Mexico City is coming to cinemas. So what happened to Vienna?

Rammstein have officially announced their new concert film. From November 4, “Live In Mexico City” will screen in cinemas worldwide for a limited run, with bookings opening on September 23. Physical editions follow from November 20.1 The film was shot over three shows on October 1, 2 and 4, 2022 at the Foro Sol in Mexico City. It was directed by Paul Dugdale, who has made concert films for Adele, Taylor Swift, the Rolling Stones and Coldplay.2 The cinema cut runs about 1 hour 50 minutes, while the full version is around 2 hours 28 minutes long.3

Many fans in Austria are asking a different question now. What happened to the Vienna footage?

Summer 2019

On August 22 and 23, 2019, Rammstein closed the first leg of their stadium tour at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion. Shortly before, the management cancelled the Meet & Greets, citing production reasons, namely a show recording scheduled at short notice.4 For the second night, the fan site Rammstein World notes that a team of professionals filmed the concert in addition to the band’s own crew, which usually films for the stage screens.5

The Austrian newspaper OE24 went much further. According to the paper, Rammstein were recording both Vienna shows for their new live DVD as a thank you to Austria. The first night was a camera rehearsal, and the full show was filmed on the second. The concerts were supposed to go around the world the following spring.6

The DVD never came

Spring 2020 came, the DVD did not. The 2020 tour was postponed because of the COVID pandemic and only resumed in 2022. There has been no official release of the Vienna footage to this day, and the band has never commented on it.

There was reason for caution back in 2019. At the time, Rammstein World wrote that the filming did not mean Vienna had been chosen for the upcoming live release, and that other shows could be filmed the following year.7 On the fan forum RA-Forum, one user now argues that impatient fans turned a cancelled Meet & Greet into a DVD recording that never actually existed.8 That is one person’s view, but it fits the documented facts. The only certainty is that the shows were filmed. For what purpose, nobody knows.

Long waits are normal for Rammstein

Footage sitting in the archive for years is nothing new for the band. “Rammstein Paris” was filmed on March 6 and 7, 2012, and released on May 19, 2017.9 Mexico City, too, took four years to reach cinemas.

Whether the Vienna footage will ever surface, perhaps as bonus material or in a documentary, remains open. Anyone who was at the Happel-Stadion in August 2019 at least has a good chance of being on tape in an archive somewhere.