Year: 2020
Total Time: 78:00
Label: Vertigo/Capitol.
Date: 22nd and 23rd of August, 1998. Location: Parkbuhne Wuhlheide, Berlin, the second largest open-air amphitheatre. Starring: RAMMSTEIN are performing live for two nights and they are filming these performances for an upcoming DVD and CD release “Live Aus Berlin” in 1999. Twenty years later they decide to rerelease them with a significant add. The track “Buck Dich” (bend over in English).
Why did this song cause such a commotion? Let me take you back to the 3rd of July 1999 at Worcester , Massachusetts. RAMMSTEIN are performing live and when they are about to perform “Buck Dich”, the singer Till Lindemann, along with the keyboard player, Flake Lorenz, mimed anal sex on stage (fully clothed of course) using an ejaculating huge dildo. After the concert the two musicians were arrested by the local police and charged with lewd and lascivious behaviour, spending the night in a cell. Let’s mention a maybe irrelevant detail. At that time Al Gore was the Vice President of USA, whose wife Elizabeth Tipper Gore was an activist against metal, rock, punk and hip hop communities with her organization PMRC. (Do you remember the awful stickers on the vinyl and CD covers for explicit lyrics and content?) Anyway, in this recent release we have the cut scene of this song. Speaking in terms of sound, everything approaches perfection, the sound, the performance of the band, the production; and we are talking about a band that, by that time, had released only two full length records. If there is anything to grumble about, that is the participation of the audience. For us it is lame, but for a German crowd it is very enthusiastic and warm. A crowd that supported RAMMSTEIN from their beginning until now, that are considered stars of the global music industry. Especially during songs such as “Engel” and their all-time classic hit, “Du Hast”, you can hear almost everyone in the crowd singing the lyrics along with the group. But just imagine if these concerts were held in Greece or South America…
Fires, pyro shows, on stage performance, theatricality, costumes, provocation, sexual innuendos (not so innuendos if we compare it with Lindemann’s latest solo project) and lessons of German language for foreigners. I could not imagine listening these songs in English or, even more interestingly, in French language. A live performance by RAMMSTEIN is always experiential, no matter if you love them or hate them, you must admit that everything they do, they do it perfectly, professionally, without discounts and compromise. Gott weiss, ich will kein Engel sein.
Rating: N/A
Editor: Dimos Karadimos
Related Link: RAMMSTEIN – Official Page
