Till Fest Day 2

Rasputin 93

With the tram network finally working again, our way to the venue went significantly faster and we went through security control by showing our golden bracelets.

Hemlock entered the main stage and immediately mastered their stage presence to get us going. They told to be fully independent and that they were very glad to play in Europe, so I hope this opportunity will serve them as further stepping stone.

Up next, on the Golden Stage, were Cober Mouth, which to my ears were sonically quite similar to Lowlife, even the singer looked slightly similar to theirs at first glance. Heavy, but sadly as forgettable to me.

The Mexican industrial act Hocico, which I’ve already seen live a few times many years ago, started on the main stage with a ritualistic instrumental track and traditional full-body make-up dancers. Despite singer Erk already performing the first regular song, keyboarder Racso was nowhere to be seen and only joined mid-set. I’m curious what happened; traffic jam, slept too long, too extensive toilet visit? Either way, it’s probably a funny anecdote.

Erdling, being the sole German band to be somewhat similar in genre to the main act, rose up amongst the crowd and performed their tight set of 8 songs. They made sure to provide the crowd with some free shirts, shot by an air-cannon while ending the set with their latest single, released the day before, playing over the PA – an interesting choice to me, since they could’ve easily premiered it here in a live setting.

Seeing Ministry for a second time, I was already prepared to get hit by a sonic wall again but was pleasantly surprised by a slightly dreamier and groovier vibe instead. As announced, they performed a different show from the previous day – but not as expected. The post informed us that Ministry would perform their latest album HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES in its entirety, but we got a different album instead, with one track short. Whether on purpose or not to commemorate the US Independence Day, the 1996 record Filth Pig was presented, including a guesting by former member Paul Barker and unearthing a track they didn’t play since the album’s release year. This marked their performance as a special one in the end, either way. Hopefully none of their fans who hoped to see the promised album were deceived.

While I didn’t remember Aesthetic Perfection announcing which difference they’d present us with, I already got my answer when I saw Daniel Graves’ outfit: today would be an old-school electro set. With David Dutton on keyboard duty, this was right up my alley, since I prefer the older, and now less often performed songs. Especially after the reboot of the debut album Close to Human, which now includes a finalized Beautiful, some of my longing for these songs got satisfied. I still hope for Sacrifice one day, though, fingers crossed!

While we got our fingers crossed, let’s not forget what most of us anticipated for today; some live debuts by Till Lindemann. And indeed, we got a little time travel when the piano sounds of the black and white video of Till in Denmark 2002 got played on the screens. Would this mean some more Lindemann-era throwbacks? All this hype is just the culmination of my curiosity to experience the whole catalogue in a live setting.

Once again, Till didn’t fully commit to face make-up, and it was nice to see some of the “new” members and both dancers in red outfits, since they only got to sport the black Meine Welt Tour ones. Zunge opened the show, and it stung further during the first couple songs, when a block of songs in identical order as the first day followed.

But all the frustration vanished with the first notes of Nass, a song that really worked well onstage. The water effect from Blut was recycled and I hope to see this song stick around for the future.

Steh auf and Gummi were brought back, and the latter provided new stunts where both dancers, Lulu and Andina, appeared to fixate keyboarder Brynn with a large rubber belt, before throwing large jelly portions into the crowd – easily replacing the similar Allesfresser cakes.

But the real surprise was after a little ambient piano interlude, when Till appeared on the Golden Stage to sing Yukon – a song never performed under the Till Lindemann moniker! Even as Lindemann, this song was a rarity, only performed during the Messer Tour and a New Years Eve show in 2019.

Speaking of rarities, the next song was Ladyboy, only performed for the fifth time as TL.

The second live debut came with Meine Welt, since this song surprisingly never ended up being played by the band during the tour it was named after.

After the encore break, Es brennt… concluded the live debut series and presented the audience with an intimate, yet ecstatic bathing scene of both dancers on the Golden Stage, splashing the blood-colored water around to mirror the lyrical theme.

To my surprise and delight, Entre dos tierras was performed again as well. The show ended on both days with a slideshow of behind the scenes snapshots on the screens, while Till’s cover of Ich bin Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt played. The infamous Der Rödler track followed and its yet still unreleased remix (why do they keep such jams behind locked doors! ☹) made sure to keep the party going as the crowd left the area. Sadly, no one around us joined in on our little caterpillar dance, but we kept our mood high and drove to the next burger café as a group aftershow.

I really hope that Till Fest becomes a regular instance, and keeps the sizing as it was, since it really felt great and not overcrowded. I’m also certain it served as nice introduction to artists of different genres and status for many attendees and the nonstop timetable schedule with the arrangement of a smaller stage in the middle of the crowd was efficient to avoid any dead time. As for my opinion, I wish for Marilyn Manson on a future line-up. Let’s see what the future holds.