View Larger Kraftwerk at MoMA, 4/14/12, a set on Flickr.
A couple of weeks ago Kraftwerk performed at MoMA as part of “Kraftwerk – Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8”. After all my friends who attempted to get tickets failed, both Charles and I won pairs of tickets through a contest Volkswagen sponsored (they also sponsored the event). We got to go two of the eight nights - the second night when Kraftwerk performed songs from Autobahn and the fifth night when they performed songs from Computer World. It was awesome to be able to see them twice, especially since the first night I was in a horrible mood right before I arrived which undoubtedly had some effect on my perception of the show. I enjoyed it and thought some parts of the show were great, but was not blown away. I wouldn’t have recommended it as something one MUST experience immediately, but rather something any lover of electronic music should see at least once before they die. That was my view before night five.
Despite playing similar sets which spanned Kraftwerk’s discography in addition to the featured album both nights, Autobahn is much more mellow than Computer World and made for a much tamer evening overall. While both performances began on more upbeat notes (with “Robots” on night one and “Numbers” on night five), night five’s momentum built with tracks from Computer World whereas night one slowed almost immediately as it moved to tracks from Autobahn. Night five’s performance was met with an equally energetic crowd, that had me reminiscing about good times in Montreal (where people actually dance) and awestruck at how a 65 year-old man (Ralf Hütter, the only original member currently in Kraftwerk) was wowing a room full of people in a museum with tracks that were over 30 years old.
It was one of the best nights out I’ve had in a while and were I still blogging, would undoubtedly make it into my “Best Of” for the year. The week following that Saturday I was more excited about music (or anything for that matter) than I had been in a while and was reading and reading about Kraftwerk (check out Talking to Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk). I’m in the midst of a full-on search for Kraftwerk vinyl, just started reading a book about them, and am excited to have a new band to geek out about.
Kraftwerk Setlist (Night 5 - Computer World)
Numbers
Computer World
Pocket Calculator
Taschenrechner
Computer Love
Home Computer
Autobahn
Radioactivity
Trans-Europe Express
The Robots
The Model
The Man-Machine
Spacelab
Tour De France 1983
Tour De France 2003
Aéro Dynamik
Planet Of Visions
Boing Boom Tschak
Techno Pop
Musique Non Stop
Kraftwerk Setlist (Night 1 - Autobahn)
The Robots
Autobahn
Kometenmelodie 1 & 2
Mitternacht / Morgenspaziergang
Radioactivity
Trans-Europe Express
The Model
Man-Machine
Numbers / Computer World
Computer Love (The Mix version)
Home Computer (The Mix version)
Tour de France / Aerodynamik
Expo 2000
Boing Boom Tschak
Techno Pop
Musique Non Stop
