Kraftwerk: electrifying spectacle for the damned

It’s been a long time since Kraftwerk visited this fair city; the Godfathers of any- and everything post-modernistic, the German electro pioneers were 50 per cent different in the long gone days of the 1990s beginning. Yeah, 13 years later and only one half-new album, last year’s ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’, in over 18 years [‘Techno Pop’, 1986, discounting the 1991’s ‘The Mix’ album]; there was a lot to look forward to.

And, whatever your expectations - and having been there 13 years ago, and few more times before that, mine were about in the vicinity of Pluto - the men-machine functioned to the full-optimum, at times reaching Mach 10. If hardly moving on stage - Ralf Hutter shuffled occasionally, Fritz Hilpert smirked, Florian Schneider drank water while Henning Schmitz could have passed for a perfect robot-double - amounts to it. But, that’s what being a Kraftwerk-mensch is all about: distant, emotionless, obedient, as automaton as the government would like one to be. There is no banter, no addressing or thanking the adoring cyber-addicted hordes.

The four-piece, dressed in identical black suits and red shirts, played to two sold-out crowds (8pm and 11pm shows); while including material from the current ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ it concentrated almost exclusively on old classics, including their 1981 UK Number One single 'The Model' - not played as the final encore as many would have done but midway - set opener 'The Man Machine' and the band's 1975 breakthrough hit 'Autobahn'.

The audience were treated to a dazzling array of visual imagery (cyclists for 'Tour De France', trains for 'Trans Europe Express', shapes and graphics, pulsating messages), it sounded like an audio heaven, and everything worked like a computer [on a good day]! Kraftwerk make you think of Dadaists, Bauhaus, Pointilists, Situationists and other art movements, as well as spacer-digit…

Of course, four robots performed 'The Robots' and throughout the evening Kraftwerk feel like the soc/sci-fi of ‘1984’ - we’ve surpassed it but there are still elements of it that are becoming reality. The dualities of familiar and frightening, granted and warning, bleak and enjoyable. They may not surprise as they used to but this is a pleasure dome with no rival. The genuine - heldenwerk!

A chap standing near by sported a Gary Numan T-shirt and that’s a diss: these two artisans have never been in the same galaxy!? Kraftwerk ain’t a nostalgia trip, this is forward to the past - reclaiming their rightful place among the pop music’s Top 5 most influential acts, even! Check up your heroes, fortify the hype, crenellate your legends.

Leaving the ‘matinee’ concerto for electronics‘n’popart, another shift of androids were queuing outside to get into this astonishing Komputerwelt, reminiscent of workers’ scene in mythical ‘Metropolis’ flick.

By then, our battery’s warning light was flashing - major danger!

The setlist:

'The Man Machine'
'Expo 2000'
'Tour De France 2003'
'Vitamin'
'Tour De France'
'Autobahn'
'The Model'
'Neon Lights'
'Sellafield'
'Radioactivity'
'Trans Europe Express'

Encore 1:

'Numbers/Computer World'
'It's More Fun to Compute/Homecomputer'
'Pocket Calculator'

Encore 2:

'The Robots'
'Elektro Kardiogramm'
'Aero Dynamik'
'Musique Non Stop'