 
London, Brixton Academy, 20 March 2004
John Marshall
22 March 2004 experimental synthpop electronic | After seeing Karl Bartos last year my thirst to see Kraftwerk had been quenched to some extent, but still there were other tracks I needed to hear live and of course see those robots! So there was immense excitement about tonight's show on my part.
I managed easily to get a place at the barrier so could see the stage clearly. There was a curtain in front of where they were going to perform. Then the lights went down and the intro started with an electronic voice speaking titles of some Kraftwerk classics! Then came the unmistakable sounds of 'Man Machine', the curtains went back and the four of them were standing in front of laptops dressed in suits with red shirts and black ties. Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider were joined on stage with long-term collaborators Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz. They stood in the middle with Ralf on the left and Florian on the right - who is now sporting a completely shaved head!'Expo 2000' was then played which sounded quite different - I didn't recognise it! They went on to perform tracks from the "Tour De France Soundtrack" album which I've still not heard but the songs quickly became familiar. There was a new version of 'Tour De France' and 'Vitamin' which sounded fantastic. Ralf sang on this as well as the electronic vocoder voice. Then there was the older style 'Tour De France' although mixed up slightly as were all the songs tonight. Each song had its own spectacular film backdrop. 'Tour De France' of course having films of men on bikes! Then they went through a few older tracks: 'Autobahn', 'Neon Lights' 'The Model' and then the highlight of tonight's show - 'Radioactivity' - my favourite Kraftwerk song. This was the moment I was looking forward to most. If they hadn't played it I would've screamed! It followed an intro which said a few things about Sellafield. Then came that familiar melody bedded in electronic beeps. It was just so fantastic it could have gone on all night for all I cared! But of course the set moved on. 'Trans Europe Express' followed and of course it was fantastic. It had a film backdrop of trains which matched the sounds being made on stage to great effect! Then the curtains were closed again.
They opened and the computers had already started but no one was standing behind them, but then Hütter, Schmitz, Hilpert and Schneider walked on from the side of the stage in a rather camp fashion each wearing a black tie but this time with a red flashing light going through it! Then tracks from the "Computer World" album were played "Numbers/Computer World" segued into each other as did 'It's More Fun to Compute/Homecomputer' and then 'Pocket Calculator' where again I couldn't resist playing air calculator although on this occasion many others were too. One of the only flaws of the night was the audience, some of them were clapping along to the songs like it was some kind of Bon Jovi concert. It just sounded awful! Curtains again closed, then after a while you could see the silhouettes of the famous robots on stage! This was something I'd been wanting to see in years! The curtains opened and there they were. Words cannot describe how good it felt to see them there. They moved around as the backdrop showed more films of robots which of course accompanied the song 'The Robots'!! Curtains then closed again.
Curtains open, now Hütter, Schmitz, Hilpert and Schneider are wearing black and green, light-emitting suits which glowed quite nicely! They played 'Elektro Kardiogramm' - another I'm not too familiar with but it sounded great, and then The latest single, 'Aero Dynamik' which had a backdrop of bicycle graphics. To finish was 'Musique Non Stop' which had visuals from the "Electric Café" era. Then one by one each member left the stage and bowed as they did leaving Ralf Hütter till last. He then says "see you at midnight" and walks towards the edge of the stage, then bows. Tonight's performance was one of two gigs being played ending at ten. As Ralf said Kraftwerk would then perform again at midnight. I wish I could have found a hiding place until then as tonight was fantastic and I would have loved to see it all over again. Assuming it was going to be the same set of course! |
