Review: Two-year wait for Rammstein adds to incendiary stadium concert in Minneapolis

The concert acoustics at U.S. Bank Stadium sounded as wobbly as ever Saturday night, but the good news is the newish home of the Minnesota Vikings proved itself to be resistant to fire and thunder.

German metal band Rammstein put the $1 billion Minneapolis stadium to the test with what was literally the biggest and most explosive rock tour of the year. Ironic but not surprising, though, the show drew one of the smallest crowds ever for a concert there.

Fewer than 30,000 fans attended what turned out to be one of the last of the major 2020 concert tours to finally land in town two years late because of COVID. Good thing gunpowder and thrashing metal music have a long shelf life.

Equal parts Andrew Lloyd Weber, Nosferatu, Mad Max and Monster Truck Jam, Rammstein's massive stage production required four days to set up and boasted more than 550 pyrotechnic explosions.

Among the fiery gadgetry used was a giant baby carriage that lit up and a backpack that shot orange plumes in a circle out of the back of singer Till Lindemann. So yes, the 2¼-hour show was as weird as it was loud.

It started out remarkably dull, though, with "Armee der Tristen" and "Zick Zack," each from a new album the band recorded during the pandemic in lieu of touring. Not only were the songs duds, the group held off on the pyro and other stage effects at first. It was almost as if the band members thought fans were there just to hear their music.

In the fourth song, "Sehnsucht," things finally started blowing up. The song's marching beat gave way to blasts of fire reaching up to the stadium's upper deck. That led to more and more demonic stage effects culminating at first in "Puppe" — the one with the flaming carriage as well as a barrage of black, ash-like confetti that poured over the entirely general-admission floor.

From there, other visual stunts included a war of bouncing fireworks between the main stage and two enormous towers on the other end of the stadium during "Du Hast." In the manic-sounding "Mein Teil," keyboardist Christian Lornez performed within a big metal pot that Lindemann proceeded light up with a flamethrower. Talk about a band that really cooks!

Between several costume and stage-prop changes — one such break oddly found four dancers lit up like stick figures bouncing to the Kraftwerk-like electro-jam "Deutschland" — Rammstein's members lit up musically in their thrashiest songs, including "Radio" and "Du riechst so gut." The slower, sludgier material underlined how much Lindemann lacks the broad range of other great metal frontmen, with a deep, dark, dreary Dr. Frankenstein-like tone that ultimately sounded rather monotone.

But music, schmusic. The spectacle side of the concert especially came alive in the two encores, which started with an über-dramatic version of "Engel" accompanied by classical-pianist openers Duo Abélard on the small second stage. (Yes, you read that right; a piano duo opened the show.)

By the time the band got to "Ich Will" and its namesake song "Rammstein" at show's end, enough pyro had been blown off for the stadium to be shrouded in smoke and about 20 degrees warmer than at the start of the concert. You know a metal show was good when the fans go away smelling like they've been to war.