Lighting&Sound - January 2005

Rammstein is Germany’s most successful

International rock act. They’ve just completed

a sell-out European tour that ranged from

bullrings in Spain to the proletarian sports halls

of Moscow, Tallinn and St Petersburg. Their

latest album, Reise, Reise has already shifted

over a million copies worldwide and they’re off

for a jaunt around the US in 2005. Luckily for us,

they’ll tour Europe again this spring and visit the

UK before crossing the Atlantic to America, and

while London audiences continue the tradition of

being too cool and are thus treated to a scaled

down show in tiny Brixton, the rest of us can go

and wallow in the full majesty of the Rammstein

spectacle at the MEN or the Nottingham Arena.

Warning: if you’ve never heard of them, don’t goout and buy the album: save your money for theshow. Two hours of first-class industrial rockpantomime, and not a video screen in sight; it’sthe most fun I’ve had on a Thursday night in Berlinsince the Kurfürstendamm whores emptied mywallet 25 years ago.

Not convinced? Remember the story last year ofthe German cannibal Armin Meiwes? He found a willing victim on the internet who wanted to bekilled and eaten. The two men ended up sharingthe victim’s penis, fried in butter, before Meiweseventually fulfilled his wishes and ate him.Rammstein have a song about it, Mein Tiels,literally ‘my piece’ as in my piece of cake. Picturethis: the massive presence of lead singer TillLindemann dressed in black Frankenstein Gothiclederhosen, holding a microphone attached to thebiggest carving knife you’ve ever seen, like a sort

of corpulent Bavarian Edward Scissorhands.Christian ‘Flake’ Lorenz, the keyboard player, isthe victim, cowering in a man-sized cooking pot,popping up from time to time while Lindemannblasts the pot with a hand-held gas torch thatshoots flames four metres. But there’s great ironyhere: Lindemann wears a comical chef hat, andrepeatedly turns to his audience in that classicpantomime villain role: ‘Shall I roast him now?’ heseems to be asking - before blasting the potanyway.

My description doesn’t do it justice: this is theatreon a grand scale. ‘Wagner on acid’ is, I’m sure, ananalogy over-worn by the mainstream press. Thegreatest revelation is to remind yourself that theseguys are Germans: yes, they visit some very darkplaces in their songs, but the performance leadsus to conclude they have an advanced sense ofirony.

Set and lighting design is by Roy Bennett. I know,he’s becoming a bit of a regular in these pages oflate, but he’s just going through a positivecommercial phase; before Madonna (see L&SISeptember 2004) we hadn’t heard of him for overtwo years. “Pyro with some lighting,” is how hedescribed the show when we called him in theStates. “And there’s a lot of Pars, more than I’veused in years. The band are great with ideas,really good to collaborate with - but there are sixband members, all with their own ideas - I didhave to sort that out.”

Bennett said the band told him he could do whathe likes, and after the relative frustrations ofMadonna and to some extent Anastacia (L&SIDecember 2004), who could blame him for goingcompletely over the top? There is a post-tour

Rammstein in Berlin‘Theatre on a

grand scale’.

Rammstein’s

blend of heavy

rock and Gothic

horror is

underpinned by

an advanced

sense of irony

and some

surprising

qualifications.

Steve Moles

reports on the

most fun he’s

had in some

time . . .

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on tour - Rammstein

codicil to that freedom; this is his mostaccomplished showing of the three designsnamed, and all the more significant for thatbecause this is also the most bastardisedversion of his design.

Let me explain: the band has, as is theirright, made many and significant changes tothis production since Bennett departedshortly after the third show, leaving it in thehands of an operator. The running order haschanged - no big deal - but lighting effectsand gags have been completelyreassembled. Without naming names, everycrew member I spoke to, even sound guys,referred to these changes as being to thedetriment of the original design concept. It’samazing to encounter such accord from alldepartments.

The problem was that where typicallyBennett keeps his major scenes close to hischest, revealing them slowly one by one,and building the show to a significant climax,the show now shoots its wad in the first threenumbers. No less enjoyable for all that, but itcould have been better paced.

More importantly, despite these changes,and bringing in their old designer Gert Wolfto cast his slide rule over the bones of thepresentation, it’s still easy to spot thekeystones of a Bennett design. AsCyberhoist controller, Arjen Hofma said tome after the show: “In rehearsals he alreadyhad fully formed ideas in his mind of howthings would work together. He had sent mecomputer files for all the separate movingobjects in the rig and as we worked on eachsong he just had to call me to bring specificobjects to ‘position 27’ and lights to cuewhatever, and away we went.”

