It’s 5:30 AM on Saturday, July 17, 2010. I am getting ready to hit the road to meet with my very good friend as we’re about to drive down to Quebec City to attend a very special concert. And we are not alone. As a matter of fact, hundreds if not thousands of people across North America, not to mention other parts of the world, are heading to or are already in Quebec City, impatiently waiting to see Rammstein! On the music scene, this is probably one of the biggest event in North America this year. Their last visit was 9 years ago to support their sensational Mutter album and have not set foot on this side of the Atlantic (except South America?) since then for reasons I do not want to debate here.
July 18 2010, I’m excited. On this last day of the Festival d’Été de Québec (Quebec Summer Festival), the crowd is rapidly increasing as people are gathering near the gates blocking access to the Plains of Abraham where the concert will be held. Some have been sleeping near the gates since the 00:00 AM to ensure a great spot near the massive stage. I am not that committed and preferred waiting with my friends near Tourny Fountain, right in front of Parliament Hill, while drinking a few cold beers. 5:55 PM, the gates opened and this was welcome with thunderous cheers and rounds of applause. Thanks to a great organization, things moved relatively fast even though each and every one got searched prior to going through the gates that lead to a massive sea of people. My friends and I hurried to find a good spot where we will get to see Rammstein as close as possible. Closer is always better but knowing that there will be an arsenal of pyrotechnics unleashed before us, and a pair of giant screens, I was happy with the spot we got.
Apocalyptica took the stage first and they played a good set. I honestly believe that it would have been odd and borderline disastrous if they haven’t played their renditions of Metallica's Wherever I May Roam, Fight Fire with Fire and Seek & Destroy. That got things moving as the crowd sang along as if the songs played by Apocalyptica where karaoke tracks. For me, the set was okay. Nothing more. The highlight in my opinion was their cover of Hall of the Mountain King which was a pure delight of furious cello playing culminating into an explosion of musical notes, basically limited by how fast these musicians can play their instruments.
Then there was a pause. A long one as Rammstein delayed their stage presence by 30 minutes. But that was quickly forgotten when all the lights went out to the sound of ‘Rammlied’ and as a black curtain fell only to reveal an enormous German flag in the background. Rammstein delivered an amazing performance doing what they do best with great theatrics, lighting and stage, bombastic and over the top pyrotechnics, and of course, great music. It was said that 400 pyrotechnic effects were used through their 100 minutes set. From Till Lindemann’s mouth shooting beams of light to the usual flame bombs shooting up and/or down the stage, to fireworks shot to/from the stage, and let’s not forget the flame throwers. There was even a choreographed fight between Lindemann (singer) and Christian "Flake" Lorenz (keyboardist). The later lost the fight and got thrown into a metallic bath by Lindemann who then got elevated 20 feet from the stage floor via some kind of a hydraulic pedestal. And it is from there that he got to poor some liquid flames and sparks into the metallic bath where Flake’s body was lying. Then Lindemann got back on stage and walked away. Flake, who was wearing some sort of latex body suit prior to getting thrown into the metallic bath emerged wearing a suit full of glitters. That alone was amazing to see! The set went something like this: Rammlied, Bückstabü, Waidmanns Heil, Keine Lust, Feuer Frei!, Wiener Blut, Frühling in Paris, Ich Tu Dir Weh, Du Riechst So Gut, Benzin, Links 2-3-4, Du Hast and Pussy. It was awesome to hear the crowd sing the French section of the chorus on Frühling in Paris and even more thrilling to hear the deafening crowd on Du Hast which was chock full of pyrotechnics and light effects. Also worthy of mention is the huge canon of a phalic nature that was used by Lindemann on Pussy to shoot, err, a thick load of foam bath mixed with some sort of rectangular paper confetti all over the crowd, the 100 000 if not more that we were. Rammstein then walked off stage up until the crowd was loud enough for them to come back for the encore. Yeah, right after they played Pussy, cuz we all wanted more. They went on to play Sonne, and then the guys from Apocalyptica joined them to play Haifisch and Ich Will which put an end to an unforgettable concert night and the 2010 Edition of Quebec Summer Festival.
It would have been nice to hear more songs, like Engel for example, but I will not go there as I am content with their entire set and the simple fact that I was there to see them. Because who knows when they will be back here. Fan or not, that was the place to be.
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