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Manchester Evening news 06-Feb-05 : Live Review

Rammstein at the M.E.N. Arena

IMAGINE sticking your head in the engine of jumbo jet taking off and you get some idea of the unholy row German rockers Rammstein make.

The industrial metal six-piece from the former East Germany make Motorhead sound like Westlife, but the real beauty of a Rammstein concert is that every song is accompanied at least one totally over-the-top pyrotechnic effect.

I thought I’d pretty much seen everything a live act could do until Rammstein strapped on facemasks turning themselves into human flame throwers.

And you couldn’t help but be totally impressed by the eerie beauty of three musicians firing flames from their mouths into the rafters.

Podgy singer Til Lindeman has a bellow like a wounded warthog, perfectly suited to the lyrics which are virtually all sung in their native German. Sadly, his aimless waddling around the stage is faintly ridiculous for a supposed rock god.

The real star of the show is spindly keyboardist Christian ‘Flake’ Lorenz, who looks and acts like he has escaped from a mental institution.

His strange, Bez-inspired dancing and operatic keyboard frills are funny, surreal and a just a little bit creepy.

Lindeman and Lorenz combine for a surreal piece of rock theatre where the singer wheels on a massive cooking pot containing Lorenz for some unexplained reason. Lindeman then fires a flamethrower at the pot prompting Lorenz to hop out, seemingly on fire.

Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe how barmy this looked, but the mixed crowd of kids in hooded tops and rock veterans loved every second of it.

Paul Clarke

© 2005 Sue Lindemann