Kraftwerk

I heard you!

Couple more pics, from last night

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8086/8454815967_2e71fd414e.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8101/8454814659_9fac7dfde3.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8107/8455909742_36c4926b77.jpg

I gave a cheer for the "meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie" line in Trans Europe Express, that was a nice moment. In fact that was my favourite bit of the show, the visuals for that were fantastic.

Hate that Flür piece for the Quietus, it hits all the buttons that reading his memoirs ("I Was A Robot") installed - self-justification by dismissing others (Hütter ánd Schneider, now that the latter's left he's apparently on his side), his 'eye' for young girls that became increasingly uncomfortable to read... I put it away halfway through, even though there's lots of interesting stuff on the band and the music itself in there.

it used the design from the recent reisssue below, and had lots of swooping shots of the stylised train going across intersecting railway lines. It really made use of the 3D and looked lovely in black and white. I'm a sucker for anything train related!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c8/Trans-Europe_Express_2009.png/220px-Trans-Europe_Express_2009.png

oh and a tip, for anyone who's going to the remaining shows- avoid paying £5 for a can of lager by bringing your own, there were no bag searches last night at least.

That's me, W@d3y and Neil S standing up in Mare's Nest's top photo!

And there's a lady sitting down just to the right, clearly thinking: "Shut up pontificating you bellend!"

Hah, no way!

Just a quick question to those there last night, did they play "Transistor" live or was it a playback like "Voice of energy"? It's one of my favourite Kraftwerk pieces just because it's so different to almost anything else they have produced, and evocative of the first time I heard it (in the back of a car, half asleep on a motorway at night, counting the lights until we reached home). I never thought they would play that song live, ever, and I was just wondering. Thanks in advance.

I dont know why but that track gives me a 60's Star Trek vibe

Never mind what the show was like, where can we see a picture of Doran's handknitted Autobahn jumper??

this ^

There's one on my FB. If I link to it here will you be able to see it?

upload it here http://imgur.com/ and use the bbcode url to post it here

http://i.imgur.com/87Ooi8X.jpg

If I'm generous to myself, I look a bit like one of the less foxy members of Cannibal Corpse there.

ok that rules

It does, I saw the guy with the Man Machine one you mentioned, that was fantastic too.

Hah I totally didn't notice that re the photo, good spot Doran!

I saw someone who wasn't you wearing one at Supersonic last year.

Are you sure it wasn't me? I've got a massive beard and look about ten years older since becoming a dad. Either way I was at Supersonic wearing mine last year.

Yeah. The guy was, and don't take this the wrong way, much thinner than you. His beard was about the same length as yours in that picture too.

The cheeky fucker. Bitin' my style.

But not my biscuits.

I think it might also have been a round neck and not a v neck.

To be fair, it's not a difficult pattern to work out with graph paper. The Neubauten one is taking a lot longer.

Collapsing New Jumpers

Disappointing lack of shouting at the mention of David Bowie tonight.

cos I wasn't there

I believe you're right. There was a couple doing a lot of ketamine next to me though. And, weirdly, the title track of TEE seemed much shorter last night with the whole album seeming to last about 25 minutes...

good they're mixing up I suppose. Not sure ketamine would be my drug of choice for KRaftwerk, but there we go.

He had ecstasy as well and he said that his work mate had failed to bring him an LSD infused fruit pastille as promised but they seemed to be having a very good time.

on thurs night i saw a 40s-ish guy in the toilets turn to someone else and say "i've nicked some of my mum's codeine, i'm flying, this is perfect," only to get a disgusted look and an "i don't know you mate" in return, lol.

A small amount of codeine sounds perfect. I had a tramadol that I'd been saving for Autobahn.

Recordings are beginning to filter out already, crazy.

I actually really liked the little solos they all did at the end of Music Non Stop, it's probably too much to hope for that they might ever go further down that route again.

John Harris's review in the Guardian came out with the old "are they really playing anything?" rockist nonsense, sigh...

Didn't he hear Ralf fucking up the chorus of Man Machine?

xpost Unfair on Harris, who loves them.

Also, I don't think it's unfair to ask - in passing - what they're actually doing. It's certainly not a rockist question. Am seeing the Mix on Weds, and saw them at RFH last time, and at RFH I spent a big chunk of the (brilliant) show wondering if they did anything on stage, aside from the occasional Ralf vocal. Doesn't make the show any less spectacular if they don't – and it's their presence (and the fact they obviously rerecord material for touring) that makes it a Kraftwerk show more than their actual participation.

OK maybe I was unfair, it's such a predictable thing to say though. Anyway from my vantage point at the front I could see there was plenty going on, although it's difficult to work out quite what they're specifically doing. They all have foot controllers that were getting heavy use, anyone know what they're for?

"Yes, considering how little happens on stage, there are passages that rather drag. Of course, it's not entirely clear if much is actually being played."

The statement does belie what I'm sure Harris knows, that the four-men-at-desks-engaged-in-ambiguous-activity is a deliberate subversion of the notion of "performance"

They are definitely playing something, Ralf is playing his Vocoder. There was a lot of filtering and triggering going on, and Henning Schmidt looked like he might have a Kaoss pad in his podium. I didn't detect much playing of the important melodies and like Matt says, there was a lot of foot-pedal/expression pedal action going on throughout. The only question mark for me is what the video guy Falk Grieffenhagen might be up to.

But he looks fucking fantastic doing it, like he could push a button any second and vaporize the audience.

It doesn't really matter to me whether or not they're doing anything - as I say, their presence is the performance. But it's not an unreasonable question, and them pushing some buttons doesn't mean there's any actual outcome from the button pushing (a la Chemical Brothers).

I agree that it doesn't matter but judging on the three separate performances, they are controlling the sound in some senses like a sound engineer or DJ would. Also certain sections are clearly played live as there have been small mistakes each night.

Haven't watched it in a while, and it's possible the set-up is different now, but I'm pretty sure you can see some of the stuff they're playing (or not) from certain angles on the minimum-Maximum DVD.

Compared to the first time I saw them, they look a lot more like they are playing something. Saw them in Brixton in 2004 and I think they were using laptops at the time (i thought they could have been IMing each other). At least this time round it seemed like they are playing synths or keyboards.

Chris & Cosey, Jim from Earl Brutus and Daniel Miller (I think) are here tonight.

say hello to jim from me mr doran ..

oh, and jim is from the pre new now ..
f&ck the past ..

Ok. Fair point.