Anyway.
Last night at about 6:30, I headed out for the Centre Bell. Tip: don`t ask with a French accent. You will get directions in French. In fact, it`s best just to ask for "The Bell Centre".
I got to the Centre Bell at 5 to 7 and lucky lucky me, for once, I just happened upon the line for people with GA floor tickets. Like me.
Waiting in line was cold. The beginning of winter in Montreal is like the dead of winter in Toronto. Maybe worse. Anyway, I stood out in line talking to random people about how fucking cold it was, for a bit less than an hour. Which is silly as doors were supposed to be at 7. Oh well.
I walked in, during the middle of Combichrist`s set. And may I just say, Joe Letz was looking very fine. I deffs want to see them again at some point. They`re mental in the best way, really. I`ve pretty much never, ever seen anyone drum the way Joe does. I think I once heard that he does it like that, just for fun. So fun to watch.
About half an hour after they finished, Rammstein went on. But between the two, I weasled my way up to the 2nd row behind some two drunk girls... who were kindly smoking in my face. Thanks so much for sharing your cancer and all. Wanted it bad. ._. Anyway... soz. The group surrounding me went like this, some (literally mentally unstable psycho) girl in a plaid coat, a girl with blonde and blue hair, a drunk girl with frizzy hair that was in my mouth (D:), a drunk girl with bleach fried hair, and some girl with long black hair, who the girl with fried hair kept jossling with. Didn`t want any part of that thanks so much.
Rammstein went on just after 9... and were amazing, by the way. They started with Rammlied, but first, they had these black plastic things that were in front of them, and Paul and Richard broke through them by banging at them with guitars and all, then on the one in front of Till, there was some pyro that worked itself around in an oval while Richard and Paul just stood looking menacing, then the door kinda exploded, and out came Till in the most insane outfit. It had feathers and a red apron and there was a light in his mouth that shone out every time he sang. He just stood there with his arms up while the into played out looking like God. Schneider`s drumset lights up red at times! I hadn`t seen that in any pictures from shows yet, but it looked really great live!
They played Buckstabu next, then Waidmann`s Heil. Which was good. Till had this like... so if you`ve ever seen Beauty and the Beast, Gaston`s got this crazy hunting shotgun thing, Till had one like that. Only it shot fire instead. They played Keine Lust, then Weisses Fleisch, which I am a superfan of. Schneider had this really mega drumsolo, and then Flake did his crazy dance thing. During Keine Lust, it actually got cold for a bit! It was nice, being so hot with the fire and in the crowd and all to have a blast of chilly air.
Feuer Frei was next, and there were some crazy explosions during that along to the beat a bit. With the `bang! bang!` bit and all. Toward the end of it, Till, Paul and Richard got their fire-shooting masks on, which was exciting. Talking about set props on fire, I`d wished they`d have done Asche zu Asche, but you can`t always get what you want. Weiner Blut was insane. I don`t even like that song much usually, but they had all these crazy baby dolls come down from the ceiling which had green lazers for eyes. At the end of the song, they all exploded one by one. It was very... Rammstein. Hahaha. Can`t think of another word for it. Not quite disturbing to me, but probably to other people.
After that, they did Fruhling in Paris, and it started off with the stage all black with Till having just some lightbulb come be friends wtih him from the ceiling, but then, the backdrop fell away from being black and industrial with these light scratches across it, to this red background full of lights and stuff. It changed a second time later in the show. I got a shitty picture of Till with it on my blackberry. Please excuse the blur. The crowd was in motion.
I want to say the next song was Ich Tu Dir Weh. The setlist I`m going by says Mein Teil, but that`s definitely not right. So... yeah, I`m pretty sure it`s Ich Tu Dir Weh. Anyway, towards the beginging of that, the psycho in the plaid coat went all mad, and started throwing punches, so security got right on her and was trying to drag her out of the crowd, but she wouldn`t come and was putting up a huuuge fight about it. So it took like 3 security guys what seemed like forever to get her out. When they finally got her over the barrier, she attacked the two girls in front of me and I guess injured them, because they then asked to be lifted out. MAGICAL! I don`t wish bad things on okay people, BUT THIS MEANT THAT I WAS NOW IN THE FRONT ROW!! Finally!!! I raised my hands up in the air and just felt the lovely breeze at the front before excitedly singing along. So. Much. Happiness.
Till and Flake were at it with each other, and Till picked up Flake and carried him over to this bath tub. Then, he got this metal jug, and stood on this platform that went up and up and up and up. Then, he poured sparks into the tub, where Flake probably wasn`t. And every so often, it would explode out of the tub with a bang. When he was done, he came back down, looked into the tub and kind of shrugged, saying like Flake was dead and all. But then, when Till was away, Flake climbed out of the tub in this mad sparkle suit.
After I got into the front row, the concert seemed to last so much longer and everything was just a million times better.
They played Du Riechst So Gut, and did that headbanging thing they do... and seeing as I`ve seen Volkerball twenty too many times, I totally did it too. And probably looked... who cares actually. I was having fun and don`t care what I looked like. Even if I had a camera shoved in my face about half the time. Probably because I was enthusiastic, in the front row, and knew allll the words!! Apparently it`s for a DVD... so yeah! Buy their next DVD because hopefully I`ll be on it. Hater`s gonna hate and doubters gonna doubt, but DVD proof will arise... hopefully. It`ll be the second live show DVD I`ll be on... hopefully I`ll be able to stomach watching this one. The other is just too embarrassing.
ANYWAY. Even though they didn`t have the pyro arm bands, it was still amazing when Paul and Richard did their one-handed guitar solo at the centre front of stage. Did I mention that since I was in the front row, I was litterally directly in front of Paul?? I was! He`s super yummy and sooooo fit. At the very end, Till had a crossbow that shot red fireworks out and then there were these other swirly explosions that came out of... I don`t know where.