Hofma, an enthusiastic young Dutchman,was the first to admit he’s somewhat in aweof Bennett, but the point is well made, thedetail in the show is so intense in places thatit can only have been placed there throughcareful consideration. For example, one

song’s opening sequence had combinationsof Par frames ascending vertically at back ofthe stage set while lamps within them (allPars were single patched) flickered to revealfleeting patterns only possible as theypassed behind the interference grid of otherlight frames; the tiniest wink from themassed ranks of Atomic strobes in the sameframes would then tease our eyes; andfinally a slow, malevolent sweep of MAC2000s would dribble piss yellow across thestage. Despite the monstrous enormity of themusic, these deft touches of illuminationmade for a potent visual context.

The Cyberhoist/InMotion 3D control system,premiered at PLASA last September, is a keyelement in the lighting show. Bennett’s rig isin many ways quite simple, Hofma describedit thus: “18 moving objects in total, twohoists on each object, 14 are banks of Pars,four contain moving lights, all Martin MAC2000.” That’s it in essence, but therepositioning of these objects, and thesubtlety with which it’s done, makes theshow rich and various.

As this is the system’s first appearance on a major touring production, it warrants someattention here: Hofma has been working withthese systems since their early days ofdevelopment at Ampco/Flashlight in Utrechtand is well placed to give a user’sperspective. “We have a total of 36 movinghoists, suspended from a master grid.” Hesaid. “These hoists are purpose-built, wecan control speed and time of travel, and willsoon be able to monitor live loads throughfeedback from the motor.”

This is in fact already possible: the motors allsend information on their electrical currentdraw, which can then be extrapolated intoload variance, but the interpretive softwarehas yet to be written. Marc van der Wel ofAmpco Sales, who was present, informed thatthis feature, with several other improvements,will be available this new year: “It’s ourintention to revise and improve annually, that

Lighting&Sound - January 2005

Mein Tiels• This was a very strange show to gainaccess to. The day before I left forBerlin, they changed their minds anddecided against the visit: it was onlywhen I pointed out that the air ticket andhotel were beyond cancellation that theychanged their minds. When I went tointerview the FOH sound man, he firstcalled production on his walkie-talkie tomake sure this had been approved andagreed. What are they worried about?

• Bauer may have some tastycompression tools available but doesn’talways apply them so subtly: one songbegins with twin acoustic guitars, theyare compressed to hell producing aheavily stressed intro. Another timethere’s a chorus/phlange intro thatdescends into the most incredibledistortion.

• I have it on good authority thatkeyboard player Lorenz has had his longflowing hair reduced by 30cm due tomis-timed pop-ups during the cookingpot/flamethrower routine.

• Part of the XLNT AdvancedTechnologies InMotion 3D/Cyberhoistupdate this year is the appearance of a40m/min 250kg hoist; with the soft startand controlled deceleration possiblewith these devices that’s a serious bit ofcompetition for motion control normallyundertaken with wire winches. A beamtrolley device is also mooted for 2005, “itonly remains for us to develop thehardware,” adds van der Wel.

• Part of the change to Bennett’s designhas been the addition of a front truss:“They’ve cut a row of eight-lights frombeneath the stage to compensate,” saidunder-stage ferret meister Sanderson.

• Bauer also mixes for the LeningradCowboys, Five Star Deluxe (German hip-hop) and Finnish Punk-mastersSleepy Sleepers. Despite hispreferences for PA, he takes the V-Doscsystem seriously: he’s been to schooland has the V-Dosc Operator certificate.He certainly keeps his system man onhis toes.

• A fan of both Millenia and TCElectronics products, Bauer also uses aTC M6000, “with the MD4 Producer Packfor multi-band compression, it has a first-class reverb, as good as a Lexicon,which I use on vocals and drums. Also a

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on tour - Rammstein

will sometimes require updates to the hoistsas well - Cyberhoist is not a bolt-on to existingVerlinde hoists, these are custom-designedmotors. We wanted the hoists to beunrestricted, otherwise they wouldn’t be ableto do all the things people want.”

The lighting rig is supplied by PRG, with acrew out of Birmingham led by MichaelO’Connor. Why a British supplier on a Germantour? “It’s for the humour,” said Hofmaflippantly, but Michael Bauer on front-of-housesound agreed: “Even on those terrible load-ins, like Spain, they kept us laughing.”No doubt Scotty Sanderson leading his stagehands while attired in a woman’s dresshelped keep the smiles firmly fixed.

