It was contemporary meets classic when Kraftwerk graced the Sydney Opera house for an eight show album discography tour in Sydney, Australia for Vivid Live. After exultantly heading along to witness some nostalgic history with my dad I figured, rather than myself reviewing, why not a man who has followed their whole career. So without further do here is a review from the perspective of a true Kraftwerk fan.

by Iron Rose

I first heard Kraftwerk in the early 70s when the airwaves were flooded with Beatles, Stones, The Who, the Doors, the Beach Boys and so on. There they stood like electronica beacon in a sea of coventional pop and white boy R&B. Autobahn the single had become commercial. The mid song improvisation had been deleted for top 40 purposes, just the same way Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love” had been shortened. It was a sign of the times that the unconventional sounds of both groups were accepted, but we couldn’t go the whole way, the really creative bits were taken out.

I retained the interest in this quirky krautrock band over the years so when Sydney’s Vivid Festival announced the Kraftwerk Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Concerts I was lucky enough to grab tickets to 2 nights, Radio-Activity and Computer World. From the first heart beats of Radio Activity, its geiger counter sounds accompanied by the big screen 3D soundwave effects and the morse code images it was clear these were going to be concerts to be remembered.

Kraftwerk took us through 3 decades of their work. The four light suited guys standing at their consoles, making minimal movements, belied the 8 years of effort that went into developing these productions. The 3D images fitted the Vivid concept perfectly. Just as colours were splashed all over the Opera House sails outside these guys presented outstanding visual effects inside to accompany their electronic, metallic, synthesised, industrial, robotic, computerised sounds which reflect modern European city life so accurately. Kraftwerk’s music is mostly instrumental, it’s about travel, robots, computers, machines, energy, industry; Ralf Hutter’s Vocodered voice fits perfectly when it overlays with simple, concise lyrics.

It’s a sign of how we have advanced that in 2013 the song Autobahn went the whole way and more. It included the original mid song improvisation and, at the Computer World concert, a further extended improvisation at the end. The sold out audiences lapped it up, roaring their approval as each song finished and insisting on a curtain call at both concerts. The German boys responded in kind, giving us beats, sounds and visual performances to be relished.