Unforgettable

I arrived about 30 minutes before the opening band, Aesthetic Perfection, went on. The queue moved surprisingly fast – especially the one for standing tickets.

Once inside, I went straight to the merch stand and managed to buy two shirts, one of them as a birthday present. Unfortunately, the designs I originally wanted were already sold out; by then, only 3–5XL sizes were left.

I stuffed both shirts into my jacket, grabbed a hanger to leave them on, and made my way into the hall just as Aesthetic Perfection had started their set. They were clearly having a great time on stage and seemed to enjoy the performance just as much as the audience did. Almost every other song, they reminded us that Till Lindemann was coming and how grateful they were to be part of his tour again – made even more special by the fact that Aesthetic Perfection hadn’t played here in 17 years.

After their set, a giant curtain dropped with the words “Kill Till” written in Cyrillic. Thirty minutes of PA music later, Till’s show finally kicked off with Fat.

It was my first time seeing Till Lindemann, and I honestly didn’t know what to expect, apart from a few accidental spoilers I’d read online. But the moment the “fat nuns” stripped on stage, I knew I was in for something unforgettable.

The marching girls during Altes Fleisch and the drummers in Golden Shower were amazing additions to the spectacle – this was the point where I fully gave in and started headbanging.

Tanzlehrerin came as a completely unexpected acoustic break. Before it, Till briefly acknowledged the audio cutouts and technical difficulties, which made the moment feel more personal. After all the intense visuals and theatrical performances before it, I truly didn’t see such a calm interlude coming.

Then came Blut – the song that made me forget everything else and completely lose myself in the show. That’s why I only managed to record about 20 seconds of it. I wished I’d been close enough to be part of the crowd that got showered with water, but I only got to see the aftermath from a distance.

I’d also been warned about flying cakes, and sure enough, Allesfresser delivered – but what I didn’t expect was that tampons would be thrown into the crowd as well.

Throughout the entire performance, I was fascinated by Till’s acting and stage presence. He completely owned the stage – knocking over microphone stands, making sharp, dramatic hand gestures, and looking as if he were raging at some invisible opponent. Every move felt intentional and theatrical.

A small but meaningful detail: every time Till pronounced “Sofia”, he used the correct Bulgarian stress. Each time he did, the crowd cheered even louder.

I never actually caught the moment when Till entered or exited the bubble during Platz Eins. It never came close to me anyway – and honestly, I was watching the girls and the guitarist who ascended into the air more than I was following the bubble itself. And out of all the lighting effects, I never expected to see rainbow colors washing over the stage.

Naturally, the night also had its “Bulgarianized” moment. After the show ended, as people were picking up the clothes from the hangers, the crowd spontaneously began chanting an anti-government song connected to the current protests in Bulgaria. It was powerful and unexpectedly emotional.

Next time Till comes to Sofia, I’m definitely buying front-of-stage tickets.

Lorenz Fortner

Guest photographer Lorenz Fortner shared some information with us regarding the Till Lindemann show in Sofia:

There were some sound problems from the start, where the speakers kept cutting off. Because of this, they had to restart the system before Tanzlehrerin, which took a few minutes.

During this break, Till Lindemann started throwing cake, then Joe Letz came, too, drum sticks and picks were handed out, water bottles were thrown, and so much nonsense happened on stage that the audience was laughing and enjoing themselves from all the silliness. Till even grabbed Joe’s butt, and they had a little fight where Till ended up on the floor…

The audience was extremely loud, Till clearly enjoyed it and encouraged them to be even louder.

Another fun detail this show was that instead of his usual black wig, Joe had a blonde one – apparently the black one had been lost somewhere!