Stadion Śląski, Chorzów, Poland – July 30 & 31, 2023
At the second to last location of their 2023 Europe Stadium Tour, Rammstein found together on stage again and again. The band members played and had fun in sweet harmony in front of an enthusiastic Polish crowd.
By KidArctica and Pnzr
Stadion Śląski, or in English Silesian Stadium, is located in the Silesian Park in Chórzow, Poland. When the park project was started in 1950, the stadium was a part of it, and it was finished in 1956. Interestingly enough, the first match there, 22 July 1956, was against East Germany. For decades, it was the Polish national stadium, but eventually lost that title to the Stadion Narodowy (National Stadium) in Warsaw. In 2009, renovations started, and the stadium didn’t open again until 2017. Now, with a capacity of 55,211 people, it hosts not only football games, but also athletics championships as well as concerts.
Many huge artists have played at Stadion Śląski, including The Rolling Stones, Metallica, U2, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and of course Rammstein, who were there in 2019. While the band picked Warsaw for 2022, they were back in Chorzów for their 2023 Europe Stadium Tour.
30.07.2023
The Polish crowd is known for being really enthusiastic, and long before midnight the day before the show, close to 30 people had lined up outside of the stadium. However, many of them seemed to have taken a number before leaving to sleep at hotels or in cars. As this was unfair to those who spent the night (partly in rain) outside the venue, some of the local queuers did a new numbering in the morning at 6 am, which no one seemed to object to. At that time, there were already close to 50 people there.
Quite early in the morning, head of security came out to talk to us. He was open to work with our numbers. We were told that we would be let in early for Feuerzone wristbands, and that they would walk us all the way inside the stadium. As the head of security bragged about how he had escorted people to the front row at a Harry Styles show in Warsaw, we almost believed it. Though experience has told us that we should never take anything for granted.
Closer to entry time, more and more people ignored numbers and tried to cut. The first warning sign was that security didn’t do anything about this, and let people without numbering stand next to those with the lowest numbers. While we did have our tickets and ID checked and got our wristbands early and according to the numbering, once the gates were opened, we realised all bets were off.
Since our ticket checks had already been done, we were let in through the gates without further checks. We were then stopped by what was supposed to be security check (which didn’t actually happen), and then again before we were walked down the short slope to the floor area by security. This is where everything went awry. There were way too few security guards to control the crowd. The pushing was intense, people were screaming and struggling to stay on their feet, and as soon as we got down the slope, they let people loose.
When a huge crowd of people starts running all at the same time, that’s never good. At least one guy shoved everyone in front of him aside. I took a hard push and barely managed to stay on my feet until another guy actually tripped me from behind. I had no chance, I went down. With people running and jumping over me, I had to try to protect my head instead of getting up immediately, as there was a real risk of getting trampled or kicked in the face. After a while, a nice woman helped me up.
Another friend of mine was pushed and fell down twice. We were both lucky none of us were seriously injured. I got away with bruises and a scratched cell phone screen. As we were a bigger group who had spent the night outside together, we all managed to make it to the front in the end, but not thanks to security. This entry was downright dangerous, and for me, the worst of the ones I had done during the tour.
The concert was as usual really good. Paul Landers took off his sunglasses early. He started Pauling and interacting with the crowd, looking for his usual suspects and acknowledging some as they were spotted. Till Lindemann made sure the audience took notice of Flake Lorenz during the Bestrafe mich solo, as has become fairly common this tour.
During Mein Herz brennt, Oliver Riedel strolled over to the right side of the stage, but quickly went back to his own platform on the left when the chorus started. Richard Z. Kruspe decided to stop by Oliver and rock out a bit with him after sharing a mic with Paul for the first chorus. Till then came over to Paul to “scare” him, and of course, Paul made sure to look properly scared. Meanwhile, Oliver decided to be brave again and went to the front of the stage to rock out during the second chorus, though he quickly ran back up to safety next to the drums.
The Puppe intro lasted so long that we got an interesting little variant just before Till started singing. Then it was time to dance. Flake took the opportunity to do a robot walk back up to his keyboards. Oliver did a little dance during the interlude when Paul and Till did their synchronised sideways walk. Flake did some steps up in his spot, followed by a robotic dance during the chorus. Richard then did his infamous mosquito dance, while Paul did his own dance on his side of the stage before playing the next verse bent over. Oliver did his little outro dance as well, up next to Christoph Schneider, who seemed confused and got up to check out what the bassist was doing.
The Polish audience did not disappoint. Already during Zeit, the stadium was flooded with lights from thousands of cell phones. And during Radio, the crowd was jumping so much that the seismograph at the Silesian Planetarium picked up a spike at this time, showing that the Rammstein audience actually moved the earth a tiny, tiny bit.
