Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – 23 June 2023
With temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, Madrid, Spain was already hot before Rammstein brought their pyro to Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano. «I had no big expectations… and was more than surprised», writes our guest reporter C.
By KidArctica, C. from @wasichliebe (Guest Reporter), and Anna (Guest Reporter)
This year, Rammstein has chosen to do double, triple, and even quadruple shows in most of the cities they visit. Out of 16 concert locations, eleven of them had multiple shows, not counting Vilnius, who hosted the LIFAD Rehearsal. Apart from Vilnius, all the single-show locations are in southern Europe, and after Bern, three of them were coming up in a row. First out was Madrid, Spain.
Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano is the home stadium of famous football team Atlético Madrid. Originally, it was built as an athletics stadium when Madrid applied to host the 1997 World Athletics Championship, which the city did not get. After another unsuccessful bid in 2004, when the city tried to get to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, the stadium closed down. Atlético Madrid took over, renovated it, and in 2017 it re-opened as a football stadium with a seating capacity of 68.456 people.
Since then, it has gained a spot at UEFA’s “Elite Stadiums” list, and it hosted the 2019 Champions League Finals between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. Furthermore, it has hosted several big concerts, and this time, it was Rammstein’s turn to set up their stage, fill the venue with screaming fans, and crank up the heat with their intensive pyro effects.
As this was yet another show the regular blog crew did not attend, we were lucky enough to have guest reporter C. from @wasichliebe do a write-up for us for this show:
23.06.2023
I have already attended a few concerts of the current tour and this time I decided to go for seats. And that was a good thing. The sun was sizzling all day, the temperatures were around 36°C and the idea of having to queue for hours in the heat made me want to go. Respect to those who pulled this off!
I arrived at the stadium relaxed at 07:40 pm by metro. The train was full of Rammstein fans as usual. Actually, I had planned to finally buy the tour shirt, but after I saw the long queue at the merch truck and there wasn’t a shadow in sight, I didn’t feel like it any more. Actually, I wasn’t in the mood for anything. Except for Rammstein, of course!
After I found my sector, I looked for my seat and was really happy. The seats were great. Lower tier, on Paul’s side, the B stage right in front of me. Perfect.
I didn’t have any great expectations of the atmosphere at the concert. I couldn’t really estimate what the atmosphere in Spain would be like. But I was more than surprised! The atmosphere was great right from the start! The crowd was cheering the whole time!
This was probably also due to the fact that none other than Paul Landers himself stopped by in the front row before the concert began!
At 09:20 pm, Abélard finally started. I have seen them a few times now and the applause has often been moderate. But not in Madrid. The two pianists were received with great applause. Awesome!
An hour later Rammstein finally entered the stage. I have never experienced a concert that started so late! As before, the concert began with the song Rammlied. I’m very happy that the song made it into the setlist. However, I found Armee der Tristen much better and more engaging as an opener. I really miss it.
This was followed by Links-2-3-4 and Bestrafe mich. I’m most excited about the latter in the setlist. This song has an incredible energy on stage! It continued with Giftig – I had wanted this song so much for this year’s tour. Intense!
The following songs were performed as before. After Till Lindemann had sung Angst flawlessly (!), he began to stumble this time with Zeit. He messed up the first verse, swallowed some words. But the mood did not suffer. Zeit was followed by Deutschland. Everything remained the same, only this time Till changed one verse to “Man kann dich lieben und uns nicht hassen” which can be interpreted as an allusion to the current accusations. Radio and Mein Teil followed it.
Flake Lorenz then emerged from the cooking pot to play the first sounds of Du hast. How cool is it that Du hast and Sonne are played one after the other! I love it! My absolute favourites at the live shows!
After “Sonne” it’s actually usual for the band to bow to the audience, but not this time. It was already past midnight and it was Richard Kruspe‘s birthday! Till announced this in Spanish and the crowd erupted in cheers. Each band member congratulated Richard and then got a kiss from him as a thank you. Of course, the obligatory champagne toast was not to be missed.
The band left the stage to thunderous applause and reappeared on the B-Stage. Engel came next. Abélard accompanied the song with the piano. The stadium became a sea of lights. This song and especially this version always makes me emotional. Even if I would finally like to see the original version again. The band then boarded the boats and sailed over the audience back to the stage.
