50,000 fans celebrate Rammstein: The fire show thunders far over Stuttgart / Review

Hundreds of onlookers are also enthusiastic. The band celebrates their after-show party in the Schleyerhalle. / Review

Black smoke lies over the Wasen. The sky is on fire, you might think. Good advice is fire – that’s what Rammstein has stood for ever since it was founded 28 years ago. One of the musicians is a pyrotechnician. Fire is an archaic elemental force, drawing its fascination from the strong contrasts it triggers. A campfire calms, creates warmth and security. At the same time, fire is often uncontrollable, creates fear and wants to be conquered. Outside on Mercedesstraße, fans of the martial band have torn open the plastic covering of the fence in order to be able to see through and snap through. When there is thunder and lightning in the evening sky, people shout: “Happy new year!”

Onlookers brought picnic blankets and folding chairs

It’s not a new year, but a new era. For two years nothing worked because of Corona. Now the new freedom on the Cannstatter Wasen is even better, because in the past, when everything was allowed, you probably didn’t even know that nothing could be taken for granted. Very many want to save themselves the high entrance fees or have not gotten any tickets at all.

With picnic blankets and folding chairs, with backpacks full of provisions and bottles, hundreds of them came to the upper, freely accessible part of the festival site to be there behind the barrier when Till Lindemann rolls his R grandiosely, when he speaks evil in a deep voice lets guess when he seduces the masses to sing along loudly and dance wildly with “Mein Herz brennt” or “Du hast”.

In the stands, the seats are only there to settle down during the breaks. Most of the time everyone is standing – and almost everyone, of course, is dressed in black. Out of consideration for local residents, the show ends at 10:18 p.m. – well in advance of the time agreed for 10:30 p.m. Shortly before that, visitors to the Pet Shop Boys concert from another major event on the same evening came out of the Porsche Arena, many stopping to experience the last Rammstein song “Adieu”.

Who is allowed to celebrate at the after-show party in the Schleyerhalle?

The cliché lives! Groupies, it was previously thought, come from a time when machos wanted to dominate, especially when they were pop stars. Groupies can’t be from today, can they? But Rammstein still has them. Around 20 girls hired by the management, mostly tattooed, with luscious necklines and some with fishnet stockings, lips sprayed on, hair either blonder than blonde or jet black, only stand by in the “fire zone” in front of the stage, as the area is called where there is a bit more space directly in front of the band, own toilets and own bars without long queues as in almost all areas. Then the group of dressed-up girls is allowed to pass another barrier, the last one – you don’t see any men there. The groupies are let in to position themselves clearly visible between the barrier and the stage, as if the Rammsteiners, all over 50, wanted to choose who would be allowed to celebrate later at the after-show party in the Schleyerhalle.

In the fire zone: singer Peter Freudenthaler, Angermaier boss Axel Munz

When the band changes to the small stage in the interior for the song “Engel”, the short break is bridged with camera images from the audience, especially the groupie girls can be seen shaking their butts directly on the stage boxes. A young man on an elevated position in the interior receives the greatest applause, tearing his T-shirt up and showing his bare chest in a close-up. The musicians are carried back onto the stage on rubber boats above the heads of the fans.

In the fire zone, among others, Axel Munz, the Angermaier boss from Munich, and Peter Freudenthaler from Fools Garden are there. No, he doesn’t have groupies like Rammstein, says the singer of “Lemon Tree” and doesn’t want them at all. But he is deeply impressed by the pyro metal show, which Freudenthaler enjoys as a total work of art: “You can only take off your hat!” On Saturday, 8 p.m., Rammstein will give the second concert in Stuttgart. The fire is stoked again.