LOTS OF FIRE, LOTS OF HEADBANGERS >>>
Before Sunday night, the last time I'd checked out Rammstein was about a decade ago when the German goth-metal band dropped in on the Tacoma Dome with the Family Values tour. Lasting image: The sight of former Olympic swimmer turned creepy frontman Till Lindemann igniting and performing an entire song in a flaming duster. Sweet!
Since then, I've gotten to know the relentlessly morbid, arty and sometimes hilarious Marilyn Manson meets "Sprockets" thing the guys in Rammstein have going on with their live show. So I was expecting something extremely ridiculous from the band's return to the T-Dome Sunday night, an event I attended with some 10,000 enthusiastic headbangers.
Rammstein did not disappoint. Here are just a few highlights from the most wickedly-fun arena show of 2011 so far:
Hottest show of the year (literally): The band's motto is, "Do your own thing, and overdo it." And that "thing" begins and ends with fire. I was probably 30 yards from the stage for most of the show, and it still felt like being blasted in the face with a blow dryer as huge, flaming geysers erupted from the stage throughout. It must have felt like being slow roasted to the fans up front and the security guys in the pit.
But let's be clear. We're not talking some stock Motley Crue bullshit. We're talking best use of fire - ever.
For "Feuer Frei," band members donned blowtorch masks for a dramatic, recurring fire-breathing gimmick that some fans will remember from that Vin Diesel flick, xXx. Lindemann showed up in a pair of shiny, robo-demon wings that shot fire from their tips during closing number "Engel." And somewhere in between roadies wheeled out a fridge sized tank and the singer blowtorched some guy in a hoodie.
Speaking of which...
That Lindemann guy is freaky scary: In character, he seems like the kind of sicko who might really charbroil people for fun. And how to best describe the hulking frontman's ensemble at the start of the show? Zombie power lifter? Supernatural serial killer?
Seriously, between the spooky, glowing grill, the leather smock and the dried costume blood all over his arms, I was ready for him to jump offstage and eat someone during opener "Rammlied." The twitchy Frankenstein mannerisms and the brief goose stepping he did during "Links 2 3 4" didn't make him any cuddlier.
Did that one guy get lost on the way to his Devo tryout?: Skinny, nerdy keyboard player Christian "Flake" Lorenz serves as band whipping boy and comic relief. And at some point Lindemann picked him up and tossed him into a bin that exploded confetti before Flake returned wearing glittery jammies. Then, for no apparent reason, he spent the next 20 minutes or so walking on a treadmill as he played keys.
See? Who said morbid goth guys have a sense of humor?
Case in point: Straddling a cement mixer sized pink cannon and dousing fans with foam as the main set comes to a climax? Very subtle, Lindemann.