Mein Teil is as always a highlight. During the intro, Paul tickled Richard’s neck suggestively while Richard was playing. He then disappeared off stage, to Till’s disappointment, as he went looking for him without finding him. Paul later went up to inspect Schneider’s drums and play there while Richard went to rock out with Oliver by Flake’s keyboards, before the three usual suspects did their finger-snapping dance while Till brought out his big flamethrower.
During Du hast, Paul decided to run his finger across the cooking pot, and for unknown reasons, he used the soot to draw a cross on his forehead. He later ran over to Richard to play with him, and allegedly the two of them kissed when Till fired the fireworks gun – although I totally missed that, and haven’t been able to find a good video of it. Perhaps it was the second day? Oh well.
After Sonne, when the band had taken a bow, Oliver stumbled when he walked backwards towards the exit. Luckily, he didn’t take a big fall.
Back on the main stage after the boat ride, Flake played standing up with his keyboard in his hands, during Ausländer. During the Du riechst so gut freeze, Till made Oliver uncomfortable by holding his microphone dangerously close to Oliver’s crotch, while Paul stared at them and walked around, pretending he didn’t understand what was going on and why the others were standing still.
Paul and Richard found each other again during Ohne dich. When taking the final bow, Richard pointed at Oliver and made the bassist take an extra bow alone. Paul and Till were talking and pointing during the elevator ride. All in all, there were so many interactions, which was so enjoyable to see.
31.07.2023
Several people went straight out after the first concert to queue up for the second day, despite the bad entry – or rather because of it. When an entry has lots of pushing and bad crowd control, it is normally good to be up front of that line, and it’s easier to claim your spot when people try to cut. Fewer people lined up for the second concert, but there were still a lot compared to many other locations.
However, the entire entry for the second day was changed compared to the first day. Instead of a ticket check and wristband handout before doors, nothing was done until doors actually opened. We then had an ID check, then ticket check, then wristband – and from there on, it was a straight run. There might have been a security check, but I was never patted down by anyone, and apparently it didn’t happen this day either.
While there were many guards set up to try and slow people down, this didn’t work (of course), but because the checks staggered the crowd naturally, the run never became a stampede. With a few runners in our group, we all made it to the spots we wanted. This was such an improvement from the first day, and I really have to commend the organisers for making the entry more controlled and safe.
It took a really long time for Rammstein to come on stage though. Where the previous concert had started at 8:35 pm, this second concert didn’t start until 8:50 pm. But once the band came on, the delay was of course forgiven and forgotten.
During Bestrafe mich, Flake came down to front of the stage and gestured at Till, perhaps a premonition of what was to come in the Brussels shows…? Till later went over to Flake to admire his little dance during the keyboard solo.
Paul was as usual quite active. During Giftig, he went up to Schneider and rocked out behind him for a long while. He eventually came back down to the front of the stage just in time to get chased around by Till, who seemed like he wanted to show him just how deep his tongue could go. Richard also wanted to rock out with Schneider, although he did so during Sehnsucht, but interestingly enough, he did not go over to Paul’s side to share a mic for Mein Herz brennt.
Oliver was very lively during this concert, several times doing a little dancing by himself. He kneeled down and did his “praying” ritual during the Sehnsucht intro. For the Puppe intro, he brought back the same thing he did in Oslo last year – he entered with the light of his in-ears turned off, then turning them on while pretending he got a bright idea. We also got both a short interlude dance as well as an outro dance from him, a standing one this time.
The Puppe intro also saw Flake sit in the lotus position he used in the Zick Zack music video. Till used the camera to do a close-up inspection of both Paul’s face and his guitar. Paul continued his now tradition of doing a little interlude dance – it is always fun to see if he will dance, and if so, which moves he will do as the dance differs from concert to concert.
During Zeit, Till went to stand in front of Schneider, looking at the drummer, while holding his arms out to the side. Paul, who had done a little conducting of the audience, decided to walk up next to Till, mimicking him by also stretching his arms out to the side. He then strolled around the left side of the stage with his hands on his back, making Oliver smile, before returning to his spot, doing his “looking at his wristwatch” move, before picking up his guitar and start playing again.
Paul made Oliver smile also during Deutschland, by goofing off in front of him. Apparently, he managed to hurt his pinky at some point, because during Radio, he went over to Oliver again, this time to show him his pinky while blowing at it, then gesturing that he didn’t know what had happened to his finger. The bassist just stared at him, looking like two metres of confusion.
