Berlin, Olympiastadion, Germany – July 16 & 18, 2023
After a fantastic first show in Rammstein’s home city, anticipation for the following two shows was very high. The band did not disappoint, giving their fans some amazing energy – and even some hope.
By Sez, KidArctica, Admin, and Mrzetti (photos)
16.07.2023
The second concert day started early for those of us who wanted to queue for front row again – which were a lot less than the day before, and understandably so. People were exhausted from the night before and on top of that, the weather forecast for the night promised the one thing every queuing person dreads: rain. Nevertheless, some very determined fans lined up and sat through the rainy conditions. Thankfully, the rain stopped in the morning and was forecast not to come back for the rest of the Berlin concerts.
You would think that the queuing for two concerts in a row at the same venue would be the exact same procedure each time, and Berlin is known for doing exactly this… not. The barriers enclosing the pre-entry waiting area had been removed the evening before so that concertgoers could more easily leave the stadium after the show. Now, this was a good idea for a smoother exit, but it also meant that we did not know where to line up in the early morning as the gates had not yet been set up again. Fans simply estimated where the fences would probably be placed based on the previous day and settled down there.
It was only at around 10 am that venue staff started setting the gates up again, causing the by then already much bigger crowd to get nervous, with some people starting to push to position themselves in front of one of the gates. At this point, they also suddenly announced they would only be using the first four double-laned gates for the pre-entry instead of all of them like the day before, which meant people flocked to the four designated gates until there was a big blob of tightly-packed people assembled in front of them, with many people not having enough space to even sit down.
There was again no set time for the pre-entry, so everyone just had to wait until some securities arrived some time after noon to start the process. It was then when the head of security walked up to the furthermost left of the four to-be-opened gates and nonchalantly told us: we’re not using this one. People waiting in this gate were outraged that this had not been communicated earlier and complained loudly as people were let in through the other three gates. This is a prime example of what we had already painfully learned of Berlin concert organisation from last year’s shows – there is no organisation.
Once again, people handing out the bracelets inside the waiting area were completely overwhelmed, causing many people simply go past them to get their bracelets later. The rest of the wait was uneventful. It seemed that Berlin organisers had no idea of how they actually wanted to handle their concert entry, because the entry itself inside of the stadium grounds also differed vastly from the first day. There was no additional ticket check at the gates leading up to the stadium stairs, but they did check IDs there. Arriving at the stairs, we were flabbergasted to see that securities did not accumulate people at the top of the stairs before walking them down, but instead just let everyone run down immediately at their own speed. This was not only surprising, but also simply dangerous. Then they made everyone stop at the bottom, which lead to people almost crashing into each other.
From there on out, it seemed like they did decide again that slow and controlled is better with big crowds of people and we were walked slowly towards Feuerzone. This lasted about two thirds of the way. Enter a suddenly appearing head of security shouting “we need to move faster” for some unknown reason and next thing, the whole crowd was jogging, people almost tripping while holding onto the shoulders of the people in front of them. We were and still are dumbfounded by this decision. In this hardly controlled jog, the crowd arrived at the Feuerzone gates, where hell broke loose once more and people just ran the rest of the way to the front barrier.
Fortunately, one of us managed to get through the mess very quickly and arrived at our desired spot only to see Paul Landers standing on stage, discussing something with another person. Another thing happened right in that moment – our very own KidArctica managed to not end up at the front barrier at first, but instead on the ground, as someone right in front of her suddenly tripped and fell, causing her to tumble right over him. Fortunately, we can assure everyone that KidArctica is perfectly fine, mostly getting away with just a bruised ego from face-planting right in front of Paul Landers. It is to be noted here that the (by the way incredibly buff) Berlin security personnel was very attentive and accommodating, instantly offering cooling packs and medical help if needed.
After this very… eventful entry, the wait for the concert to start was all the more uneventful. Abélard started at 7pm due to the Sunday and Tuesday shows being changed to start half an hour earlier than the Saturday show, probably due to curfews. Rammstein began their set at 8:05pm. This time, the big screen showed the zoom out of Till Lindemann‘s mouth again, unlike the first day. We have tried to see some kind of pattern as to when which intro video is used, but honestly, we have no idea. Maybe they just roll the dice for it each evening. The first few songs didn’t hold any surprises, apart maybe from the fact that Paul chose to go back to his old stage outfit. Till mumbled something that probably only makes sense in his own head instead of the correct lyrics at the end of the first verse of Giftig. As is now a usual occurrence, Richard Z. Kruspe went over to Paul during the first chorus of Mein Herz brennt and sang into Paul’s microphone with him.
During the Puppe cam, Richard apparently decided to take a step back from his usual camera-deepthroating and just lightly kissed it instead. Oliver Riedel did his little Puppe outro dance again, this time, ending it by using his bass as a crutch and humping off the stage that way.
