Rammstein's ability to shock and titillate with their risqué performances is legendary, and never was it showcased better than at 1998 Family Values tour stop in Worcester, Massachusetts, where their ultra-sexual antics landed a couple band members in jail following the performance.
The bootleg footage above captures all that fans have come to love about the live presentation of the pyromaniacal German industrial group: from singer Till Lindemann's onstage self-flagellation with a whip during "Bestrafe mich" (that's "punish me" in English) to his maniacal theatrics during their breakthrough American hit "Du Hast." As the crowd roars on, the stage darkens and it's obvious the production crew is setting up for something a bit wilder for the next song.
Around the 36:08 mark, the camera zooms in as guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe ascends a podium to play what appears to be a flaming keyboard, staying there for minute playing samples. From the opposite side of the stage enters Lindemann, sauntering up onto his own riser to begin the rowdy "Buck Dich" ("bend over"), and the full band breaks into the hard-driving track as the singer bangs his head and fists.
By the end of the first verse, Lindemann walks over to keyboardist Christian "Flake" Lorenz and grabs him by a leash he's been wearing. The two engage in a BDSM-style scene with the singer acting as the dominant, forcing Flake into humiliating positions as onlookers cheer. While Flake "struggles" and escapes back to his post in time to play the chorus, he quickly returns to his beefy aggressor. The duo ramp up the act as Lindemann bends over the scrawny, scantily-clad musician, unfurls a prosthetic phallus from his pants and begins to hump his bandmate in mock sodomy, ultimately "ejaculating" a steady stream of fluid all over the stage, crowd, and even into his own mouth to the delight of attendees.
The racy act may have been faked for the show, but local authorities took issue with its exhibition and charged Lindemann and Flake with "lewd and lascivious behavior" following the Saturday show. Both were released on Sunday morning, but not before obtaining local counsel to get them out of the ridiculous charges. A spokesperson told MTV of the arrest, "While they strongly deny any criminal wrongdoing, they have retained local counsel and intend to respect the laws of the city in question by seeing this matter through to its logical conclusion."
While the two spent only a short stint in the slammer, the incident continued to haunt Lindemann's travels in the U.S. He told Rolling Stone in 2015, "When I'm traveling for customs, I still have do interviews and explain myself for why I got arrested and why I have probation. It never goes away. So for the rest of my life, as soon as I enter American ground, I have to go to the interview. I tried to get this thing out of my file with some lawyers but it's impossible."
