Overview
Once again Rammstein and Till Lindemann rarely ever come to the United States to tour so once I learned about this, we had to take the opportunity to go. The Dallas show was technically the closest but with our busy school schedules the Chicago date was the best for us.
Traveling/Planning
Since this show was in Chicago we had to travel to this show. We flew to Chicago earlier the previous day of the show to galivant around the city to sight see. We got to Chicago around 7 in the morning so we had quite a bit of time to walk around downtown while there weren’t many people there.
Showtime
This show had two openers which included Aesthetic Perfection and Twin Temple. I’ve never heard of either band before the show so I was going in blind. Whilst AP was similar in the genre of music Twin Temple was definitely the outlier. Aesthetic Perfection was more of an Industrial type band which is very familiar to a majority of the people at the show. There were about 3 out of the 6 six songs that they played that I liked but the rest I didn’t really resonate with. At first I was a bit confused when TT took the stage but honestly the change of pace was actually a good pallet cleanser. They sounded like they were going for a retro 60’s rock sound with a bunch of innuendos for the Devil. I personally wasn’t a fan of the lyrics but overall not a bad opener.
Finally after both opening acts it is time for the main act, Till. The show begins with the stage being all dark and then the music video for Zunge starts to play and you can then see the silhouette for the band members appear. This was the first show that I’ve been in the pit and it definitely changed the concert experience for me. It felt like there was a lot more energy to the show and the fans around you put a lot of energy into the show. This show is a 18+ show and it definitely showed throughout the concert especially in the songs Fat, Golden Shower, and Skills in Pills. Some of the graphics on the screen were really graphic depicting sex acts and general nudity. Normally I’m not usually bothered by nudity but some of the scenes depicted were borderline too much for me. Don’t get me wrong some of them especially during Fat were kind of funny.
Almost every song sounded a lot heavier live than on the album especially with the downtuned guitars on some of the tracks. Every single member of the band sounded really good and Till’s voice was mixed to be the loudest for obvious reasons.
Final Thoughts
I found Till’s solo show to be more sexually explicit than anything I saw at Rammstein’s concert around 2 years ago but that was too be expected going into it because of it being an 18+ show. The concert was very energetic and enthralling so I have no complaints other than him not playing the track Steh Auf! The setlist for the show is shown below if you are curious!