They did Benzin and had this old sort of petrol pump that shot fire. Some crew member dressed as a fan ran up onstage and Till lit him on fire with it. A note about the fire: you can really, really FEEL it. When I was 15, my mom took me to see the Rolling Stones and they had these fire pyre shooting things on top of towers far far away, and you could feel them even! So flam throwers and explosions onstage was mental! Anyway, Benzin was good.
After that was Links 234!!!! Which is one of my FAVOURITE songs by them. I love it live. It was just as amazing as I always thought it would be. After, was Du Hast... which isn`t really my favourite, but that`s alright. It`s a good song, just overplayed is all. It`s the only song by them anyone seems to know. They had CRAZY pyro during that. It would shoot up from just on either side of Till, and then it would shoot down from the ceiling when he`d say `NEIN!` It was like he was God. Seriously. I actually think he might be. Anyway, at the end of the song, it was just all this fire blasting out. I don`t know how the band could take it! It got SO hot at the front, I thought I was about to be cooked, and all of the stage hands and security guards dove down against the barrier to try to get away from it!!!
They did Pussy after that and everyone but Schneider came down to the front of the stage, Flake with a little portable keyboard. Till was so obscene, licking the air and all in mock cunnilingus. It was HOT. Hahaha. He`s certainly got a tongue on him. Anywaaaayyy. They came out with this giant penis cannon on a track with a saddle, and Till got on and went back and forth shooting out soap suds cum and looking like he was getting some. I got a full face full of it... and obscenely mucked about in it. And why not?! I was there for fun and fun is what I had!! After the suds, a bunch of white confettii came from the sides of the stage and stuck to all the soap. Lovely mess! After that, Schneider came down and they took a bow and thanked us for being awesome... in French!! Schneider was looking extra yummy and was doing that whole, catty slutty girl bending forward and arching his back thing with his legs wide open when he was `bowing`. What a fox!
The left the stage after that, but came back a little while after to play Sonne!! I think they always do yellow lights with that song, as Sonne means Sun! So at one point, they had crazy flickering in the background. It was like yellow strobelight maddness. They played Haifisch then. After most of the song was done, Flake got into the boat and mock paddled around across the crowd. He didn`t look so scared clinging to the side of the boat anymore, and no one tipped him out and ripped his clothes off, so I guess it`s a better boat now. While he was doing that, Paul and Richard switched places and so I got to have an eyefull of Delicious Dick! Hahahaha. The best bit was that he was totally looking back at me!! He`s cut his hair and wears it flat still and it looks magnificent. Flake made a triumphant return, having picked up a Canadian flag at some point... or maybe he had it with him... I was staring at Richard most of the time instead of looking back to Flake who I could barely even see anyway. I`ll just see him on the DVD!
I feel like they may have gone offstage for a bit after Haifisch, but I can`t be certain... I know they did at least once more between going off after Pussy, and when they finally left.
Anyway, they played Ich Will! Like Links, it is also fucking amazing live. At some point, Till told everyone to get their arms up... I guess?? I don`t know!! He said it in French!! But my arms were already up because the song lyrics say to do so, and I know all the German lyrics. I felt impressive. Hahahaha. They always say in interviews that the non-German speaking crowds, a. don`t sing along, and b. don`t know to put their hands up when they say `I want to see your hands!` in German.
The last they played was Engel. Till walked out backwards with these massive metal wings on and a claw on his left hand. I pretended to whistle along... since I can`t whistle!! The wingtips started to spout flames at some point and then pyro lit along one side of them. It was probably supposed to be along both sides, but it didn`t quite work out, I guess. It looked pretty great and all anyway. Till went off, and then they all put their instruments down and stood near the ramp to backstage or wherever and got down on a knee when Till came out. Queen Richard only bowed as he is superior and will kneel to no one! Or somesuch. I had a giggle about it to myself. They then went to the front of the stage and bowed to US. And Till thanked us and told us that we were... éncroyablé!! Or however you spell incredible, in French.
They were all super adorable the whole time. Flake`s dancing is magical, Paul always looks so serious!! Richard is pretty and rocks out so hard. Olli is SUCH a good bassist. Schneider thinks he`s such hot shit... but for good reason... HE IS! But it`s so funny anyway. In a cute, endearing sort of way. Till is adorable, adorable, adorable. He pulls weird faces and doesn`t care, during one song, all he did was counvulsey twitch instead of dancing. And sometimes he did cute little dances. I wanted to put them all in my pocket and take them home and keep them forever. I guess I can when the DVD comes out!! It felt so much smaller to me, since I was in the front row. It was a sold out show and there were thousands of people there, but it just felt so much more intimate at the front because they were ALL behind me, so all I could see was the band, and the people next to me.
After they left, I hung around a bit and found Finger. I asked if they were giving out passes or doing an afterparty, but he said they weren`t. Probably because they have to leave for NYC early since they`ve a show there tomorrow at Madison Square Garden!!! Due to the fact that he couldn`t give me a pass, Finger gave me Richard`s guitar pick, it`s red and even says RZK on it. When I get home, I`ll put a hole through it and add it to the necklace I`m currently wearing... which happens to have a bass pick on it that I picked up at a show in Detroit. You can just guess whose it was. :P I gave Finger a really big hug since he gave me the pick and all and then we talked a bit and I went on my merry way. I didn`t even need a coat on the way home! I was so warm from being at the show and all. Excitement heats the blood, I think.
Anyway. It was just generally the best EVER. I can`t wait until the DVD comes out so I can relive it whenever.
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