You can feel the flames on your face, even if you are standing about a hundred meters from the stage. Du hast, one of the biggest hits of the band Rammstein, is currently playing from it. The consumption of combustibles and pyrotechnics is increasing at that moment, the singer Till Lindemann looks at the audience and looks absent. As if he was horrified by what he had created.
It has recently been 30 years since their first performance. The East German sextet, whose brutal music mixes hard rock, electronica, decadence and lasciviousness, debuted on March 24, 1994 in a club in Leipzig. Allegedly, around 15 people came. Today they are the most popular German singing performers in the world.
While the photos from the premiere did not survive, we have evidence from other concerts. The band played in black pants and a half body, Till Lindemann donned a leather jacket with fine hardware and something like welding goggles. At other times, he wore a black vest or bold braces on his rugged body. Early records resemble something between a blacksmith shop and a BDSM party, which stands for voluntary sexual sadism and masochism. Even then, Rammstein’s emphasis on image was evident.
After three decades, they have built a nomadic spectacle that is difficult to compare, and Saturday’s concert proves it again. The darkening sky in Prague’s Letňany emphasizes the contours of the magnificent stage with each subsequent song, as if someone had built Las Vegas in a German mining town.
Rammstein started their European tour in Prague with two concerts, the second one on Sunday is also sold out. According to the organizers’ estimate, a total of 120,000 people will arrive.
The air smells of sulfur
The musicians will appear for the first time at the top of the main tower of the stage called the Temple of Noise. They stand in the freight elevator and slowly descend. As if the six gods descended from the heavens to the earth. The prelude to this is Music for the Royal Fireworks by Baroque composer Georg Friedrich Händel. The musicians hold their fists over their hearts. When they land on the platform, they deploy to the tools.
60 thousand people watched the Rammstein concert in Prague. | Photo: Lukáš Bíba
“Here comes the sun, old sorrow / the master sings: Are you ready?” sixty-one-year-old Till Lindemann opens the more than two-hour concert with a composition Ramm4. Thick, black smoke billows from the columns supporting the sound equipment. The view of the setting sun is obscured by artificial soot, the air smells of sulfur. The sky above Letňany clouds over on Saturday earlier than usual.
Each of the band has a different costume, mostly made of thick leather. Musicians look like blacksmiths, tinsmiths, tavern keepers of some kind steampunk comics.
As usual, the lanky keyboard player Christian Lorenz, nicknamed Flake, is the face. On his head is a crown with long rays, wearing a tight golden jumpsuit. He looks like an Aztec sun god on shift in a coal mine. About half of the concert is spent on walking belts attached to various instruments.
In Rammstein’s music, dense, distorted guitars and booming drums play a role, keyboards and synthesizers rather complete the color, or rather refer to the tradition of groups such as Kraftwerk or Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, thanks to which the members of Rammstein fell into music in the 80s of the last century.
As always, the keyboard player Christian Lorenz, nicknamed Flake, turned out to be the face. | Photo: Lukáš Bíba
At one point, Christian Lorenz flashes his fingers over the keyboard, but does not touch it. He obviously emphasizes that he has nothing to play. Cameras capture the scene. Subsequently, a giant melting cauldron appears on the stage, Lorenz timidly climbs into it and Lindemann “floods” under it with a giant flamethrower.
The whole thing takes a few minutes, the band keeps playing. When it’s done, Lindemann takes a microphone shaped like a giant butcher knife and finishes the song. It is a classic scene from the band’s repertoire.
Others include a giant metal pram whose interior bursts into flames towards the end of the song Doll, i.e. Doll. During composition Pussy about sex tourism, Lindemann climbs behind a massive cannon, holds the cannon at his waist, and while singing the verses “I’m going abroad alone” or “I can’t squeal in Germany” sprinkles the front rows with thick, white foam.
