So how do you review a Kraftwerk concert? With four members, including two from the original line-up, the undisputed godfathers of electronic music would never really disappoint, particularly in an intimate venue like the Olympia. Yet, even as a huge fan, it is important not to get carried away and resign all objectivity.
The opener was ‘Man Machine’, which remained one of the best tunes of the night with its soft vocals and soaring synth pads. The visuals were incredible; fully synched to the music in the distinct red, white and black associated with their Man Machine LP artwork. We were treated to those extracts of the back catalogue that count (albeit in mostly reworked versions): ‘Tour de France’, ‘Autobahn’, ‘The Model’, and more recently penned songs like ‘Expo 2000’.
Tunes like ‘Pocket Calculator’ worked well, but some that were beefed-up, with 4/4 beats for example, lacked the integrity of the original pieces. ‘Trans Europe Express’ was possibly the song of the night, as it was a particularly leftfield version that was musically fresh and refreshingly for an electronic gig – felt as if it was being generated by live musicians, rather than programmed computers.
The finale was a sight to behold. After a small interval towards the end of the show, the four band members were replaced by their iconic robot duplicates (even if the remix of ‘The Robots’ was a little substandard), subsequent to which the band themselves returned to the stage, resplendent in Tron-style jump-suits. Granted, Kraftwerk are not really pushing boundaries with their new material, but they have artfully avoided self-parody, even if the stand-out tracks in tonight’s show are 30 years old. Taken in its entirety, this was a truly awesome show.