Live Aus Berlin

Rammstein - Live Aus Berlin - The Video

You know, there’s really not too many of us out here in the world, us Rammstein fans. I mean you couldn’t fit all of us in this room, not by a long shot, but as compared to say Backstreet Boys or even THE BEATLES, we’re a relatively small crowd. Being so, we stick together. We have our mailing lists and our webrings, and we kind of all know each other…which is cool. I know a couple Rammstein fans, I hang out with Rammstein fans, in fact, I’ve been to four Rammstein shows that were filled to capacity with Rammstein fans. I…myself…AM a Rammstein fan. So, that being said…

IF I WANTED A 97 MINUTE VIDEO OF SHOTS OF RAMMSTEIN FANS, I’D HOST A PARTY AT CLARK AND BELMONT AND SHOOT IT MYSELF. There, I said it. I thought it was best to start the review with the only negative thing about it…and that is…too many crowd shots. That one chick with the blonde spiky hair in the front row must have been going down on the cameraman because CHRIST ALMIGHTY I saw more of her than Oliver! I understand that we need to SEE how popular Rammstein is with the kids, but let’s have one or two crowd shots PER song, or better yet, IN BETWEEN songs, so I don’t miss out on my precious and valued Till time. The only time I was intrigued by the crowd shots was when the people shown were trying to sing along. You could tell they were trying to sing like Till -- they had their eyebrows all scowled up and their faces all sucked back like they were singing 3 octaves lower than God intended. But honestly, HONESTLY, that is my only complaint about this video. Oh wait, no, there’s two more;

NOT ENOUGH PELVIC THRUSTING.

NOT ENOUGH TONGUE WAGGING.

Done and DONE. Let’s move on to the soapbox portion of my article.

I think it’s important for a lot of people to see this video, people who aren’t necessarily hardcore Rammstein fans. It’s important for anyone who loves live music to see it. It’s important for people who think Rammstein "doesn’t really have a big fan base" to see it. It’s important for people who say, "they’re really a STUDIO band" to see it. It’s important for people interested in lighting/pyrotechnic design to see it. It’s INFINITELY important for people who think Till looks like Herman Munster to see it. But beyond this, it’s important for my mother to NEVER EVER see it, or I’ll be grounded, and I’m almost 27.

I mean seriously, folks, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it here again, Rammstein puts on the best…THE BEST live show I have ever seen, or ever will see. This video featured three songs that I had never seen performed and I was not disappointed. The live version of Wilder Wein, featuring about 50 stage hands holding flaming torches and also a Mariachi band (?!) was nothing short of arousing, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t review Bück Dich…just because this part of the show is like a flaming car wreck to me. I hate to watch, and yet I rewind it over and over and over…and when my friends come over for gin and tonics, I make THEM watch it too, and the Berlin version of Bück Dich was…fantastical. It was so so so discomforting, intriguing, horrific, beautiful, sexy, powerful. I mean, they do some great close ups of Till at the end of this song, and his face is dripping...with…uhhm…liquid…and he looks beautiful! His lips, his eyes, his jawline! HE LOOKS FABULOUS! And while this may sound like just another incident of Jessica gushing over Till, it’s not. The point is, Rammstein can take these seemingly violent, perverse, weird situations like S&M and sodomy and other things you don’t NORMALLY see in the average BEDROOM much less at a concert, and they make them…theatrical and beautiful and entertaining. It’s not just some Gwar show with people throwing buckets of shit at you…it all has a point. Plus, unlike crabby bands, ridden with angst (cough) Limp Bizkit (cough) Korn (cough), Rammstein channels their angst into performance and couples it with a huge sense of humor. I sincerely…SINCERELY, no joke, believe that had Rammstein been the closing act at Woodstock, there would have been no rioting. WHY? Because everyone would have been too busy watching the show.

So here’s the brief, bulleted list of WHY everyone should see Rammstein, Live Aus Berlin:

· So you can see the "tiny" fan base crammed into an arena just slightly smaller than Rhode Island.

· So you can see Oliver all gimped up with black collar, cuffs and blinder.

· So you can live by my motto: Heaven Hath No Beauty Like Till Lindemann Disappointed. Out of all the shots, all the songs, all the close ups in this WHOLE CONCERT - -the very finest is during Sehnsucht, when Till just stands there, his head cocked to one side…seemingly pissed at the world and everyone in it…except me, I hope. (if you set your video counter…this occurs at 021:03)

· So you can put aside your evil German stereotypes and your preconceptions about what this band is about and finally join us…the few, the proud, the wacky…the Rammstein fans.

Final Grade: A-

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