For the Mein Teil intro, the two guitarists got on their knees and kept their foreheads pressed together for the rest of the intro. They, like the day before, didn’t kiss this time (the quiet cries of fangirls can be heard in the distance), instead, Paul decided to try and take a bite out of Richard’s neck – guitar neck, of course. Later on in the song, after Richard was done rocking out with Oliver, he didn’t join Christoph Schneider and Paul at the drumset to do the usual Mein Teil dance. Instead, Paul joined Richard at Flake Lorenz‘s usual spot and the two began walking around Flake’s keyboards. Seeing this, Schneider quickly rushed over from his drumset to join in. Olli couldn’t be bothered and simply watched from the back, although visibly smiling.
Du hast probably made a whole lot of people either laugh or cringe as Till suddenly let out a major burp (or growl… or probably burp turned into prolonged growl) after the first few lines. Well, if you need to let it out, let it out, right? And if you’re holding a microphone at the same time, might as well make some use of it.
During Engel, Richard and Paul maybe thought they had now gone long enough without kissing one another and each placed a kiss on the other person’s cheek (the quiet cries of the fangirls have suddenly vanished). Riding the boat back to the main stage, Paul caught a shark from someone in the crowd and decided on some impromptu shark-guitar-action. Richard once again collected some balloons from the crowd, this time choosing only one shark balloon and one heart balloon. Before getting off the boat, he offered both to Till, who chose the heart balloon. However, Richard kept the chosen balloon to himself and waved it around on stage. Maybe this was payback for Till leaving him to climb out of the boat by himself the day before? We can only speculate.
Flake also got himself a little souvenir from the boat ride, namely a shark mask, which he wore for the entirety of Ausländer, much to the enjoyment of the fans. During Ohne dich, Till went for another lyric change that was an obvious play on the current media storm around him, and arguable a lot more provocative than the first one: the line “und die Vögel singen nicht mehr” [and the birds sing no more] became “und die Sänger vögeln nicht mehr” [and the singers don’t fuck anymore]. The rest of the concert held no major changes or surprises. Well, no surprises from the band.
The German activist group “Peng Collective” had announced some weeks prior to the Berlin shows that they were “planning something big” and they had asked for tickets to the shows. This had lead to some of the fans going to the concerts feeling uneasy. Protests outside of the venue are one thing, but would people try to disturb the concerts from within the venue now? After the first Berlin concert went down very smoothly, most fans probably didn’t give much thought about activist groups anymore. And the second show also went down very smoothly for most people in the audience, who probably did not notice the two people getting escorted out of the venue by police some time around Du hast. Turns out they were part of the activist group and had been fiddling around with cables before security spotted them, detained them and alerted the authorities.
We will take a stance here very clearly: meddling with electronics at a concert that involves huge amounts of pyrotechnics and sound systems large enough to cause hearing damage is extremely dangerous and not the way to go, no matter the point you’re trying to prove. Some time around Sehnsucht, some activists also held up a large banner in one of the tribunes – now this is a much more acceptable way of protesting (although some people might disagree if it blocks their view…). Thankfully, the activists were discovered before they could cause any damage and conclusively the “big thing” they had announced on their socials went unnoticed by most of the fans inside of the stadium. What a shame.
18.07.2023
Queuing the third day went quite smooth. There was no rain, and temperatures were not nearly as hot as the first concert day. With the one break day in between the second and third show, we had hoped for the pre-entry gates to be set up again for the last queuing day, but of course, they weren’t, so we were just occupying space where they were supposed to be set up again. The procedure then was pretty much the same as the second concert day, but this time, the promised four double-lane gates were actually all used for the pre-entry. This time, we all just went straight to the stadium gates, settling down a little, and got our Feuerzone bracelets in a much more relaxed fashion at a later time. ‘
About five minutes before the entry, Sez got a very brief heart attack as two security employees suddenly claimed that the chains she had been wearing to the previous two shows in the same stadium already were now suddenly deemed a potential weapon and would have to be removed. Thankfully, after speaking with their supervisor, they came to the conclusion that Sez was not about to try and murder someone and the chains were not a problem anymore. Thank you for the adrenaline rush, though.
For the last entry in the Olympiastadion, security had understood that letting several hundred people run down stairs and jog through the pit was not such a brilliant idea, so they went back to walking everyone down the stairs and up to the Feuerzone gates in a more controlled manner. Although it has to be said that the entry in general felt like the worst one to a lot of us because the pushing during the walk was absolutely insane, much more so than the previous days. Nevertheless, we managed to make it through quite well and ended up in our favourite spot again, and Paul had quite the lineup of fans in front of him. Rammstein’s grand finale at home could begin!
Abélard started their set like on the second day at 7pm; Rammstein went on at 8:05pm. And the fans gave them everything. Paul was once again wearing his old outfit while Schneider stuck to his new pyjamas.
The first few songs practically flew by, with Puppe holding a very special memory for the blog crew. We had in past concerts imitated Richard’s “mosquito dance”, much to the apparent amusement of Paul, who even wiggled his arms about a little in his own strange way at the second day in Berlin. This prompted us to write signs asking Paul to do his own Puppe dance and we held them up right when Richard usually does his dance. Paul first put on his frowny face and jumped around like a spoiled child, making gestures of absolutely refusing to dance.
