredible |
Rammstein has been around since 1994 and their songs are in German. The current tour is called Made In Germany 1995-2011 (which is also the name of their greatest hits album released last year). The music during the gig was exactly what you would picture German sung metal to be. Hard hitting, guitar driven, angry sounding vocals with some techno beats accompanying it. My first exposure to their music was surprisingly very positive. Let me get to the good part though – the live show. HOLY S**T. I have no other summary for this show. It started off with the band entering the side of the arena at the 100 levels, they marched down the stairs in a funeral like procession carrying various flags. When they reached the floors they walked through it to a little stage in the middle of the floors which raised them up to a catwalk above the general admission floor seats. They walked the catwalk across and got onto the stage. Once there they lit some flame cauldrons like an Olympics opening ceremony and counted up to 10 in German, and POW!!!! If my description is tough to visualize watch the video of the intro (and the first song) below.
That of course all happened in just the first 10 minutes of the show. The rest of the show featured pyrotechnics of all kinds, fire sprouting from angel wings the band wore, a cauldron where a band member went into that was lit on fire, a foam penis coming out of vocalists Till Lindemann’s trousers squirting a few people with foam from the mini stage in the middle of the floors, and the grand finale where Till rides a massive penis shaped cannon squirting everyone on the floor with foam. Get the idea? This was an over the top Vegas style show with an incredible house band rocking the arena in a manner which only the Germans can ever pull off. It was an amazing show and I would never hesitate recommending a Rammstein show!
Verdict: Amazing show unlike anything you have ever seen before. 10 out of 10 with no hesitation!
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| Rammstein performed a few songs in the middle of the arena on a mini stage |
We were there too ! Impressive & Amazing show. The only not so 100% thing was the 'to clean sound' via the digital mixing desks. I was like listening to a cd at 103dB. I like the saturated sound of analog gear better. But anyway, the concert was a great entertainment
We were there too ! Impressive & Amazing show. The only not so 100% thing was the 'to clean sound' via the digital mixing desks. I was like listening to a cd at 103dB. I like the saturated sound of analog gear better. But anyway, the concert was a great entertainment