Satisfied Despite Criticism

NTC Arena, Bravislava – 24 November, 2023

Despite a few points of criticism, our two guest reporters romana and Mariopa were quite satisfied after Till Lindemann band’s show in Bratislava. «All in all, a really successful concert!» was romana’s conclusion.

by romana (Guest Reporter), Mariopa (Guest Reporter), and KidArctica

The Bratislava show was another concert that got scheduled in 2021, but postponed and incorporated into this tour. Originally, the concert was supposed to take place in the Incheba Expo Aréna, though late September, concert goers were informed that it was moved to NTC Arena. This new venue had a slightly lower capacity, but still took around 6000 people.

The RammWiki blog crew could not attend this concert either, so guest reporters romana and Mariopa provided us with their recaps of the show.

This is Romana’s recap of the concert:

We arrived at the NTC Arena shortly after the start of admission (18:00). It was a short queue, about 10 min wait and a bit of chatting with other fans, then we were already at the entrance. The staff scanned the QR code and we were inside. The location wasn’t that great, there was a bit of a crowd in the entrance area, especially at the merch stand. We wanted to hand in our jackets, but were told that there was no cloakroom – very strange…

As we were a bit hungry, we looked for a stand with snacks, but only found a tiny little popcorn stand, not really the right thing for a concert. So we bought a beer and went to the standing area, where our ticket was checked again at the entrance. There was a small gathering of people in front of the stage, the stands were still empty. We looked for a spot and talked to other fans. Many Austrians had traveled here, as there is no Till Lindemann concert in Austria. The atmosphere was good, only the lack of a cloakroom and the lack of food was criticized by many. Little by little the hall filled up, the standing area was sold out, only the seats in the stands were empty.

At around 19:30 Phantom Vision, the first support act, began to play. Shortly before 20:00, Aesthetic Perfection entered the stage as the second support act. The three musicians managed to wake up the audience within a short time, they delivered a good show and paved the way for Till Lindemann.

At around 20:30 it was time for Till Lindemann and his band members to take their places on a red-lit, fogged stage, one after the other during the intro. As usual, all band members were dressed in red. The concert opened with Zunge, powerful and rousing. It continued with Schweiss, skillfully performed and with eels in the background. The sound was very good right from the start and the audience was fully involved. The famous cake fight took place during Allesfresser, in which drummer Joe Letz took part alongside the guitarist and keyboardist. It was the front rows that got the cakes.

During Ich weiß es nicht you could hear a short playback of Till and it seemed as if it was intended that the audience would notice, because at the end of the song Till threw his microphone onto the floor in a deliberately unwilling manner (or so it seemed to me).

During Platz Eins, Till was carried through the audience on a throne as usual. He had a camera, the pictures of which were transmitted live on stage. Platz Eins was followed by a rather skillful solo by bassist Danny Lohner, who was lifted into the air on a small platform.

During Fish On, Till threw fish into the audience, which flew a little further than the cakes, but apparently not far enough, because a little later he shot the fish with a ‘cannon’ to the very back, the cannon was loaded by the musicians. The fish were thrown further by the audience and one of my neighbors bit into one…

At the end of the concert came Steh auf, Knebel, Ich hasse Kinder, and Skills in Pills. The atmosphere was at its peak, but unfortunately the concert was over, there was no encore, but we were bid farewell by the band with Home Sweet Home.

All in all, a really successful concert! The sound was very good, nothing to complain about. The visuals had some explicit content, but not really disturbing (for me as a woman).

As I mentioned, the audience was in a very good mood and fully involved, I would say everything was fine. I am glad to have been there!

This is Mariopa’s concert report:

24.11.2023 is the date that many fans from Slovakia and neighbouring countries had their focus on as Till Lindemann with the band was about to perform his act with the new tracklist performing songs from Zunge album. So how was the show in the capital of Slovakia?

I arrived at concert place NTC Arena in Bratislava at 19:00 seemed perfect right on time for a ticket holder for seat area C. The entry was same for seating in B area. This gave me a lot of time to mingle around. First I went immediately for the beer. here I discovered that tour cups were not delivered so everybody hoping for this souvenir was disappointed. Having beer or non alcoholic drinks was only possible from regular Radegast branded 0.5 liter plastic cups. By the way, beer cost 3€.