As usual, Paul and Richard came together for the Mein Teil intro, and Paul played with Richard’s button this time before disappearing off stage. After Till had entered with the giant pot, he went looking for Paul. When he couldn’t find the guitarist anywhere, he looked quite annoyed, so when Paul came back out with a “looking for me?” face, Till promptly commanded him to get to his spot immediately, where Paul “cried” in fear of the dangerous butcher. He later sat down on the stage and kicked his feet, before eventually going up to Schneider while Richard went up to Oliver.
When it was time for the background dancing, instead of dancing, Schneider, Paul, and Richard did a “walk around the drum kit” routine, with especially Schneider going all in, even playfully grabbing Richard’s sides. Richard responded by sitting down on Schneider’s drum throne. As usual, Oliver did not participate, he even went hiding for a little while.
All PaulChard fans had plenty of enjoying to do this concert. During Du hast, Paul joined Richard again on the right side. For the Du riechst so gut freeze, the two of them pointed at each other, while Till decided to steal a handful of Schneider’s drumsticks and threw them to an excited crowd. For Ohne dich, the two guitarists found together once again, this time it was Richard who headed over to Paul’s side. Paul responded by playing the beta version of the song, which was really beautiful to hear.
In the elevator after the final bow, Richard and Oliver had a moment – the two of them were chatting and smiling, and Richard totally lost it in laughter. In many ways, that was a good image of the concerts in general – there was a sweet harmony between the band members. They really seemed to have fun together, which made for two very enjoyable shows.
RammWiki editor Pnzr was also present at these concerts. He wrote down some of his impressions from the shows:
About the entry:
I’ve been going to concerts since 2005. Been to big concerts before, it was my sixth Rammstein concert in Poland, and I’ve never seen anything happening like that before. The head of security really did his best with trying to organize the numbered people entry, but they let in too many people for the staff they had for this task. Rammstein fans, and especially Rammstein fans in Poland, are NOT a similar crowd that goes to Harry Styles. It’s much, much wilder crowd.
After letting people inside the first entry reels, people were gathered and held with a tape by the security staff. What in theory seemed like a good idea (escorting the people to the front row), turned out to be a disaster with too many people inside the tape. The fans tried to run within the crowd, they started pushing each other since everyone wanted to be the first so they could get the best spots in the front row. People started to get squeezed, some began to scream in panic, and it’s really a miracle that nobody got seriously hurt or trampled during this walk of horror down to the pit. Despite people falling down during the walk, nobody from the staff seemed to notice or care about it. Some fans helped others get up after the circle broke.
The Chorzów concerts were the only concerts for me this tour besides the rehearsal in Vilnius. Here are some memorable moments for me.
30th August:
- During Angst, Richard was clapping to the sample during the verses.
- The smoke during the Deutschland remix now reaches the audience which is awesome, the atmosphere during this part is even better. It creates a really cool effect.
- When Flake climbed out of the pot at the end of Mein Teil to start Du hast on his small keyboard on the left side of the stage, the audience started to chant Flake’s name.
- Till was genuinely amazed by the Polish fans singing Du hast when the band stopped playing.
- Before the first chorus during Du riechst so gut, Till encouraged the Polish audience to sing by shouting “Kurwa, Poland!”
- At one point during the concert, Paul went down to the audience and touched hands of the fans, he also handed one of his guitar picks to a fan.
- At the end, Till thanked the audience by saying “Kurwa, Poland, dziękuję, you are fantastic! Thank you, dziękuję, thank very much, dziękuję, danke schön.”
90 000 people were present at the stadium during the concert on the 30th August, 45 000 standing according to the information obtained from the security staff.
31st August:
- The concert started 20 minutes later and it made a huge difference when it comes to the show. You can really appreciate the stage and light effects when it’s dark.
- Jens Koch gave a fan Paul’s guitar pick since she had a sign asking for one, she was very disappointed it wasn’t Paul himself who gave it to her.
- One of the boat technicians praised the audience when the last boat arrived after Engel piano version, he said “everything is under control, you are very professional”.
- After the band bowed down, Till encouraged the fans to applaud even more. He said “Poland, you were amazing, thank you so much Poland, dziękuję, dziękuję, dziękuję, danke schön”.
Overall:
I personally noticed that the pyro effects were amped up compared to the 2019 and 2022 concerts, either the fire intensity was doubled or the first row was closer to the stage. It was VERY hot, it was actually painful, maybe equally to the 2019 rehearsal in Gelsenkirchen where the first row was way closer to the stage.
30.07.2023 & 31.07.2023
- 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
KidArctica and Pnzr are RammWiki editors who have been part of the website for years, working in the background with edits and content. Pnzr is the main social media guy of RammWiki. Fun fact: Pnzr’s friends, who are also Rammstein fans, know that he can still talk their ears off about the band.
