Restless Agitation

SWT Arena Trier, Trier – 20 November, 2023

«This man has an impact you can hardly describe, and you are not getting a second to ponder, because once the show starts, you are caught in a restless agitation», writes guest reporter Fragezeichen about the Till Lindemann show in Trier.

by Fragezeichen (guest reporter), Herr-Vorragend13 (guest reporter), and KidArctica

As the RammWiki blog crew could not make it to SWT Arena in Trier, two guest reporters – Fragezeichen and Herr-Vorragend13 – were kind enough to offer their help with covering the concert there. This was the 8th scheduled show of the tour. Unfortunately, the Kassel show that was supposed to happen two days earlier, got cancelled, so Trier was the 7th show that was actually played. SWT Arena has a capacity of 7500 people for a standing concert, and the location was sold out, like all the other German shows.

This is Fragezeichen’s report from Trier:

The RammWiki team could not be on site for the show in Trier, so I will gladly share my experiences and impressions. Thanks to the RammWiki team, by the way, for offering this great service to us.

I’d call myself an established fan of Rammstein, but so far have never been on a show of Lindemann or Till Lindemann. This is probably important to justly measure my comments and impressions. Skills in Pills just did not touch me enough, and when I finally found out that F & M is a lot more to my liking, no tour dates were left available for me.

This year it was high time to fill that gap.

Unfortunately, on announcement of the tour dates, I already had another appointment for Münster, and – as it sadly turned out – „fortunately“ also one for Kassel. So, on release of the tour dates, I booked a hotel and applied for a 2-day holiday, to make the approx. 300 km journey to Trier, anxious to finally see that show.

As it turned out I was in for some surprises, mostly positive ones. I arrived at the site on time at about 6:00 pm, gates should open at 6:30. But it was raining cats and dogs, so much that not even an umbrella would have been of any help, so I cancelled my dream of getting my favourite place in the audience and remained high-and-dry in the car for what felt like an eternity.

I started queuing at about 7:10, gates had supposedly been open for some time, but the queue still was some 700 m; probably because even many of the toughest fans decided to postpone entry due to the strongest rain.

As far as I could see up to the front and also judging by the still enlarging column behind me, the audience was very young, surprise 1. They were maybe around 26 years on average, which means there was an amazing lot of youngsters of 20-22, a couple of mid-30s, and the occasional grey like me, who just refuse to be confined to the rocking chair instead of visiting metal and rock concerts. A lot of them were speaking French, so they probably had quite a trip also from Luxembourg or even France.

Admission was very quick though; surprise 2. I got through security check at about 7:55. Meanwhile it started raining again, which might have had an impact on the protesting crowd as well. They were an estimated 80-100, certainly not more. It was peaceful on both sides. The queue mostly did not even take notice of them, and nobody even felt like insulting or even teasing them; surprise 3. They – in turn – did not plaster us with „shame on you“ etc. Police could afford to remain in the unseen (and probably comfortably dry) background. Press reports of previous concerts probably have been exaggerated.

I got a still acceptable place some 50 m off the first row, half-left off the centre, when Phantom Vision started their support. I never heard nor saw them before, but it was a very good warm up, though the audience seemed not too enthusiastic. After a very short break, Aesthetic Perfection entered the stage for the next warm-up session, also so far unknown to me. This really felt like good industrial metal, straight to the point, without any bling-bling. They did a great job, but again the audience was quite static, though not fully motionless.

The last break started. A general round of „get the final drink and return the last one“ offered some gaps in the audience and got me some 10-12 m closer to the front.

What seemed to me like one of the shortest pre-headliner breaks ever – surprise 4 – was dominated by a constantly rising tension among the audience, which you could not see, but clearly feel. After all, the support was great, but everybody actually came for Till, didn’t we?

The tension broke like an explosion when very shortly after 21:00 the lights suddenly went out and the band instantly started with Zunge from the current longplayer, no room for a long welcome scene, just full power right from the start. You have probably already been reading all there is to know about the show in the reports of other locations, so I will just share my personal impressions as a first-timer:

When Till Lindemann became visible, audible, feelable! you could sense another vibe going through the audience. This man has an impact you can hardly describe, and you are not getting a second to ponder, because once the show starts, you are caught in a restless agitation. Something worth seeing always happens somewhere on the stage, on the screen, with Till, with the band… is that a drummer or a string puppet on speed?, don’t look to the left too long!, damn what was that on the screen, where is Till now, and how the hell is she (Constance Day) doing that again and still playing? It constantly makes you want to have three pairs of eyes with full vision, while the music restlessly dictates a powerful rhythm to all of your body.

Maybe Tanzlehrerin still in the first half of the show was your last chance to wipe off some sweat, while swaying along to the flamenco a bit, but otherwise your senses never got any break, because none was ever offered. There’s a term for that: great entertainment!

My personal favourite of that show definitely is the combination of Blut, followed up by Praise Abort. Blut is even so much better live than on disc. The previous song was Sport frei with impressions of black-white colour scheme, so the foggy deep red setup for Blut was a real contrast and a perfect follow up. Other than the studio version, it opened not vocally, but with a stoic and powerful beat. In that moment you could have been in that show as well as in the belly of an early 20th century coal steamer.

The melodic and fast follow-up Praise Abort finally got the last one of the audience moving, clapping, shouting along. Now the crowd was positively boiling and remained so … till the end. After Steh auf concluded the main show, a short break in full darkness was followed by the encore, and finally the show terminated with Skills in Pills, the band stepping up to bow in respect of the audience, Till doing so once in each direction, accepting the frantic cheers of the crowd in return, while a projection of Till’s head in Roentgen-style was presented on the screen at around 22:50.

A word about the „sound problems“ mentioned in some reports. Sound of the instruments was great, and the same goes for all passages where Till was actually singing. Whenever the vocal mode got like narrative, more silent, to be followed up again by singing and instruments, there was an annoying mismatch in adjustment, which made it feel like he was using cheap gear or holding a microphone for the first time in his life, which is strange, because nothing like that could be true. Also I take it that his sound engineers and mixers are established professionals. Maybe it is connected to the microphone being coated in red which probably changes a Iot of that sensitive gear; I don’t know, of course, but these problems were strangely evident throughout the show, but not grave enough for tainting the incredible experience.

One impression that did actually not surprise me, maybe as a side note concerning those among the audience wearing Rammstein-shirts and who probably also have been a primer to a Till Lindemann show… that evening proved something:

Till Lindemann is not „Rammstein with another band“, which probably also proves that Rammstein is not just Till Lindemann plus some band. That artist and his show is different and even much so, from Rammstein. And personally, I don’t want to have it any other way.

My biggest thanks to Till, the band, and the crew for a great evening. I enjoyed every minute and it was worth each kilometer of driving and the 2-day holiday. I sincerely regret that Hamburg is sold out, or I wouldn’t hesitate a second to go there for another dose.

This is Herr-Vorragend13’s report:

The concert itself was very interesting. Lots of awkward parts but you can imagine that at a TL concert… I was a bit disappointed by Skills in Pills, I was really looking forward to it, but Till sang the song in a different key, in my opinion. I’ve never been to a TL concert, so I can’t judge how the vocals are otherwise. Other than that, everything was actually the same as at the other concerts before. The fish bazooka was there again and so were the cakes. All in all, I was happy with the concert. Till was in a very good mood and made a lot of jokes. During lines that had to do with another person, such as “Ich hasse dich” in Knebel or “I like you big” in Fat, he almost always pointed to a specific person in the crowd and got people involved. I personally thought that was very cool, because that’s never really the case with Rammstein, at least not at the 8 concerts I went to this year and last year.

20.11.2023