After this I went straight to check out merch. I quickly found out that the album on CD was missing, also Sport Frei merch, and probably something else, but I do not remember as I didn’t track what was offered on previous shows. I was very hesitant about what to buy and ended up buying nothing, but I would have been ready for the album and cups.

At the same time the pre-show performances started. First was Phantom Vision and before 20:00 Aesthetic Perfection started. The main concert was about to start and it was 20:37 so we got to see Till Lindemann with some delay.

20:38, the stage in the arena got filled with smoke and red light started to flicker with the first Zunge sounds. The band was standing at the end in front and each one of them started to go to their places. Till Lindemann and drummer Joe Letz as the Sandy Beaches character went to their places as the last ones. Till started singing with mic on stand delivering his strong voice and lighting up the crowd with the first verses leading to an energetic performance. At the end Till welcomed the crowd saying “Bratislavaaa”.

The tracklist for the whole show was the same so no changes to this. The band roamed around constantly, and Till was also left and right and in the middle. The mics were getting a lot beating this time. First after Fat Till made out with the mic to his right, so no band member had to endure this, only the mic. The other mics were constantly falling from Till’s kicks, and the main heroes were the guys in black suits running around fixing them and putting them back in their positions, only for them to be kicked again moments later.

During Allesfresser we got to see everybody throw cake doing two rounds. Only Till did not throw a cake, but at the end he really prolonged the performance by him imitating throwing up.

Blut did not had any water spraying over the crowd at least it was not visible from seating area.

During Fish on we had lot of fish thrown onto the people. I was expecting the gun shooting the fish, and for a moment I thought that it will not happen. Just when I thought about it not happening, Till got the gun and band members were filling it with fish. Till really enjoys using the gun as he was always having more laughs with each shot. Some fish got destroyed by the pressure, so some people get pieces instead of whole fish. One shot hit the monitor of the guy that took care of the light show. So the force of this gun is something to be reckoned with.

When Till was performing Ich weiß es nicht he smashed few front speakers on the stage. By the end, Till came to his right side of the stage where he first leaned over on one of the smoke machine singing “Und die Wolken ziehen immer weiter, weiter, Am Ende, nass bin immer ich”, then he put his head to the smoke exhaust looking like he was drinking the smoke that was coming out of it. It was during this time that his vocals were performed on playback. Everybody noticed it and also Till. He smiled and continued his performance. He tried to say something into the mic, nothing came out, but the end was pure him as he sang “Ich weiß es einfach nicht” and threw the mic.

After Praise Abort the arena went black as little pause was needed for the Platz Eins act. But the crowd was really enjoying the concert and chanting Lindemann, Lindemann. The chant was heard also from seating areas. Once the song started, Till got all people on the seating areas B and C to stand up and get close to see him as he was about to get in the crowd. As in the other shows Till, was projecting what he saw through a GoPro attached to his big red hat.

The Steh auf song got the arena energetic and standing up again, the famous Knebel pause followed. It all happened so fast that in no time we just passed Ich hasse Kinder with the same energy, only to slow down on the Skills in Pills ending where Till went to a place close to the front row to pick up the small red hat, put in on, and said “goodbye”, took his hat off, took a bow, and the stage went dark. Not long after, the crowd was again chanting ‘Lindemann, Lindemann’. Home Sweet Home started, the band showed up once again, bowed to the crowd, and Till just said “Bratislava, dekuji, danke schon, thank you very much. Goodbye.”

That was it. Sadly no Till Lindemann logo was shown, just the x-ray visual of Till’s face singing Home Sweet Home.

This was the end of the energetic show in a small tennis arena which was not sold out, but had lot of people enjoying the great show. The side seating areas of A and C had some bad views. If you were seated closer to the stage, your view was obscured by giant speakers and stands. The best seating was in the B area that was opposite of the stage, and it probably also had the best sound. After the concert I was left a little deaf, it got ok in less than an hour, but it was expected from such a small venue.

One can really wonder how much was sung by Till as the use of playback was really evident on some parts. It is understandable for some parts, like screaming “In dem Mund, Ich Hasseee dich!” in order not to lose his voice during the performance, but questionable as to what extent it was used. Which adds to other negatives such as no tour cups present, and the difference in merch availability from previous shows. But I felt it was worth attending. Personally, if I compare it to 2020 shows as Lindemann, I liked the 2020 shows more.

24.11.2023