Cuma 6 May 2011, 12:39
It will be hard to top this one. Over the last year or so, it seems, every concert I've been to has topped the last one. First Porcupine Tree at Radio City Music Hall, then Opeth at Terminal 5 for their 20th anniversary tour, and now this. I'd wanted to see these guys for years and now that I have, I can safely say that I wasn't disappointed. First of all, the venue was one that was new to me and I liked it a lot. The view from the lower seated area was great and I saw everything that both bands did clearly. I can only imagine what the pit must've been like, but I'm sure it was awesome to be in.
The opening act of the night, Combichrist, was much better than I expected them to be. I had heard 1 or 2 of their songs before this, but not too many of them, so I wasn't sure how good they'd be live. As it turned out, they were great. The light show that they put on definitely augmented their high energy performance, and they did a great job of pumping everybody up for Rammstein themselves. I was a little disappointed that they didn't do "Sent To Destroy", but the rest of the songs definitely made up for it. Highlights of their set included "Deathbed" and "Shut Up and Swallow". The drummer also gets extra points for attacking his equipment at the end of the last song, which was funny to watch.
Then came Rammstein themselves. From the moment they exploded out of the backstage walls, their performance was truly amazing. Their set had more pyrotechnics than all the other concerts I've ever been to combined, and featured flamethrowers strapped to the bandmembers faces ("Feuer Frei!"), Till Lindemann in giant flaming angel wings ("Engel"), and a gas pump that shot fire out of it ("Benzin"). Besides that, the fact that the stage changed with every song they played was badass, and I Ioved seeing what they would come up with next. The songs themselves were played perfectly, and while I was disappointed that they didn't perform "Mein Teil", that was really the only omission of the night. Every other high point of their career they hit, from new songs "Waidmanns Heil" and "Rammlied", to older classics "Sonne" and "Du Hast". The crowd was also really into it and it was cool to see people really getting involved instead of just sitting there watching. All in all, this concert was truly a phenomenal one, and I would definitely see them again if they ever came back through this area.
Combichrist Setlist
1. Shut Up And Swallow
2. Follow The Trail Of Blood
3. Get Your Body Beat
4. Deathbed
5. Throat Full Of Glass
6. Never Surrender
7. What The Fuck Is Wrong With You?
Rammstein Setlist
1. Rammlied
2. B********
3. Waidmanns Heil
4. Keine Lust
5. Weisses Fleisch
6. Feuer Frei!
7. Wiener Blut
8. Frühling in Paris
9. Ich Tu Dir Weh
10. Du Riechst So Gut
11. Benzin
12. Links 2 3 4
13. Du Hast
14. Pussy
Encore 1
15. Sonne
16. Haifisch
17. Ich Will
Encore 2
18. Engel