Well, Paul eventually caved and performed a little dance that was so wonderfully out of place during one of the most sinister songs of the set. Even Till noticed, looking over to Paul with a confused view on his face as we were cheering happily for the guitarist while Till sang about a boy’s sister getting murdered. Feelin’ the Puppe mood.
Flake Lorenz has previously held up a mirror for the Puppe cam, and he brought that out again for this concert.
Schneider, Paul and Richard got back to their usual Mein Teil dance this time around. During Engel, Till encouraged the crowd to sing along and when they did, he let out one of his famous “Jaaaaaa”s – always nice to hear those. Inflatable sharks and hearts were flying everywhere during the boat ride, some of them landing in the boats. Something else also landed in Flake’s and Schneider’s boat… or rather someone else. A young boy was thrown into their boat towards the end of the ride and got an embrace from Schneider before being helped off by Till. Schneider took the boy by his hands on stage and waved to the crowd before the boy was then escorted off the stage. Don’t worry, he didn’t disappear into the Rammstein stage backrooms, but was let back into the pit to rejoin his family right after.
Overall, the mood in the stadium was fantastic and the band felt it; they were on fire. The new-ish Ausländer outro gave Richard some time in the spotlight again, which we find great. He does amazing work as the lead guitarist and should be given some time to shine like this every now and then, with the few guitar solos present in Rammstein songs. Oh, and he also plays some truly beautiful melodies in that outro. Afterwards, Paul was having a lot of fun miming the lyrics during Du riechst so gut. Then came Ohne dich, which saw no controversial lyric changes, but lots of flashlights and emotional fans.
After Ohne dich, we thought we’d just go straight into Rammstein after the little… let’s call it a Pussy-remembrance-break, when we suddenly saw Paul jumping down from the stage. We were as confused as we were excited. He started from the left and went past the people in front row, touching and shaking hands, until he got to our (this time around fairly big) group. After he was done shaking all our hands, he then thanked us and returned to the stage. Honestly, it felt a little surreal. We had given 150% of the energy we still had in us during this last of the three Berlin shows and seeing it being appreciated by the band members like this is an indescribable feeling. No wonder this became the number one concert of some people within our group.
During the bridge in Ich will, after Till sang the line “Wir wollen, dass ihr uns vertraut” [We want you to trust us], the crowd started cheering like crazy at all three Berlin concerts, which lead to Till omitting the line that follows after each time to just… let the crowd have their moment. This has happened before only in Munich, where the band seemed especially emotional and fans showed their unchanged support for the them by cheering and indirectly telling them: We trust you. And as the fans reaffirmed their trust in the band, Till reaffirmed the fans at the end. He closed the show with the following little poem: “Und denkt immer daran: Bösen Zungen glaubt man nicht, die Wahrheit kommt doch eh ans Licht.” [And always remember: You don’t believe evil tongues, the truth will come out anyways.] It is statements like this that manage to give fans hope within this ongoing storm.
Berlin truly is a unique experience. As mentioned in the previous blog, the Olympiastadion feels like the Stadium Tour was designed for it. Nowhere else do you get the stadium lighting setup to work alongside the already elaborate stage lighting like this. From Mein Herz brennt on, every song involved the stadium roof either lighting up in the fitting colour for the song, even pulsating to the beat or the smaller strobe lights at the edge of the roof flashing and sparkling. Some especially noticeable and well-executed light shows were incorporated into Du riechst so gut, Ich will and the end of Adieu. This lighting setup created an all-encompassing effect like nowhere else. Being in the crowd, everything around you was lit up and just elevated the stage light choreography.
It’s a magical feeling to be in the Olympiastadion for Rammstein. And not even just the stadium, but the people as well. It is true that German crowds are not among the craziest or hard-going ones, but they do one thing incredibly well: they sing. Du hast almost gave you hearing damage from how loud the crowd was. And hardly anywhere else do you get crowds chanting songs like Zeit, Sonne or even Adieu along as enthusiastically as in Germany and especially Berlin. When you watch videos of outside the stadium and all you can hear is the crowd having the time of their lives, it puts a smile on your face. Or, well, on ours, anyway.
Berlin is a rollercoaster of emotions. The location comes along with some of the worst organisation and horribly chaotic entries, but arguably some of the best concerts of the tour (and absolutely the best stadium, case closed). Certainly the most controversial concerts. Fans flock to Berlin every time to specially witness Rammstein playing their home games. The band can travel the entire world, but the saying really does hold true here: there’s simply no place like home.
16.07.2023 & 18.07.2023
- 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
Admin is the founder and owner of RammWiki. Sez, KidArctica, and Mrzetti are RammWiki editors who have been part of the website for years, working in the background with edits and content. Fun Fact: Mrzetti prefers to only do one show each city, because its always nice to see different crowds and stadiums.
