Till Fest Day 1

Rasputin 93

Leipzig was plagued by a severe heatwave the weekend prior to Till Fest, which led to melted bitumen around the tracks of the city tram, essentially rendering regular traffic on the line leading to Völkerschlachtdenkmal impossible. We took rental e-scooters to arrive shortly before doors time instead.

Despite our Golden Circle tickets stating “Haupteingang” [main entry] and the fest map not designing either of both entry points to be the main one, we passed security smoothly, just 20 minutes after doors opened. It was a little confusing whether they’d have separate entry gates based on the ticket category, as some security told to stand this way, before reverting this decision shortly after as every gate was handed Golden Circle bracelets.

We positioned ourselves between the Main Stage and the Golden Stage to experience all acts up close. My impression of the Golden Stage immediately compared it to the size of the B-stage of the Made in Germany Tour, it looked a bit smaller than that and I was looking forward to the bands managing this tight space. Compared to time schedules of headline shows, the waiting time until the first band was incredibly short, which I liked. Overall, the timetable promised nonstop music, except for a short break before Till Lindemann would hit the stage. This little gap only resulted from Swarm6ix not performing, due to illness.

Anyways, back to the show: Kite Thief started with an energetic set on the Main Stage, while I personally couldn’t connect with their performance, it was a convenient way of getting my neck muscles warmed up.

Right after they wrapped up, Mimi Barks entered the Golden Stage and I immediately knew we were in for a treat. Their whole look was torn up and dirty, taken straight from early Marilyn Manson in 1996. I found the imagery and attitude to be coherent with the music, which radiated something destructive. At one point the singer fell sideways from the little makeshift stairs and performed the rest of the current song on her side. From my point of view, it was not entirely clear if she truly fell or if it was staged, but it didn’t distract from the screams. She eventually recovered and instigated a circle pit that went around their stage, which should have been captured by a drone as it looked so unique. They wouldn’t leave us without a little stunt up their sleeve and began to throw inflated corpse balloons wrapped in black plastic into the crowd.

The third band to perform was Aesthetic Perfection, the recurring support act for Lindemann/Till Lindemann. While guitarist Noizith was replaced by David Dutton, it didn’t change much on the energy they bring onstage. Frequent attendees of their shows already knew much of their set, starting with Gods & Gold and their latest track Sorrow being the novelty. Sadly, that’s an issue on my end, since deep cuts are simply not the taste of the majority.

British act Lowlife followed up on the opposite stage. In the days leading up, some fans were anticipating them the most, since they assumed such a late slot to have some significance. Except for their debut single released hours prior, not much was known to the public and thus everyone was greeted with 30 minutes of heavy riffs, reminiscent of nu-metal and hardcore.

But true heaviness was unfolding right after, when Ministry rolled over the crowd like a tank. The power of their sound feels like a wall of machinery and artillery, but it also grew repetitive rather quickly. My knowledge of Ministry is limited to influence mentions or covers by other artists I like: Opening with the iconic Thieves, a song I only experienced before when it was covered by Limp Bizkit,  Stigmata, covered by Marilyn Manson, or finally Just One Fix, the blueprint for the Du hast main riff. And right after I already went into the closed-eyed headbanging groove of the latter, I suddenly heard a distinct voice I was overly familiar with, and cheering grew around me. Some German guy named Till Lindemann was guesting on the first chorus, how are the odds, huh? It was so short, I probably would’ve missed it if I didn’t recognize his voice instantly. Right after he swiftly thanked Ministry and left the stage again, my eyes discovered Danny Lohner playing guitar too! After their performance, I was grateful for the breather of 40 minutes before the final band was to appear just to clear my ears for a bit. This was certainly an experience for the books.

A “Till Fest” banner unrolled to cover the main stage as the crew geared up until we heard the first notes of the Meine Welt intro, as it was used on the eponymous tour the year before. Contrary to that, Till’s hair was not a mohawk and his face was not covered in black and gold when he emerged amongst the fog. He looked very happy and I really appreciated to see him live again.

However, as the setlist progressed, it was clear that we wouldn’t see a different show and this troubled me a bit. Entre dos tierras made up for this, since it wasn’t played in Germany outside of the Festival Tour.

When Till Fest was announced, it promised us two worlds, observing the subsequent adverts, and the first video teaser, it was to be expected that one day would be the black outfits, while the other got the red costumes. To the delight of my girlfriend, the blue-tinted day 1 did indeed match her black clothing, however we didn’t expect to get an identical setlist replica of the show we saw 9 months earlier. I thought to myself that my friends who jumped ship and sold their tickets in the weeks leading to it, must have been right, but my hope that the second day would be more special persisted. After all, there was the press release stating that “songs yet to be performed” would debut, which I naively applied to both days.