Manchester Midweeker started with meeting Dave for some breakfast before getting the train. The journey up was fairly smooth really (though motherfuck! £4 for a single across Zone 1 on the tube?! FFFUUU London!). After turning down the wrong road and wandering the backstreets of Manchester Piccadilly for some time, we eventually found the hotel. Got settled and pretty much just watched TV until needing to leave for the gig. Rock paper scissors for who got the bed/who got the couch. I got the bed and honestly, I felt like I lost. That was a soft bed, way too soft for a man of my carriage.
The walk from the Manchester Ancoats Travelodge is a decent one. It is not a long one but the hotel can be cheap, so I like that. Got to the entrance which is on a main road (and therefore loud). A tout came up to me and was saying something. My usual policy with a tout is to nothing them, and just say no to whatever. Transpires the guy didn’t want to sell me a ticket but he wanted a smoke. I obliged, figuring he’d go away if I gave him a smoke – which he did. Got into the venue aiming to miss Combichrist because what I had heard, I didn’t like. My word, was I ever wrong?! Combichrist (8) were pretty awesome. And the first band I’ve seen who play this genre of music without a guitar! Great stuff. Then there was the wait for Rammstein, which seemed agonisingly long. This is a band I’ve wanted to see ever since I first turned on Kerrang TV and their theme tune was Sonne. The lights went out, and they drilled their way through the back drop. Time to start!
Starting with Rammlied, Rammstein (10) were just phenomenal. I could attach a lot more superlatives to their performance, but wow. The set was:
Rammlied
B********
Waidmanns Heil
Keine Lust
Weisses Flesch
Feuer Frei
Weiner Blut
Fruhling In Paris
Ich Tu Dir Weh
Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da
Benzin
Links 2 3 4
Du Hast
Pussy
-----------------------------
Sonne
Haifisch
Ich Will
----------------------------
Engel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDNwLTvcnhk
Fireworks, Confetti, Foam semen, a Penis Canon, exploding babies, rising platforms, fights, treadmills, flaming wings, a rubber dingy over the crowd and more – the stage show was unforgettable. When the original backdrop fell to reveal the full extent of the stage, I (and i’m sure 1000s of others) thought “fucking hell, thats awesome!” I won’t forget this gig for some time and any other gig has a long way to go to top it. Skindred came close, but Rammstein so far rule all for 2010.
So that was cool. Got back to the hotel and watched poker and slept. The morning contained more TV and a mediocre breakfast. Travelodge do a lot of things right, but the breakfast can be hit and miss, which is a shame. I booked a later train than usual so we’d have some exploring time. Yeah, we explored the inside of a Ladbrokes. You know they are very similar to the Portsmouth ones in Manchester! Got into the train station to see the train that was due before our one was being constantly delayed. That throws up warning signs all over. The thing about advance single train tickets (or so I believed) is that if you miss your train, well then you suck at life. The train was cancelled and I think it’s safe to say you’ve never seen a fat man move so fast heading to the Virgin Trains travel centre! We were assured we’d be alright, or we should be ok to board the next one. I don’t like that. I was 100% you’ll be fine. Anyways, boarded the next train and sat in unreserved seats. And there we sat. Dave seemed so calm about the whole ordeal, whereas I looked like I was about to shit myself. I didn’t want to get thrown out at some random stop because I likely couldn’t afford the train to continue to London (unless it was Milton Keynes or the other early stop). We passed all the stops and were en route to London Euston when the guard arrived. I showed him both the ticket, and the seat reservation which said we should be on the earlier train that was cancelled. Transpires that didn’t matter and he just wanted to see we’d paid for the ticket. PHEW! No being thrown out, no fines, no needing to take deep breaths anymore. Got to London Waterloo on a packed train. It sucked balls. Got home and chilled. Manchester was awesome, Virgin trains took years off my life, Rammstein were awesome and I can’t wait to see them again
I was in a similar part of the world recently, Liverpool. Check back soon for a review of that journey!
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