Falscher Schmetterling

Till Fest turned into one of my side quests of an already planned visit to Berlin to go see System of a Down, on 8th July. From there, I thought "since I'm in Berlin, I must go to the Rammstein Store" 🤷🏻‍♀️ (side quest #1). And, from there, my thought process took me to "well...I could go earlier and go to the store on the weekend previous to the concert instead of the one after and then travel to Leipzig for one day of the Festival..." 🤷🏻‍♀️ (side quest #2 unlocked).

When the Store's opening days for July where finally confirmed (that came out very late, which also contributed to the tardiness of my decision) - 3 and 11 of July - I settled: It's Berlin for the Store -> Leipzig for the second day of the Festival (they even released new Golden Circle tickets, so it was a sign I had to go😅) -> Berlin again, for System of a Down -> bankrupcy 🪦.

As I had been in Berlin before, I also decided this time (until a friend met me on 7th July), it would be a Rammstein related trip, aside from the visit to the Store (this will be material for a different post later on).

The Leipzig leg of my solo trip started on 4th July, second day of Till Fest.

The night before, I forgot, once again, to put the alarm on my phone and had to get ready in record time to leave to catch my bus (which ticket I had not bought just yet, as I fell asleep the previous night doing just that 🙈). Managed to buy a nice priced Flixbus ticket, got to the bus stop early, only to realise (too late) I was at the wrong Central Station...It was not the Hauptbahnhof, but the motherfucking BUS Central Station😭 (I blame the app for translating everything to Portuguese), which made me spend some unexpected extra-money on a train ticket (my German friends, I'm sorry, but your train tickets are expensive af!), but alas, it was the only way to get to Leipzig at a decent time.

Little stroll to my Hostel, through a really interesting neighbourhood. It had a very political, reactionary, alternative, cool vibe. Actually, that was my whole feeling about Leipzig.

Me and Mini-Till managed to get ready on time to get to the venue before the first band started.💪🏻

Met a cool German couple, who kept me company through the whole concert (he spoke English, she didn't, but we managed) and Mini-Till was very loved all around. It was so much fun seeing people laughing, petting him, looking at him in a cute way and someone asking me if I was gonna give him to Till (not gonna happen 😒).

Hemlock (my personal favourites - heavy at times, but also fun)

Cobermouth and Hocico (both, not exactly my thing, but I really enjoyed Hocico's dancers and garments - I'll share more on a different post)

Erdling (the other German fellows), I mostly, watched from a far, because I decided to go grab a beer between Hocico and them, but it took so long, I missed half the concert. Honestly, the beer service was the only part I disliked at the Festival. Many of the people working at that bar seemed to be doing this for the first time and they were excruciatingly slow...also, friends, where I come from, pouring beer on top of another is a crime against humanity! You bet your ass I sent that thing back...Sorry. My Portuguese soul got triggered for a sec there.

Oh! Forgot to tell you, "RZK" was also there, as you can see in the photo on the right 🤭 (the right sleeve was red, but I couldn't get it on photo. And the girl next to him had some really cool TL and R+ tattoos).

Next, the big guys, Ministry. I knew only a few of their songs (have known they exist for a very long time, of course, but they were more on my radar, back in 2013/15, when I learned Joey Jordison pleayed with them for a tour and was in one of their mv) and, honestly, I felt that they played none of them 😅. Still, I really liked their sound.

On the middle photo, there's Paul Barker (I had no idea who he was 🫣), who sang the song - checks setlist.fm - 'Useless', with the band.

And Mini-Till got a reality check on his Portuguese roots. 🤏🏻 (yeah, I spent Till's concert dancing between those two towers to be able to see anything properly. Thnakfully, they barely move)

Everything was starting pretty much on time, but Ministry seemed to played less time than it was announced on the program, which messed up the schedule of things in my head.

Last, before Till, were Aesthetic Perfection, this time as a duo, in a more electronic vibe.

Not a fan of this aesthetic (pardon the punch), if I'm being honest, but Daniel is always very lively. He almost fell off the secondary stage, while putting his foot on one of the metal bars and leaning forward (it's on their Instagram page) and at that moment, I got so startled, I grabbed the girl in front of my by the shoulders (while impulsively exclaiming an "Ai Jasus!"). I did not knew her, the poor girl. 😅

Between Ministry and Aesthetic Perfect they put on the curtain, which was a beautiful sight to see:

I think it's important to notice I tried my best to be spoiler free, meaning, I intentionally did not check videos, photos or setlist beforehand. But, since I was still existing online, the only thing I knew from day 1 is that they played with the black suits, Till was looking beautiful with longer hair and that Yukon was on the setlist. 🥹

From the teaser videos, I imagined they would mix up both the black and red outfits, but wasn't sure how it would work. When I got to the venue, you could see a part of the red stairs sneaking from behind the stage, so I got my confirmation right there that we were getting the red aesthetic.