Besides Par frames and MAC 2000s,Bennett’s design has many lights elsewhere,mainly concentrated under the sub-stage,but also across the back, where he hasCoemar Panoramas blasting up over the topof the set - one of the few lights that remainsconcealed till near the finale. Under-floorlighting is immense: 45 eight-lights plus afurther two dozen Pars across the full stagewidth, 12 eight-light ACLs beneath thedrummer, then there’s another 20 Parsconcealed within the back line stage-set.

It was warming to my heart to find six 72-channel Avo FD dimmer racks crowdedstage right: “We pull 1400 amps per phase,”informed O’Connor, “that’s why we carry ourown generator.” james Thomas PixelLinefixtures are also a major feature of thelighting rig - 78 sections of it are concealedwithin the moving frames: one of Bennett’smore subtle touches is to have a fiercelybright, but shortly transient burst of cold bluelight chase along these sections of LED inpulse time to the sequencers; visually itresembles the burning of a fuse toward astick of dynamite, but its appearance is sofleeting as to appear more electrical.

The Cyberhoists are shifting multiple podson timed cues across space above stage.

“Unfortunately, trim height varied quite a bitfrom gig to gig,” said Hofma with somenoticeable weariness in his voice. “Althoughthe control software recalculates the speedneeded to traverse a reduced or extendeddistance on cue, I still have to re-enter thestart and end position of each object, whenwe come to lower or higher venues.” With somany hoists and so many moves this wasobviously quite a chore: “But that’s one ofthe most important improvements intendedfor the coming software update, to be ableto input a new global maximum heightparameter to the show programme at eachvenue, and have the system’s two G5srecalculate all the moves relative to the stageheight, which is of course a constant.” AsHofma added: “It certainly beats working outstart and finish points with paper and pencilas I do at the moment.”

But that’s part of the learning process whenyou transplant a product initially designed forthe theatre install market, different pressuresapply that were not part of the originaldevelopment brief.

Sound

Michael Bauer on front-of-house sound is a warm, engaging man; youthful inappearance with his curly dark hair, he is anengineer of long experience. He’s beenmixing FOH since 1987, and for Rammsteinsince ‘96. “Before touring I was a nurse, but I had been playing the drums since the ageof four. When I achieved my degree as anIntensive Care nurse there was nowhere elseto go, so I decided to go into audio becauseas a drummer in local bands it had alwaysbeen me who had taken care of the sound.”

Bauer is using a V-Dosc system from Berlin-based audio supplier Black Box Music:“They have supplied the whole Europeantour and have been very good,” he said. Willyou use the V-Dosc Network when you visitAmerica, the Far East and Australia later inthe year? “Not necessarily, V-Dosc is my

Lighting&Sound - January 2005

Yamaha 990 - this is funny - I have these1,400 Euro TC products and the D5desk, but I’m using this to put somedistortion on the vocals - nothing elsedoes it the way the 990 does. It’s thesame for the Rev 7 which I use for thesnare, there’s just no modern unitsounds right for me.”

• Backline comprises 10 4x12” guitarcabinets and two 8x10”s for bass; side-fills are EV line arrays, so it’s loudon stage.

• All the lighting frames are built by TotalFabrications Ltd: “I think Robin Waindesigned them with Chris Cronin,” saidO’Connor. “Dave Perry did all thedrapes.” Again with Bennett’s collusion,Perry has produced painted drapes thatreveal different scenes depending uponhow they’re lit. The room created bysuch a backlight effect for Mein Tiel isvery striking: a small piece of white cycbehind the faux window frame bounceslight back through the window for amore realistic touch, the source beingundetectable to the viewer.

• The tab track system used for thevariety of drapes and cycs that traversebackstage is German, provided by AxelKoch: “An excellent system, he built iton-site in rehearsal,” said O’Connor.

• Apropos Scotty Sanderson’s methodfor getting the best from recalcitrantstage hands: I’ve seen this done oncebefore, in Chicago in midwinter (-8°C),my US crew chief (who shall remainnameless) tipped three trucks outdoorswith a crew of Teamsters while dressedonly in shorts and one of those buffalohead-dresses with horns beloved ofNative American medicine men. “It’ll befast, it’ll be fun, and if I keep youlaughing you’ll work hard and I won’tfreeze to death.” He was an old LSDman, so maybe there’s something in thisconcept of engaging a supplier toprovide humour.

• Lighting control is from two WholehogIIs, one of which was treated to a beerbath during the show courtesy of one ofthe many female liggers crowded intothe FOH area. Who said rock and roll isdead?

