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| Home Computer |
Late night show. I approached the Alvar Aalto building from the street direction, so I missed the grand light projection at the other side. Grumble.
I didn't understand how late the show would start, so I was idling for one hour before I could even get to the seats. I entered the long merchandise queue and got a t-shirt and some pins.
One thing out of the way. I often see the complaint about "only one original member on stage", but there are technically only two founding members of Kraftwerk, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider (1947–2020)
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| Robots |
I understand people mean that the most loved and iconic Kraftwerk songs are from the era when Ralf, Florian, Karl and Wolfgang were present. The show is almost entirely built from this material, so perhaps minor gripes can be justified.
From left to right, it's now Ralf Hütter, Henning Schmitz, Falk Grieffenhagen and Georg Bongartz. Henning is actually quite an old hand with Kraftwerk. Fritz Hilpert was beginning to feel like a staple, but now has been replaced with Bongartz, who is bit of an unknown. Stefan Pfaffe was replaced with Falk, with no huge fanfare either. His role is probably more to do with the visuals, as was with Pfaffe.
Well, one has to forget any ideas about Kraftwerk as a traditional band anyway, and concentrate on the multimedia show they have brought on stage.
The show started, as it often does, with Numbers and Computerworld. The stage had become a blended entity, the projection, the podiums, the stage riser and even the suits had "screen" elements in them. This was most evident, and most effective in Home Computer, and I felt the show had reached new heights. It really felt more three dimensional than their attempts with 3-D glasses.
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| Neon Lights |
With Computer Love, the riser and the projection combined to create an abstract impression of a computer terminal or a laptop, with the band jamming on top of the "keyboard". This is a good example of the kind of humour Kraftwerk plays with.
In contrast, some of the material were remnants of the 3-D show, such as the backdrop for Autobahn or Spacelab, and in turn these felt more dated. Of course I've seen the show already quite a few times, and I don't know how these could have been made differently. Some choices are timeless, such as the vintage film material for The Model. This day and age, the song felt more sinister.
The Airwaves and Tango are something I've never heard live. Airwaves/Ätherwellen is basically a song from the album Radio Activity. Tango is not found on any album, it is something Kraftwerk experimented with during their 1990s live shows, but it slipped into obscurity and to the realm of bootlegs. Previously, judging from some audience videos on Youtube, I wasn't super excited about this Tango. In the live environment the thumping sound compensated for any misgivings, and there were some quite subtle things going on. It's possibly a site for minor improvisations.
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| Computerworld |
Seeing as these two songs only had an "oscilloscope" waveform as a backdrop, I'm not sure they trust the songs to stay long on the setlist. But in the overall visual barrage of the show it's also good to have some really minimal visuals.
Talking of improvisation or live playing, I've never been this close to the stage. I had a sense that Ralf and Henning at least had a very active role in adjusting the sound as it happened. Ralf certainly plays a keyboard, and I felt he made a point of turning the filter knob in a very ostentatious manner at the end of one song – I forgot which.
It would have been possible to get a balcony ticket, and see it all from above. Well, it doesn't matter. The center position was extremely good for appreciating the audiovisuals.
As part of this tour, there's this unique thing. Ralf actually gave a little speech about his friendship with the late Ryūichi Sakamoto, of film music and Yellow Magic Orchestra fame. Ralf told how Sakamoto supplied them with new Japanese lyrics for Radioactivity after the Fukushima incident. Then Kraftwerk played a short version of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (the instrumental of Forbidden Colours), very earnestly, including piano sounds and all. After this, Radioactivity.
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| Ralf |
After a fast version of Pocket Calculator/Dentaku, they had basically played everything from the Computer World album. As usual, the finale was Boing Boom Tschak/Techno Pop/Musique Non Stop. The solo parts felt unique, but I haven't checked if they are exactly the same during this tour. At least it appears the setlist is exactly the same, no variations.
In past concerts, the encore spot usually preceded the long finale, but now they made it more conventional, after Musique Non Stop. The encore was of course Robots, going into Robotronik territory.
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| The empty stage |
If there's something I'd drop out, it is Planet of Visions, which has its origins in the Expo 2000 EP from the end of the millennium. Strangely, it's one of those songs they could legitimately change quite a lot, given that it's based on remixes of the song anyway. But they have chosen not to. The Expo living logo seemed more interesting visual than the wireframes.
All in all, Kraftwerk doesn't disappoint, even though I could have hoped the setlist had changed more from since I last saw them in the same environment in 2018.
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