Arrested after the dildo show – then Rammstein changed

Could six German men have ever been as much anticipated in Sweden as the band that is now coming to Gothenburg?

For the first time since 2019, Rammstein is back on a Swedish stage.

After winning the Bråvalla Festival twice in 2013 and 2016, they came to Stockholm and sold out the Stadium’s roughly 30,000 seats in 2019.

Even then, the band Ullevi had entered the calendar, but yes, we all know what happened in 2020. And 2021.

Now it’s finally time for fans to experience the well-orchestrated explosion of fire and industrial rock that is Rammstein.

Grew up in East Germany

The members grew up in the GDR but were shaped by the West, with punk and rock from the other side of the Iron Curtain.

After playing in various bands, the band was formed in the mid-90s and soon had a mini-breakthrough when they had music in David Lynch’s film “Lost highway” which came out in 1997.

The same year they appeared at the Hultsfredfestivalen.

– Right after they had played, the whole festival was talking about Rammstein. It was so obvious that it was a band that broke through and got a big audience right away. It’s not that common for a band, who were unknown to the masses, to get it. And that they are doing three Ullvi concerts now, that is unique in the genre. Look at Iron Maiden, who played there recently, they’d never pulled it off. Rammstein has a huge audience, says Expressen’s music critic Anders Dahlbom, who has seen a number of gigs with the Germans.

Flamethrowers and sex toys

Rammstein made themselves known early on for their extreme stage shows.

Singer Till Lindemann walked around with flamethrowers and spewed flames over the sea of ​​audience, and also set fire to himself (or yes, the overcoat he was wearing on stage).

There were also more … equivocal elements.

Like that time in Worcester outside Boston in 1999.

During one gig, keyboardist Christian “Flake” Lorenz went from his seat down to a podium on stage and stood on all fours during the song “Bück dich”.

Behind him, singer Till Lindemann stood and opened a flap on Flake’s trousers, pulling down his own fly.

A loose penis was removed from the pants, which was connected to a hose that went out to the side of the stage where a pair of rowers stood and pumped out cascade after cascade of liquid that landed on the stage, on Flake and on the audience.

Arrested by police in the USA

It did not go down well with moralistic authorities. After the gig, the police came and arrested the two musicians and threw them into custody.

They had to spend the night in custody, suspected of some form of outrageous behavior, but got away with fines.

It was clearly a carefully planned and intentional show, and the band members have explained that it was an important part of what they do.

– We actually do what many others would like to do. We annoy people as much as we can here in Germany. And people get angry because they don’t dare to do that themselves, says guitarist Paul Landers in the documentary “Rammstein in America”.

Second guitarist Richard Kruspe agrees.

– I think it’s good that Rammstein is polarizing. It’s good that a band provokes people, and makes them discuss things. It’s a good principle, I think. It makes people think about different subjects, and then maybe even realize where they themselves stand, and what opinion they themselves actually have.

“Can’t afford any mistakes”

But the fine – that they ended up on the criminal records in the US – has done that for the band. Both Till Lindemann and Flake Lorenz say they are forced to stop for extra checks every time the band enters the US. While the other band members go to the hotel, Lindemann and Lorenz are kept behind.

– We have been very humble since then, we even butter the fire marshals, because we cannot afford any mistakes. The authorities here, they have such power. They can send you home at once. Withdraw work permits, or cancel gigs, or put someone in custody or demand completely ridiculous fines, says Lindemann.

The critic: “There is something under the surface”

Although it worked on some levels, it has also benefited the band, according to Anders Dahlbom.

– That is only positive. Anything that involves controversy makes more people open up to them, and more people become interested. They probably pulled more in that direction in the beginning than they do now, they don’t have to do it anymore, but there is always an undertone that there might be something slightly forbidden about them, there is always something under the surface. You didn’t really know where you had them when they arrived, and that’s always good for bands, when you can’t put them in a compartment. “What is this?”

Even though people have a clearer picture of what Rammstein is, they continue to entertain with lavish shows.

– There are few other bands that spend as much money on their stage show and stage product. Confetti, fire, but also the stage construction is somewhat in horse way. That experience is something people want to SEE for real, it’s not enough to watch on Youtube, it’s certainly not enough to just listen to it – you need to be there. It is a unique thing, says Dahlbom.

Biggest band – in German

Another aspect that stands out when it comes to Rammstein is, well, the Germanness. There aren’t many bands on the world charts that play music like that and sing in Helmut Kohl’s native language.

– Part of it is that it becomes a little more exotic and attractive. The question is whether you can’t draw a comparison with BTS in a way, the world’s biggest boy band that sings in Korean. Very few here have any idea what they’re singing about, but it doesn’t matter. You can almost fill the content with whatever you want. And that probably also applies to Rammstein’s case. Then in their case, if you translate the lyrics, they sing about what you think they’re singing about anyway, haha. But it adds some edge, some extra spice.

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Rammstein play at Ullevi in ​​Gothenburg on Thursday 28, Friday 29 and Saturday 30 July. You can follow the first concert live on expressen.se

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