Chanting Through the Cake

Porsche Arena, Stuttgart – 16 December, 2023

A sold out venue in Stuttgart proved that the supposedly stingy Swabian people were more than happy to spend the money and welcome Till Lindemann band to the German south. And what a welcome it was – with possibly one of the best crowds of the tour, Till and the band played a show that neither they nor the audience should be forgetting too soon.

By Sez, Admin, and KidArctica

Griaß Gott! That is a Swabian way of saying hello, which I couldn’t resist doing considering Stuttgart being the capital of Swabian culture – and me being one. When I originally heard that Till Lindemann would play in Stuttgart, I was beyond excited. For some reason, nothing exciting ever happens down here, in the South-West of Germany, at least when it comes to Rammstein or Till. So I am used to having to travel multiple hours for any kind of concert (or the occasional Rammstein Store opening). We will ignore the fact that Rammstein played two shows in Stuttgart in 2022, because for some unknown reason, I went to all kinds of shows that year except for the one that was actually close to me. In any way, Till Lindemann would finally play in the city and I was thrilled.

I had been to some concerts in the arena complex that holds both the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Halle and the smaller Porsche Arena before, so I knew the venue itself. However, that never included being in the standing pit in the Porsche Arena, which made me just as unsure of how the way to into the venue would go as the majority of the big crowd that had formed around the entry gates shortly before 18:30. Fortunately, entry went really well and our group managed to get to the front barrier center-leftish, for a great view of Joe Letz‘s manic playing style. The concert was sold out and the arena was filled to the brim – Till surely could have also sold out the bigger neighbouring Schleyer Halle if he wanted to.

We were in a great mood and therefore gave it our all for every act of the night. Starting this off on time at 20:00 was, of course, Phantom Vision. The band delivered a thoroughly entertaining performance as usual, and blog crew colleague KidArctica and me continue to find great joy in dramatically singing along to synth player Tiago’s “Tiiiiiime is the master”-backing vocals. Singer Pedro was his usual extravagant stage-self, including shaking, swinging and swallowing his microphone. Phantom Vision did a great job of getting the crowd ready for a fantastic evening.

Till Lindemann, by KidArctica

Next up was Aesthetic Perfection, who I honestly always look forward to just as much as the actual main act. And they didn’t disappoint. First off, it was unexpected but quite amazing to hear singer Daniel Graves make the opening announcement in German. And once the actual music starts, the band has an incredible energy on stage that, without any kind of pyro or other special effects, just grabs you and makes you want to move. And that seems to apply to a lot of people, as the crowd response to Aesthetic Perfection was electric. Daniel, Lore Jarocinski, and Mike Schopf all have the stage presence to play for and capture an audience as big as on this tour, and thanks to them, Till Lindemann band can start out their set each time to an audience that is just about as hyped up as can be. It has to be noted that the crowd in Stuttgart seemed a lot more into the opening acts compared to the two previous shows I myself attended, that being Tallinn and Helsinki. It was a great feeling as part of the audience and hopefully for the bands as well.

Jes Paige, by KidArctica

Some time around 21:20, the lights went out, cheers erupted, and everyone knew what was coming: Till Lindemann! In usual fashion, the whole band lined up at the back of the stage for the grand epic intro that is Zunge, and the song hit just as hard as it did the first time – maybe even more, because throughout the show, the energy of the crowd was palpable.

For the sake of keeping this a (somewhat) reasonable blog post and not a novel, I will not go into detail about every song this time, but instead focus on a few standout moments that made the show for me. One of those happened during our beloved Allesfresser, where Joe truly made use of his silicon vagina prop and pulled soaked red tampon out of it to then throw it into the crowd. What a souvenir to take home! When talking about Allesfresser, one cannot go without mentioning how the caking went. This time, it went really well! For me, that is. Somehow the people next to me got absolutely covered in cake, especially KidArctica by Jes Paige and Admin by Danny Lohner. Somehow I managed to get away mostly unscathed – even though a friend who had gotten a cake catapulted smack in his face by Joe tried very hard to smear it into my face for justice.

During Platz Eins, Till went on his usual journey through the audience together with the always dancing Constance Day, but instead of returning to the stage immediately, he walked past the front barrier and stopped in front of Danny for a while to admire the bassist up there on the ego riser in the spotlight.

Fish On saw an interesting, unexpected turn of events. After throwing his bowl of fish by hand, Till seemingly forgot about the fish cannon and the band slithered into the continuation of the song somewhat awkwardly, clearly confused as to what was going on. At some point during the rest of the song, a lightbulb must have turned on above Till’s head, reminding him of a big, cannon-shaped vacuum in the song performance, so he went to grab the cannon after the song had ended and the lovely fish-shooting-assistants Jes and Constance helped Till distribute the rest of the fish throughout the arena.

Knebel stands out to me personally due to a joyful interaction with Danny. As the lyrics went “Ich hasse dich”, I decided to make him my target, pointing at him and screaming the words. He kindly responded by giving me the finger – but he smiled and waved afterwards, so I’m not holding a grudge.

During the last song of the night, Skills in Pills, Jes apparently decided that breaking a guitar during Knebel wasn’t enough. She went up to Constance’s spot and demolished one of her keyboards, posing proudly after.

In summary, it was a thoroughly amazing night, and a lot of that also comes from just how enthusiastic the crowd was. People were singing along to every song, and especially when there were chorus-chants or Till was pointing the microphone to the crowd, you could hear the thousands of voices reverberate through the arena. This was felt most strongly in Ich hasse Kinder and Knebel. It is hard to describe, but the feeling is magical. Thank you to the bands and the audience for making this concert in my home so special. Around here, you would say that it really was “net schlecht” (not bad), which is just about the biggest compliment a Swabian can give.

16.12.2023

  1. Zunge
  2. Schweiss
  3. Fat
  4. Altes Fleisch
  5. Allesfresser
  6. Golden Shower
  7. Tanzlehrerin
  8. Ich weiß es nicht
  9. Sport frei
  10. Blut
  11. Praise Abort
  12. Platz Eins
  13. Fish On
  14. Gummi
  15. Steh auf
  16. Knebel
  17. Ich hasse Kinder
  18. Skills In Pills

Sez and KidArctica are a RammWiki editors who have been part of the website for years, working in the background with edits and content. Fun fact: KidArctica challenged Sez to wear red latex panties to this show, like the ones Constance, Emily and Jes wear, and out of sheer stubbornness, she did.

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