No Cake, No Fish, but Up For Another Round

On a chilly, but not too cold Sunday in December, I arrived at the Lotto Arena in Antwerpen early in the afternoon. There were 14 others there already by that time, a far cry from the number Rammstein draws in the very early morning hours. Joining the queue for a show is nothing new for me. I have done it twice for Rammstein back in 2022, and I still do it for a lot of other bands. Usually, it is a great time! For this show, I had the luck to be able to spend the day with two friends I have known for some time online, making it really enjoyable. A Rammstein related queue in my experience always feels a bit differently from other bands, a bit more tense, but for most of the day it was fun. Jokes were made, laughs were had.

At around 18h, they opened the gate outside the venue and people were allowed to pretty much run to a second set of gates or buy merchandise. If anyone attended the Rammstein shows in Nijmegen, the Netherlands in 2022, this entry was very similar, but generally safer than that, luckily. I do however feel that with most other bands it wouldn’t have been as pushy or chaotic. In that sense Rammstein fans can occasionally be the Swifties of the metal scene lol.

We were asked to wait for 30 more minutes, when finally, the doors opened. Again, chaos. The classic “NO RUNNING!” was yelled by security… but as always, most weren’t stopped by it. Just my luck as my phone decided to jump to the lock screen right as I found a completely uncrowded gate and scanner, and others pushed into me because I took too long. But somehow, by speedwalking I made it to the first row, right in front of Danny Lohner, like I wanted!

We waited for the opening bands. In the meantime, a really drunk small lady got behind me and my friend. She was constantly trying to squeeze in, touch others, and talk shit about us, rather than asking nicely. This annoyed pretty much everyone around her during the opening acts. At some point she got into a fight with some people and security gave her a warning. About three songs into Till Lindemann‘s set she was gone.

Anyway, Phantom Vision came on! I am mostly a metal guy, but I was pleasantly surprised at what I heard here! Their short set kept the attention all the way through. The start of a cool evening.

Then… It was finally time for the main event: Till Lindemann!

I haven’t been to any (Till) Lindemann shows before this one. Of course, I have seen Live in Moscow and some fan footage on YouTube, so I was familiar with what to roughly expect. Like all the previous shows the band opened with Zunge, a song that I liked when it came out, but it didn’t manage to keep my attention for very long initially. But wow… live, this song is a different beast entirely. The buildup is strong and it is staged very well in terms of lights and with the powerful video. After the show, the song has found its way into my frequent rotation again. Another thing I would like to point out is Emily Ruvidich‘s additional lead guitar part in the chorus. It is one of the few (non-drumming related) twists the live band adds to one of the songs, and it really adds to the song in this case. It makes it feel a bit more “Rammstein-y”.

One thing that was noticeable immediately was the stark difference between how the music was mixed compared to the mix of a Rammstein show (and a bunch of other smaller scale shows in similar sized venues I have attended). The mix really emphasized the drums and vocals only, very little guitar, and the bass lacked a lot of oomph, leading to certain songs lacking some of the drive I hoped they would have. More on this later. Several people near me later echoed this sentiment, but friends that had seats in the back had no complaints about the sound and thought it was powerful. This is by no means a fault of the band, but rather a front of house decision, I suppose.

After Zunge came Schweiss, the only song of the Nass-Schweiss-Lecker-trilogy to be played during the set. This song is an absolute banger live, and it was the highlight of the NSL release for me. Nass would later overtake that, and I would have loved to see that song be incorporated into the live set, but alas. Schweiss carried a nice energy. Same goes for Fat, a favourite of mine from Skills in Pills, which was next. At the end, like always, Till broke and fucked a mic-stand which then got thrown onto the ground right in front of me.

Anyway, back to Allesfresser! Luckily (or sadly, the jury is still out on that one), none of the cakes managed to hit me, but people around me got hit plenty of times. The cakes were fruitcakes, but some were also cheesecake. They smelled really nice too… until a few minutes later when the venue started to smell like whipped cream gone bad.

Golden Shower got some good laughs, and the song goes hard. The band truly made a great setlist for this tour featuring a lot of the hits from all three (Till) Lindemann albums. Then it was time for Tanzlehrerin, my initial favourite song when Zunge came out. In the live set it really worked as a nice break after a bunch of up-tempo songs. It was staged well in terms of lighting. Jes Paige and Till Lindemann stole the show, but Sandy shaking the maracas and Constance Day‘s dancing also added nicely to the vibe of it all.

The show and performance so far were really solid… Until Ich weiss es nicht. This song has never been my favourite in all honesty. It never managed to capture me, and today did nothing to convince me otherwise. Till fumbled a lot with the lyrics in the verses, making the song really hard to follow and sing along to. I would have rather seen a different song in its place, like Children of the Sun, Yukon, Frau & Mann, Ladyboy, or even Nass or Lecker, but alas. If I had to need to mention a single low point of the show, it would be this song.

On to better things: SPORT FREI! Dear god, this song always gets me pumped! What a banger. This is another one of those songs that could have benefited from a bit punchier mixing tonight. But who cares. It’s an absolute undeniable banger and it really got everyone going!

After that came Blut. Having never experienced a (Till) Lindemann show in person I did not really know what to expect here effect wise. I knew there would be water, but videos, including Live in Moscow, never conveyed this well. I can tell you, if you are up front, you will be WET. Any cake that’s still on the floor turns into slime and the venue becomes a gross mess. This song is cool and the marching choreography of the band members adds nicely to the vibe.

I didn’t get hit luckily (or sadly, once again the jury is still out on that one), but one of the fish landed on my friend’s bag. The thing smelled so badly, even after the show. Some fish got flung back on stage, and one of them almost hit Jes and Constance to their dismay. They flipped the guy off, and I think he got taken out of the crowd not too long after as well. Other fish didn’t cause the same reaction (luckily). I think it was after this song that Till wiped his hands on a red towel, which then was thrown into the crowd. It flew right over me and got caught by the woman behind me, who, naturally, took a deep sniff of it as her first reaction.

On to what in my opinion actually is a contender for the “worst” thing content-wise in the show: Gummi and its snuff film. This song is fun, but the video is very intense and a bit unpleasant to look at at times. It surprises me that it is the Golden Shower video that is written about the most.

Steh Auf, much like Sport Frei and Praise Abort was a highlight in terms of the crowd singing and partying along. The band bowed and left the stage and the crowd screamed for an encore!

It was time for the final three songs, first being Knebel, one of my personal favourites! Much like Tanzlehrerin, this song is very well staged. I love the final chorus of this song and I sang along loud and proud, after which it was time for Ich hasse Kinder. The crowd loved this one and I went along for the ride.

After this it was time for the grand finale: Skills in Pills! The visuals of this song got overhauled compared to the old Lindemann tour… and I am not sure if it is for the better lol. This video always was a bit disgusting, but they managed to top it. Those who know, know. How this slipped through the cracks of journalists (much like the pills in the video), I have no idea. But it is funny, considering how the show opens, the visuals here kind of close the circle. This song slaps and is a perfect conclusion to the show. I saw that during other shows, Till would put on the red hat from the Ach So Gern and NSL video as he said goodbye. He didn’t do that tonight. During the final bits, Emily threw her guitar picks and a friend of mine managed to catch one!