• A sample of Rammstein songs:‘Mein Tiel’ (Penis-frying cannibal set tomusic); ‘Amerika’ (political shouting);‘Armour’ (more shouting, butromantically inclined).

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second choice of PA - don’t misunderstand,I like the V-dosc very much - but myfavourite system is the Synco developmentof the Renkus-Heinz system.” None of thatavailable outside Europe; what are thedemands on the PA?

“This is a loud, industrial rock band, not thatugly sound of thrash metal, but it’s full, theydo have sequencers running continuously,the guitars are very heavy, and Till[Lindemann] has a very dark voice.” TheLindemann voice is one of Bauer’s biggestchallenges. “It’s more a speaking voice thansinging, he’s very deep and very quiet, butthe lyrics are very important, especially thenewer songs, people want to hear what he’ssaying.” Having now seen the show, it’sapparent just how crucial Linderman’s voiceis, not only in what he says, but in the wayhis voice characterizes their music; thinkMarilyn Manson gargling hot engine oil.

“We have lots of bass, 40 cabinets ofL’Acoustics SB218s, two big stacks underthe main hangs, and two smaller onesacross the front of stage. They’re delayedinto a Sub arc, the coverage is pretty evenbut we do get bass leakage in a tiny linedown each side of the mix position.”

Interestingly, and I suspect because of thefocus upon lyrical content, Bauer treats thelow end as an effect, only applying thehammer of the Gods when required. A goodmove in this tin-roofed circular velodrome,though potent in delivery (there was anabundance of trouser flap) Sub-bass didtend to wallow in the mud baths of Valhalla,rather than boom through the halls of Odin’slodge. “But it helps keep the low-end off thestage.”

Bauer, and monitor man Achim Zell are alsohelped with mic’ gain structure by the drumkit sitting 2.5m above the stage, and acouple of the band are on in-ear systems,“But there’s still 30kW of monitors, and the

back line cabs are loud.” They cope: Bauerhas given Lindemann a Shure SM58 Beta,“but I do have to make some heavy EQ’ing.”More on that later.

Bauer and Zell both use DiGiCo D5 desksfor control: “My favourite is still the MidasXL4,” said Bauer, “but we thought it wasabout time we tried digital consoles. Wemade a comparison between a MidasHeritage and two digital desks, the D5 andan Innova Son. Y-split, Heritage and eitherdigital desk, with no filtering, the D5 wasdefinitely the better-sounding desk: it did notdistort as early as the Innova Son. In fact itwas an easy decision - the D5 was betterthan the Heritage. Really, I would have likedthe XL4, but the tour visits so manycountries and we couldn’t take our ownconsoles, I thought well at least we can takeour little USB sticks; so digital was worth atry . . . Last but not least, the whole livemusic business is going digital, so Achimand I need to keep up with that modernshit.”

Bauer’s experiences with D5 have beensomewhat tortuous: “We’ve had manyproblems,” he said, and this was the lastvenue of a 10-week European tour.“Especially the first three weeks. But we hadgood support from Tony Crockett and alsoBob Doyle. Several times the desk frozebetween support and main band; we neverlost a show but we did have to make somebrutal hot mains restarts to get going again.”

Bauer may be content to continue using theboard, but it has coloured his method ofoperation. “I’m not using any on-boardeffects . . . I’m really using the desk almostlike an analogue, mix and EQ. I am using thegates but I’m not 100% satisfied - I have theimpression, especially at high level, that Ican hear it close. Compared to a BSS orDrawmer this makes more sound than eitherof them. I also use some compression,these are really good, I have them on the

snare, backing vocals and organ - that’sessential, he often freaks out.”

Out-board, Bauer uses the familiar SummitDCL200 for guitars, “but I have MilleniaTube Compressors, TCL2s for the mainvocals. This is a studio quality device asgood as a Focusrite Red, you just can’thear it operate; it definitely warms up thesignal. For the kind of low level we havefrom Till’s voice we have to drive it quitehard so this is good. I have to do a lot ofEQ on his voice, especially the low-mid

on tour - Rammstein

Lighting&Sound - January 2005

Q: You said you had experiencedfrustrations as a production managerdealing with Pyrotechnic companies -this is why you created ffp?

A: Since the band’s pyro is such anessencial part of the show, it neededquite accurate advance organization. ffpwas founded in a hotel room in Denveron one of our US tours when we foundout that the company which wasemployed to do all the advance workhad failed to do so, and all the workended up on my table, as it did manytimes before on the European legs. As a little boy I always wanted to be apyro tech, but this plan got lost whilegrowing up . . .