After a while, we (or, at least, me) got surprised with a video starting on the screens and it was 'Man Child Till goofing around town', that they used to play during Lindemann's concerts. The video stops and the curtain immediately falls, revealing the band, with the red outfits and the first chords of 'Zunge', back as opening. Till comes down the stairs at the back of the stage as he did during the Meine Welt Tour. This time, differently from what he did at our Festival, last year, he (thankfully) sang it live and not in playback.

And, from there, we got many interesting setlist changes.

Live debuts:

The new song 'Es Brennt...' (to be honest, I completely forgot this song existed🙊), with a really cool routine from the dancers on the elevated Golden Stage (can't post more videos here, so I'll share it later).

It gave me Dita Von Teese vibes and I kinda forgot to look at the main stage, most of the time. 😅 The song was stronger live than on record, for me.

'Meine Welt', actually played on stage and not just as intro from tape. On the album it's not a favourite, but it, actually, sounded good live; 'Nass', sounding, unsurprisingly good; 'Übers Meer', played in its entirety, without the transition to Knebel, which made me happy.

Lindemann songs back on set:

'Gummi', with one of the dancers throwing jello to the audience and a HOT AF routine between the dancers and Brynn 🫠 (it's not a favourite song of mine, but it was worth it just for that part alone); 'Ladyboy', 'Entre dos Tierras' and 'Steh Auf', the trio that made my night, since they're some of my favourites, especially Entre dos Tierras, as I've been dying to see it live! Finally! 😭 That one song right there alone, made all worth it.

Lindemann songs played by his solo band for the first time:

'Yukon'...Till sang this song, by himself, on the small stage. He was so close, looking so pretty and he sounded beautifully, it almost made me cry🙈. This song will need an entire post just for it, that's how precious that moment was.

They switched 'Home Sweet Home', for their goodbyes, with Till's version of Marlene Dietrich's song 'Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt' (again, setlist.fm giving me a helping hand here, as I could not recognize the song at the time), while showing some photos from the last Tour - some already published, I believe, others not. It felt cosy, but, at the same time, it gave me a weird sense of goodbye (probably just goodbye from these two long tours, I'm sure, but it was how it felt).

After the band left, the lights stayed on and Rödler started playing, first the album version and then the remix, from the Meine Welt music video, which prompted everyone into a big dance party. 😁

It was so much fun, that this was the golden circle area after everything finished. People didn't want it to end. 🖤

In conclusion:

- I was happy with my choice to go on this day, as I liked this setlist better (more new songs for me 🤗). We lost 'Sport Frei', 'Altes Fleisch' and 'Praise Abort', but, honestly, it was worth it.

- I was also happy with the red look, as I'd only been to one of those concerts and the the outfits the got for the newest members were really pretty;

- I got home cleaner this time - no cake, nor fish - although wetter (There was much much more water during, this time, I wanna say, 'Nass', but, honestly, I'm not 100% sure. I just know that the first time, I thought it was actually raining 😂).

- Till felt much more present in this concert than in the last two I'd seen last year, where he felt very much off, which made me very very happy! 🖤 (And have I said he looked very pretty with the longer hair and less make up? 🫠)

- The band, on the other hand, seemed less connected than in other concerts.

- Germans are a different crowd, at least on my side...they sang a lot (guess it's the perks of knowing the language 😅), but didn't move much.

- It all seemed to end in a blink of an eye! Still, I had a lot of fun and it was very much worth the travel from Portugal (well, actually, it was from Berlin, but you know what I mean 🤭). I also thought it was funny how surprised people were when I said I travelled from Portugal, as I always feel there's people "crazier" than me on that matter 😝 (later, I saw a post from someone who travelled from Canada!)

- It turned out one of the coolest trips I made and I'm becoming more and more a fan of travelling solo, but I recommend, for the sake of your mental health, that you do not decide on these things on such short notice. Please, be more responsible than me (message to Morgana of the future).