Rammstein. Live in Mexico City

For the second time, I went to see Rammstein in a movie theater. I own two DVDs also, but have never seen the band play live in a stadium. I am convinced of two things. The live experience can not be as close up as this movie shows and the quality of the music in the way it is presented will be ten times better. At the same time, I almost felt the heat of the explosions in the movie theater.

The previous movie was called 'Rammstein in Paris' and no doubt my review will be along the same lines. Yes, everything may be even even one notch up, but that is what Rammstein is. The band is larger than life. It is the musical equivalent of a Nürnberg meeting of the NSDAP. An audience that is enraptured and totally under a spell, moving in unison. A German band singing for 99% in German and having a Mexican audience of tens of thousands singing along. Singing a phrase like "Deutschland über alles", no less. I personally do not know of a band not singing in English that has managed this at a level like Rammstein: stadiums.

The band is getting on in life. Most members are in their late 50s here. That much was clear from their faces and that not all members are as fit as they once were. Most are though and were more than willing to show it. Keyboardist Flake Lorenz walking in his personal "treadmill" during parts of the show. Bassist Oliver Riedel showing off his trained, lean torso. Till Lindemann is his grotesque self.

But it is about the music, after all has been said and done about the visuals. Rammstein is not a band I put on regularly at home. In fact, I realised that I had not even listened to the album after 'Deutschland'. When I do play Rammstein, each time it's clear why I love this band. The metal is almost always interspersed with the melodies that Lorenz brings in with his keyboard. His contribution is a playfulness that as it were undermines the deep sound of the band. As the music is so deep, you can not just feel it but almost touch it. In the movie theater it became a presence. The great rhythms and playing with time and measures. It will take a lot of practice to perfect and perfect it was. The music is so overwhelming that it's easy to forget I was listening in a movie theater.

From the music comes the show and the experience the band offers. Seeing these huge towers spew fire. The ever larger flame throwers on stage. It is all familiar but can go one step further each year it seems. In the end, they do play with their well-being. One mistake and they will have cooked another member, literally during 'Mein Teil'. The orchestration of the show and the build up must be flawless, because of the consequences should one mistake be made.

Sitting in the theater made it a larger than life experience as well. Seeing things from so up close and from far away for the larger pyrotechnics, is simply fantastic. Rammstein, there's no other band like it.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght