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At the end of the show, after the last of two encores, Till announced that it was drummer Christoph Schneider’s birthday (actually May 11) and the band drank champaign while leading the crowd in the “Happy Birthday” song. Kinda a weird ending but very nice and humanizing.
The Rammstein show lasted slightly under two hours. The crowd was on its feet the whole time, and was really into it, singing along, head-banging, smoking copious amounts of pot. Had I known the entire crowd would be standing the whole time, I’d have purchased floor tickets. At least down there you had room to spread out.
It was the greatest rock show I’ve ever been to, and if Rammstein comes back to my area, I’ll see them again and again. Kinda like Bob Dylan, I’ve seen him three times and it should have been four. I’m glad I got to see Rammstein still in their artistic prime, and in a very rare American show. The face value of the ticket was $50 and despite my cheapness, that’s a steal, the quality of the show would have warranted a ticket price of $750. It was such a treat to see them in person after years of absorbing their cds and dvds over and over again.
After I left the arena I sat in the parking lot for a half hour, waiting for maroons to clear out. Then I realized that the same lemming principle was going on, everyone was following each other out one exit. So I slipped out another exit that fed into the same street and was on the fast track out of there! Until I hit the five 80 cent tolls. And way down the highway I nearly ran out of gas thanks to two consecutive hick town exits that didn’t have gas stations open at 1:30 a.m. Imagine the nerve! Fortunately I coasted into civilization on the outskirts of Champaign. There was a 24-hour Pilot gas station that even had “cheap” ($3.96) gas. Thanks Pilot, you saved the day.
And that’s my Rammstein review and travel story. Maybe I should save up my pennies and avoid the big cities for a while, now. At least until the next adventure.
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