Performance for the Cameras

Entrance:
I arrived to the Tauron Arena two hours before Till Lindemann‘s start. Entrance worked well and there were only small lines of people although the concert was nearly sold out.

Place/seat and view:
I had a floor ticket (not golden circle). I was maybe 50 meters away from the stage. Luckily I’m tall and I could see pretty okay even behind crowds of people, but there was a lot of filming with mobile phones – that disrupted the view at some points.

Opener:
Till started with the song Fat. There were a short opening theme with Meine Welt that is the song the tour is named after, but the band did not play it for some reason.

Band:
As always, Till Lindemann was energetic and his stage presence really lights people up. The new band members seem to fit the energy of the band really well. The costumes of this tour are amazing! Black and leather is always a good choice!

Music:
Und die Engel singen was a total adrenaline fueller as the second song – you have to hear this song live! The whole set had many great songs and the stage performance had the elements that you already are familiar with, like the cakes and fishes.

For me it was the first time to hear Übers Meer live – like all the songs, it was an great to hear it live finally. The lights and screens are really impressive.

Favorite moment:
Till said something in Polish language and people seemed to love it – I didn’t understand a word because I don’t speak Polish. It was a fun moment though.

My favourite moment was the whole Und die Engel singen – that was my most awaited song!

Total experience:
The show in Tauron Arena was great and the band played about 1h 40 minutes – and I loved every minutes of it!

To be honest, the crowd had too many people filming the show for too long with their phones up in the air, disrupting other people’s view – that was a small minus on my experience. This is a problem in many concerts in this day.

Snopek20

Place/seat and view:
Golden Circle 9th/10th row. I was waiting only 1 hour before opening gates. I also asked people who were standing right next to the stage where they were queuing, they said that from 11 pm, so wow.

Opener:
Intro was great, I liked that falling curtain and aggressive opening of Fat. And these nuns… what a show!

Band:
Band was in great form, drummer Joe Letz hilarious as always – what a guy! Danny Lohner also served up a few treats, lots of gesticulation and jokes with the audience. Dancers were great too…

Music:
It wasn’t Rammstein, but I think the biggest arena in Poland could have had better sound. On the other hand, maybe we have such high expectations because of those huge stadium concerts of Rammstein.

It was a pity we didn’t get Steh auf, that was one of the biggest hits with Peter.

Favorite moment:
The best moment is definitely the last song – Ich hasse Kinder and that epic moment in that song when all the lights shine on Till, he even sucks his thumb, the music calms and slows down, something beautiful. Great experience.

The second best moment was the pouring of water during the song Blut. I knew there would be some water, but what happened there was indescribable. The water poured as if I’d stepped into the shower with my clothes on, everyone was wet and dripping. Plus, the song fit the setting perfectly…

Total experience:
A great show, full of controversy, as always with Till, plenty of pornography, heavier riffs, but also an almost theatrical performance, like during Tanzlehrerin. Add to that the water being thrown, and the throwing of cakes, tampons, and fish – what a show it was.

Entrance:
When I arrived at Tauron Arena, everything seemed fenced in, apart from one area where people were lined up. It turned out that there was an initial security and ticket check before people were let into the area around the arena, although this was a bit difficult to understand, as the local security didn’t speak English.

After this initial security check, people spread out to line up outside the different entrances. This also turned out to be a little confusing. Now and then, guards yelled something into megaphones, but only in Polish. According to some visitors, security directed them to the wrong gate, as there was one for General Admission and another one for Golden Circle, and they were screamed at despite being at the right place.

Doors were a little later than announced, but eventually, people started entering – and especially those who made it up to the front were greeted by multiple film cameras. Between the stage and the barrier, a track was set up, and a fairly big camera rig slid back and forth on it. A big boom pole stood in the back. One person sat in front of the stage with a handheld camera, and the film crew was working on getting everything in place before concert start.

Place:
I was standing front and centre for this show. The view was, of course, very good. There was a camera person in front of me most of the time, which was a little distracting and he occasionally limited my view – although that is a small price to pay for getting a live-DVD.

Opener:
Aesthetic Perfection did a great job, as usual. The crowd response seemed very good, which was an indication of what to come for the headliner as well.

Band:
From the start, it became obvious that this was not just a regular show. Cameras were following in particular Till, and drones flew over our heads. Meanwhile, the band kicked off the show with maximum energy, fuelled by a very enthusiastic crowd. They seemed to largely ignore the cameras, apart from Till. As the seasoned showman he is, he appeared to be well aware of their presence, flirted with them, and put on a show whenever he saw an opportunity for that.