Prague had already seen all this at the same place the year before. However, the band, or rather the production team, has worked significantly on the sound since then. Lindemann’s baritone, keyboard melodies or oriental-tuned choirs from pre-rolls can be clearly heard between the guitars in the vast area.
Rammstein realize that the language barrier makes it harder for foreign audiences to immerse themselves in the lyrics. A spectacular show, often on the edge of an industrial circus, tries to bring a story or drama into the songs. And it works.
Rammstein opened the Prague concert with the song Ramm4. They went down to the people in a freight elevator from the top of the stage. Photo: Lukáš Bíba | Video: Ferenc
Joyful totality
One track is introduced by the pre-recorded sound of marching soldiers, while red banners with a sharply cut, black Rammstein logo are lowered from the stage and surrounding columns. A white circle around it would be enough and the resemblance to the flag of the Third Reich would be almost perfect.
But it will be heard in the flaming flags Links 2-3-4, in which Lindemann sings that his heart beats on the left. Despite the occasional accusations of promoting Nazism, the band emerged from the Berlin squat environment, which was sharply opposed to any forms of neo-Nazism. Of course, Rammstein also want to shock. But at the same time, they continue the tradition of German artists who come to terms with the country’s modern history.
The totalitarian pacifier is one of the most impressive moments of the more than two-hour spectacle. At that moment, pyrotechnics and fires take on a chilling undertone, as does the sight of tens of thousands of people looking up at the stage in fascination. Although Rammstein’s music is full of sex, death and perverse images, the 60,000 visitors in Letňany are having a good time.
Even before the start of the show, the so-called Mexican wave passed through the crowded catwalks from side to side. It is not a common phenomenon in the Letňany area, but on Saturday it fits into the life of Prague. The capital also hosts a Rammstein concert in parallel world Cup in ice hockey and football derby Sparta with Slavia. Only in Letňany after eight o’clock does another world, far removed from reality, operate.
In Prague, Rammstein also played the song Deutschland from their seventh album released in 2019. Photo: Lukáš Bíba | Video: Martin Dybala
A toast to reality
Rammstein fascinates crowds with punchy guitar riffs, rolling and often primitive rhythms, and catchy slogans in German. Academics, on the other hand, attracted the attention of citations of literature and philosophical works or well-thought-out images aimed at basic impulses.
The band’s rolling mass of dense guitars dilutes the intermezzos. The first comes in the form of a house remix of the track Deutschland. Played by a DJ from the main tower of the stage, some fans use the moment to buy drinks. Still, it’s a nice change of atmosphere.
About an hour later, a long silence spreads over the area, only the information board communicates with the spectators. Here, on the other hand, the mood drops quite a bit. After a few minutes, the band dives from a platform set far from the stage. Revered musicians descend closer to the people for the second time.
Rammstein stands up to the microphones without instruments, the piano duo Abélard, who started the show, are the musical accompaniment at that moment. It sounds like a chamber, but more like a temple version of the song Engel.
After it’s over, the band get into inflatable boats and let themselves be carried back to the main stage on the hands of the crowd. Everyone toasts with champagne there, drummer Christoph “Doom” Schneider just celebrated his 58th birthday in Prague. It’s a strange contrast and proof of what Rammstein can afford. In the middle of a pompous scene capable of spewing fireworks worth millions of crowns, a group of six friends are quietly toasting. When the Temple of Noise is simply turned off for a while, one realizes that the line-up has not changed since its inception.
The setlist from the first concert in 1994 has not been preserved, but it is very likely that some of the pieces that made half of Prague roar this Saturday were already played then. For example, the eponymous Rammstein, with which the band begins the encore block. “Ramm! Stein! / A man is burning / Ramm! Stein! / There’s a smell of flesh in the air / Ramm! Stein! / A child is dying / Ramm! Stein! / The sun is shining”. The sun no longer shines over Letňany at that moment. Only the spotlights from the Temple of Noise lean tiredly into the haze from the exploded pyrotechnics, while tens of thousands of satisfied fans stream to the subway.
