Rammstein RDS Arena 23rd June 2024

A dissertation…

For me, my anticipation of going to this show was akin to a religious pilgrimage .  The atmosphere and sights in the city centre beforehand and on the dart out was Brilliant to see. Rammstein-mania had taken hold . 

RDS looked resplendent in the sun, and the beautiful green grass outside the main arena was lovely .  A very good setting .

The sheer scale of the stage was awesome.  So grand, so gothic and like some insane totalitarian monstrosity . Gorgeous!! 

Was great to be so close to the stage in the FZ, and we struck lucky by being near the piano stage when the dinghies came out, and to be able to see the actual sweat and expressions on their faces up close when they were doing Engel was unreal.    I thought the sound where I was (‘the left half’ of the FZ ) was great, and the performance and energy from the band was incredible. Everything I wanted them to be. No sense of them ‘phoning it in ‘ - they emptied the tank and I’m still tingling ; just hearing and dancing to songs like du riescht so gut live, and even Radio and Auslander - magic stuff of dreams .  

People pay their money so can do what they like, and I guess to suggest otherwise puts you at risk of becoming a gatekeeper .  Brilliant , I guess, to have a diverse crowd in to see such a metal/ rock/ industrial-techno spectacular!  But while Rammstein killed it, the crowd were frankly corpse-like to begin with.  At the very least I expected a bit of collective jumping up and down with the hand in the air to the likes of ich Will and du hast, but it was minimal .  At most other times it was a case of people with arms folded and a bit of nodding the auld head ; no doubt enjoying themselves , but I don’t know how to put it - the crowd seemed unable to loosen up a bit.  Was it that horrible collective Irish awkwardness where people just didn’t want to let themselves go, en masse?  Death to us all by the vibe of being uptight ?

Having read the comments above , I’ve mellowed a bit on the whole thing , and saw some good theories / explanations. . But at the height of my annoyance, Jaysis, to put it bluntly, the show seemed full of boring c***s  .  Was it because it was a Sunday and there was work today?  Feck me. I drove up n down from the North, stone cold sober and am in work today (yadda yadda , cringe ,give me a medal etc.) The collective crowd was minus craic .   Was it the same in the general standing, does anyone know? 

 I think I’m over it now… (haha!), but it was like those moments in life when an amazing sexual experience is ruined by the need to p!$$ - something niggling at you that kind of takes away from the main event .

Sorry for the self-indulgent tear fest, folks.  I just had to get that out of my system!   Waaaaaaa!   Big baby 

2012 was the best concert Ive ever gone to. I had massively high hopes that I knew it wouldnt reach last night, but still gave it a go.

Positives:

• Set list pretty amazing, IMO just missed Feuer Frei.
• Pyro was excellent though yeah we got a little screwed with it being 2 days after longest day of the year.
• Great energy for a bunch of ol lads. Especially the keyboardist on his treadmill ALL night.

Negatives:

• Crowd. Awful, abysmal, boring crowd. Im sorry but I was shocked how bad it was. Nothing like Sum 41 I was at only a few days ago and a long, long way off the 2012 crowd in The Point. And i didnt think it was the irish- zillions of germans, english, french, polish etc were there or over for it and they were the dull ones I saw. Not saying there were dull irish ones but thats what I noticed, cause it was very noticeable.
• Phones. I mean, ffs. This was appalling and one of the worst ive ever seen. I let out several 'put your phones down ya w*ankers' which didnt do much. but this was ridiculous. Shame on all of them that decided to record everything. These people know nothing about enjoying a gig.
• Support - like many others said, I liked it, but it was a bit dull. And the ticket price should have justified a proper support act.
• Rockshore and price - I mean seriously, 7 euro for a can and 8 euro for a pint?
• Feuerzone oversold - I expected a bit more exclusivity for my 150 euro ticket but it was jammers. And jammers with dull people as said above.
• Getting out - we went for the dart at Sandymount. Took over an hour to get out the gig and to Tara street for club hell. Which was also 7 euro a pint.

I dont go out in dublin at all any more, mostly cause it costs an absolute arm and leg for pints or food, and then the taxi home cause luas finished at 11pm on a Sunday. Gigs are the ones that I try to fill that 'go out time' with, but yesterday I was cans + bag of crisps in a park before the gig. The old days that would have been Fibbers, but the price of it all now, naaaah.

Still a cracking day out. But too expensive.

There was a pretty big moshpit that even turned into a semi circle pit (thanks to 2 very excited fans) where I was in general standing, a few people right of the B stage near the wall between FZ and General Standing

The atmosphere was deadly where I was, people singing, headbanging and moshing but after watching videos it didn't look the same anywhere else unfortunately

yup, agreed with that. Same with people standing in seated section. I know its a metal concert but standing for the WHOLE gig is just very disrespectful

German couple beside me were in a hotel for the weekend and thought the city was amazing. Really enjoying their stay in Dublin, didn't mention it being expensive, but they could have been wealthy. What are IPA's?

There's a video I've seen on twitter from the Pearl Jam show. Evenflow is playing and there is a bloke filming it with his hand up not even looking at the screen as he has a full blown conversation with the bloke with beside him. Like WTF. I'd love to see the follow on from it on his socials.

"PEARL JAM. WHAT A GIG. HAD ME ENGAGED THE WHOLE TIME".

Ah, OK. I understand now.

Yes this pissed me off. I just expected them or the centre screen to be on all the time. It's not as if they can't afford it with that stage budget

To say I'm sickened that I missed this gig is an understatement. They have been one of my bucket list live acts for many years, and I never thought they would bring their outdoor stage to Ireland. I was ill last week, and made the call on Saturday evening that I wouldn't be well enough to go on Sunday. Resold the ticket on ticketmaster, so at least someone else got to go. It looked unbelievable.

Would you all stop whining. Yeah FZ people was not as it should have been in FZ, people with phones, i could care less. They all payed their money and could do anything they want. I was alone in FZ, i enjoyed as much as i could and sang as much as my German vocabulary allowed me to. Rammstein couldn't care less about any of you, its business, they collected their share and moved on

You could always go to see them abroad, depending where you are in the country a trip abroad isnt much more expensive than staying in Dublin .

Yeh, packed out. I left it around 1.45 and it was hopping, had been out since 3.30 so was well full at that point.