Well, I attended the first Paris concert as well, and I have to say it was an excellent show. And yes, I have seen them before. They looked really good behind their laptops, each one dressed all in black (leather / latex / warm leatherette / idontknow) against one huge projection screen, lit up by three NEC projectors. The setup was really clean, really minimal end really good looking. Ralf kept holding his hand up to his mouth when singing as if he was either whispering or shouting or really nervous. Florian kept blowing his nose in a small handkerchief. When the curtain was lifted after the vocoder/robot voice intro, "the robots" was played and the screen was all in red. A rather red film of the mix-era robots was projected by the middle projector. Very nice. The projections worked well all along, often being direct adaptations of the kraftwerk.com illustrations, shown exactly in sync with the music. They all had a laptop, ralf had a small keyboard that allowed him to play a few leads and chords. They all had midi-controllers, I think (Doepfer?). It appeared as if they used them to to control effects, reverbs and echos. Also, they each had a pedal of some sort, but I'm not sure if the pedals actually did anything. I really like the way Kraftwerk has moved away from most of the 90's disco-ish versions of the songs, and instead made hyper-clear digital interpretations of the original versions. Some of the new instrument sounds are less thick and less beautiful than the older sounds, but most new drum sounds are dry and fantastic. The overall sound was awesome, digitally clear (with a few distorted exceptions) and the bass was especially good. The four members left the stage one at the time, starting with Florian. By the way, he made a weird pose while walking out, like he was waving goodbye and impersonating the letter "K" at the same time (well, something like that...). Ralf was the last one to go. The curtain dropped and the computer voices kept saying "Music non stop" for a long time. Cool stuff, kids. Playlist (as I remember it), Paris 25/9: The Robots Expo 2000 (version of Underground Resistance mix) It's more fun... /Homecomputer Man Machine Tour De France Autobahn The Model Neon Lights Pocket Calculator Airwaves (crappy techno version) Radio Activity Trans Europe Express Extras: Numbers / Computer World Boing Boom../Music Non Stop Regards, Petter --- John Shilcock <john@keepwerking.co.uk> wrote:
I remember seeing Kraftwerk perform in 1991 at Manchester in the UK... I was disappointed in not hearing new material... and thinking that the concerts I attended 10 years before in 1981 were similar but MUCH better (I still think that today).
I went on to see Kraftwerk perform several more times in the early 90's and the concerts grew on me... VERY powerful they became, but still I think they lacked that magic from their early years performing live.
I know of several people who saw them in 1975 and then went on to see them, in 1981 and 1991. They say that the 1975 concerts were the best they have seen...
Oh look.... can you see a pattern developing? ;o)
Keep Werking John www.keepwerking.co.uk
From: "djm" <bloop2000@gmx.net>
just home from paris now. I saw the band in 1991 and 1997. And yesterday, I was very disappointed. No Kling Klang Studio, no Robots, no Pocket-Calculators. Only four old poeple, standing at their laptops, playing old tunes. Very boring.
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