Their live shows are particularly celebrated for their high energy and crowd interaction, solidifying their status as a must-see act in the punk and alternative rock scenes.

In 1996, the band won a local music competition in SO36 and played as opening act for the Sex Pistols at a concert in Berlin.

Their breakthrough was achieved in Berlin in 2004 with the album Smack Smash, and particularly with the second single "I Don't Care as Long as You Sing" with which they won the MTV European Music Awards 2004 in the category Best German Act.

On 7 June 2007, the band played a concert for a charity foundation, as part of the Deine Stimme gegen Armut (literally "Your voice against poverty") campaign in Rostock in front of a 70,000 strong audience.

One month later, on 7 July 2007, they played in the sold-out Wuhlheide in Berlin, their then-largest headlining concert, in front of approximately 17,000 fans.

On 2 May 2008, the live album Kanonen auf Spatzen was released, which includes two CDs and one DVD in the deluxe package, or the first CD in an economy version.

Torsten Scholz said in an interview that the Beatsteaks would start writing new songs after the end of their Limbo Messiah tour in August 2008.

In June 2011, the band announced their song "House on Fire" was to be featured on the European soundtrack of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Beatsteaks drummer Thomas Götz, and Marten Ebsen, guitarist of Turbostaat, started the project NinaMarie.