Till also flirted with the Polish crowd. Several times, he addressed them in Polish. “Kurwa, Kraków!” came pretty early, and the vocalist also talked about how he loved bigos – according to Google, a hunter’s stew of chopped meat stewed with sauerkraut, fresh cabbage and spices. Meanwhile, the audience responded by chanting “show your ass”.

While Till didn’t show his ass to the audience, he did many of his signature moves. Like in Nuremberg, he put a mic in his mouth before destroying its microphone stand. He stuck out his tongue, sucked his thumb, sat on the sides of the stage, and played around with his band mates. In between songs, he’d gesture for the crowd to cheer louder – and of course, the audience delivered, showing their appreciation for him and the rest of the band.

In Vienna, the risers had stayed up a bit longer than before, and this was the case also in Krakow. Brynn Route took the opportunity to add more pole moves, many visually spectacular ones, in particular during Blut. That was wonderful to see!

In Krakow, there didn’t seem to be any restrictions on what the band could throw into the audience. I was lucky that during Blut, the water mostly sprayed over my head, and while I did get a little wet, I didn’t get fully soaked.

During Allesfresser, however, the band had fine-tuned their aim. First, Brynn hit me in the eye with prosecco (totally my own fault though, I was silly enough to try to look at her while she came over with the bottle). Then, Joe threw me one of his tampons before his first cake went over my head, with several parts of it hitting my back. While his second throw went far, the third one caught me straight in the chest. I had cake all over my shirt, and the rail straight in front of me had a thick layer of jelly and cream. Joe unfortunately dropped his last cake onto the stage, but he did pick up a large chunk which he threw far out into the crowd. This meant that at least I didn’t get cake to the face. Yay!

I have mentioned it before, but I love how much the band appears like a unit on stage. Especially Krissy Kaminski has come out of her shell as the tour has progressed, and she totally brings it on the bass. It looks ridiculously cool when the fan – or wind machine, what do I know – makes her long hair fly around her. Emily Ruvidich and Danny are of course also kicking ass on stage, and what would a review from me be without showing appreciation for Danny taking off his jacket?

Perhaps someone had been inspired by the bra Till fished up in Vienna, because in Krakow, someone threw a bra onto the stage. Till happily picked it up and draped it over the multi-microphone stand.

The most memorable moment of the night took place during Fish On. As usual, Till took a fish in his mouth and flopped it around before throwing it at the audience – which in this case meant towards where I was standing. I dodged, the guy next to me dodged, and the fish fell to the floor – only to get picked up by a woman two rows back. And man, she totally went at it. Leaning forward, so her head was next to mine, she gave that fish the blowjob of its existence. For a good 20 seconds at least, she vigorously worked the fish before she pulled out one of her breasts and equally vigorously slapped the fish against it.

The whole scene could have been taken out of a movie. She womanhandled the fish. I was looking at her in shock and disbelief, desperately trying to cover my nose to avoid the pretty intense smell. The two guys (perhaps the only two guys in the front not wearing black?) on my left stood with their mouths open, staring at her and more importantly, at her boob, like two teenage boys. My neighbour on the right hadn’t noticed the boob, so he was looking away (to his later dismay). And on the stage, Till Lindemann quickly gestured at Jens Koch to capture the moment before he, too, stared wide-eyed and mesmerised at what was taking place just in front of him.

After it was all over, I told the woman I was impressed. “It’s just fish”, she shrugged, “I’m used to it.”

Favorite moment:
I never thought I would ever say this as I didn’t even like the song before this tour, but during Übers Meer, the band had more light on the two platforms with Joe and Brynn. Seeing those platforms rise up with that lighting was absolutely beautiful. It was a surprisingly emotional moment for me, and I was almost glad the song isn’t longer and that it has the transition into Knebel, because if not, I might just have shed some tears at that point – it was damn close.

Total experience:
Overall, the concert was really, really good. The band gave it all, and the audience was loud and responsive. Several times during the show, security had to gather right in front of me to pull out crowdsurfers. The reason why I am not pulling out the top score, is really just that the film crew was a little distracting at times, and that Till’s attention sometimes went there rather than towards the audience.

Of course, this is how it has to be, and I am really looking forward to seeing the result. I hope and think it will be a great live-DVD that captures the atmosphere of the Meine Welt Tour. Yet that tiny 0,5 deduction is there because I feel like a show as good as this with complete immersion, where nothing distracting comes between the band and the audience, would be even better.

9.5/10