I went to the school of explosives inDresden and did all licenses for indoorand outdoor pyrotechnics, as well asspecial FX for movies and TVproductions. It turned out to be far less hassle having production and pyroin one hand. Also, now everyone knows who to blame if something goeswrong.

Interview with . . .

Rammstein.qxd 13/04/2005 14:40 Page 68

range, this really helps without that badpumping effect.” Bauer likes Milleniaproducts a lot: “I also have one of their four-channel full parametric tube EQs insertedinto the main output masters. It’s very easyto set up and gives a real finish. I knowthat’s crazy when I also have a TC QStation; and it too is really good, yet despiteall its features I’m using it just as a graphicEQ. I find it useful, especially with veryboomy rooms like this, I take out the majorresonant frequencies.”

This was a loud show, it cooked along ataround 105dBA (slow), with peaks up to108, sometimes 110, but it never once feltunpleasant. These peaks came from thelower ranges and as such when our allotted120 minutes was up my unprotected earsheard not the faintest hint of a residualwhistle.

Bauer ended our interview with this acuteobservation: “Yes it is loud on stage, but I’mfine with it, I wouldn’t want to turn anythingdown. With an act like Sting you might want

a silent stage, but I don’t like all that. I preferthat surrounding sound noise through themics, that’s how the audience knows theyare listening to something live. That’s part ofthe experience of coming to the concert.”

He’s right to single out a band like Sting’sfor it’s on-stage fidelity, it’s a goodcomparison: were Rammstein to performunder studio conditions it would destroy theatmosphere. Pantomime or not, theirperformance idiom is pure anarchy andBauer is right to let some of that intrude onhis sound. Beats the hell out of a boy bandshow any day.

on tour - Rammstein

Q: Does ffp supply pyro’ expertise to otherrock bands? Who?

A: In the first year, ffp worked exclusivelyfor Rammstein, as we didn’t have any moreequipment or qualified personnel. In themeantime, we have a wide range ofcustomers not only from the musicindustry. We have supplied the RobbieWilliams tour in 2003 with special flamesystems and confetti effects . . . but we alsodo sport events and all other kinds ofshows, as well as special FX for moviesand video shoots.

Q: The effects for Rammstein, especiallythe body-worn flame effects: whose ideawas that - yours or the band’s?

A: It is mainly the band’s lead singer wedeal with in the show design. He is alicensed pyrotechnician himself and theperfect partner if you want to go beyondthe line of standard stage FX . . . he is veryopen for new effects, and so is the rest ofthe band. Most of the body-worn things arehis own ideas; some are the simple resultof showing new products to the band and

explaining possible ways to use them.Then you get phone calls early in themorning and a bunch of crazy ideas fromthe band comes in. They usually soundimpossible to get on the road andapproved by the authorities, but that’s thechallenge, and so far we always made ithappen in a spectacular but safe way.

Q: Would you like to comment on each ofthe tour’s main production suppliers - PRG,Black Box and Flashlight/Cyberhoist?

A: Well, with some of the suppliers it’s notso much the size of the company than theambition they show to make the tourhappen. PRG we used before when it stillwas LSD as they were the only Europeanlighting company which could supply thenecessary gear and crew for Roy Bennet’sdesign. I also have a great relationship withRobin Wain which is of some importanceas well. You can have a warehouse full ofhigh quality gear, but it does not do youany good if you don’t have someone whois able to be the competent interfacebetween the designer’s plots and theproduction.

BBM is a rather small company but herecomes ambition again. They have shown alot of faith in advanced technologies suchas V-Dosc and DiGiCo and delivered anexcellent service you might not get fromone of the bigger companies.

The InMotion 3D/Cyberhoist System cameon-board with the new design and all thefast moves which are needed for thecurrent design. We had to take the best ofboth companies PRG and Flashlight with aperfect result and no negative vibesbetween both companies. The whole crewis working as a team.

Q: For you as production manager, what isthe biggest challenge in taking theRammstein show around the world?

A: Well, I guess as for every otherproduction manager touring with a largeshow around the world, the logisticsbehind the show . . . the agents routingover who to employ for what, and the usualdiscussions about budgets - topped withthe extra mile you have to go to get theband’s pyroshow through!

Lighting&Sound - January 2005

Nicolai Sabottka, production manager, Rammstein

FOH sound engineer Michael Bauer with the DiGiCo D5

Live and outboard racks.

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