Back on stage, Ausländer and Du riechst so gut followed. The absolute highlight for me was the next song – Ohne dich. One of the most emotional songs by Rammstein. And it is precisely this one that has gained even more importance for me, especially in view of the current accusations and allegations. When Till changed the verse again to “Ohne dich kann ich nicht sein, ohne euch!”, I burst into tears.
Rammstein, Ich will and Adieu completed the setlist. It was now 12:30 a.m. The whole stadium couldn’t stop cheering. Till spoke to the audience in Spanish and thanked them for the great evening. We have to thank Rammstein!
The band left the stage and entered the elevator. A last wave and the big bang to say goodbye followed. And once again a wonderful concert was over. My best seated concert!
Gracias Madrid! Next stop: Lisbon!
Queuing and Entrance in Madrid
For those interested in the queueing and entrance in Madrid, we got a recap of this quite frustrating experience from Anna:
It’s been a rollercoaster, really. First, there were like 20+ (arguably 50) people there at 9 pm [Editor’s note: Obviously the day before the concert]. And all were numbered by entry (Paul’s side vs Richard’s). It looked promising. I left and came back at 1 or 2 am, and now lines were a bit further from the entrances, as apparently security pushed people out and separated the lines by two entrances.
Visually, it looked like Richard’s entrance had more people, but apparently, people from Paul’s side slept in cars. Also, for some reason, they started to say that numbers don’t matter, and we didn’t get numbers.
Then, I don’t remember when, someone spoke to the security and agreed to organize the first 50 by numbers, so we did. And closer to the time of entry (which was pushed a few times), we were all ordered in an almost perfect line. Like from the first 50 till the end of the crowd.
There were 14 lanes to enter, and the security agreed (or so we thought) that they’ll enter people from each lane in the order of our line.
We got into these 14 lanes, and AFTER that, right before our first lane of 50 people was supposed to enter, they said that they’ll open ALL 14 lanes at the same times. Meaning those who came at 1 am, 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, etc, will enter at the SAME time! We had a perfect line for them! And they screwed it up completely. I was lucky and got in one of the first, even though I was #12.
PLUS, they opened another entrance – on Paul’s side – like 5 mins later! People from our side, including those who came at like 4 pm, got the first row! And no one from the other side got it. And most of those who came at 8 pm yesterday were there!
Another “fun” fact about Madrid: There was no info about the power bank policy. And only a few minutes before they let us in, I asked the security, and he said they’re not allowed. So we had to throw our power banks in the trash, at least those of us who had no place to hide it and who didn’t want to go to the security box to store it there (it was literally minutes before entry, so we couldn’t risk it.)
Finally, a few memorable moments from the Madrid concert:
During the bridge of Mein Teil, Paul went up to the ledge on the left side of the stage, and he seemed to forget to go back to his microphone to do backing vocals for the chorus. Also during Mein Teil, he kissed and hugged Richard, cleaned Christoph Schneider‘s cymbal, and also joked around with Richard’s dancing style. As mentioned, Richard’s birthday was celebrated on stage after the band took a bow after Sonne. Richard was actually on his way off stage, but Paul ran after him and more or less dragged him back on stage. The look on Richard’s face was totally “WTF Paul?!” until he saw the champagne glasses, then a big smile spread on his face, and he seemed happy and touched by the audience singing Happy Birthday in Spanish and cheering loudly for him.
23.06.2023
- Rammlied
- Links 2-3-4
- Bestrafe mich
- Giftig
- Sehnsucht
- Mein Herz Brennt
- Puppe
- Angst
- Zeit
- Deutschland RMX
- Deutschland
- Radio
- Mein Teil
- Du hast
- Sonne
- Engel
(Piano version with Abélard) - Ausländer
- Du riechst so gut
- Ohne dich
- Rammstein
- Ich will
- Adieu
KidArctica is a RammWiki editor who has been part of the website for years, working in the background with edits and content. Fun Fact: C. buys some Rammstein merch twice, sometimes even thrice. One to use, one to keep and one as a backup.
