Saturday, April 14, 2012

Kraftwerk @ Moma 4-12-12 Trans-Europe Express



This was an outstanding performance, so great to hear this entire album performed. The acoustics were great and the performers seemed to be slightly out of sync at times making the performance even more exciting. It really did feel as if each musician was actually playing something. Weirdly, they did not perform "The Model", which they had performed the previous night, but they did perform the rest of the album, changing the order a little bit and beginning the concert with that night's album track. Showroom Dummies sounded particularly great along with the quiter pieces like "Endless, Endless" and "Franz Schubert".

And although the entire eight night series was sold out, there were just the right amount of people there, it wasn't overly crowded, there wasn't much pushing or jostling and both nights I was right up front. The security guards who had been guarding the stage before the performance stepped away and we the audience just kept a civil distance. It was a very memorable experience.

Set List:

Trans Europe Express,

Metal on Metal, 

Franz  Schubert, 

Europe Endless,

Hall of Mirrors, 

Showroom Dummies,

Autobahn,

Radio Activity,

We Are The Robots

The Model

Man Machine

Numbers

Computer World

Computer Llove

It's More Fun to Compute

Tour de France

Tour de France etape 2

Tour de France etape 3

21st century

Boing Boom Tschak

Techno Pop

Music Non Stop

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Kraftwerk @ MoMA Radio Activity 4-11-2012

This was a great show in a really spectacular environment. It was very much undersold and uncrowded which made for a really great experience, it was very casual like. They did the whole Radio Activity album then a bunch of hits. I knew no one, it was very much of an un art world crowd and very cute to see Klaus Biesenbach entertaining the grey haired benefactors.

Jon Pareles's review in the NYTimes was spot on, however, Melena Ryzik's description of the fans at the opening night was much different than my experience on the 2nd night. There was nothing particularly rarefied about the audience. The same kind of obnoxious long haired chubby hipster wannabe you might find at any concert parked herself in front of me and proceeded to fling her clairol scented locks into my face during a particularly raucus rendition of "geiger counter". I seemed to be stuck in a gaggle of obnoxious middle aged, doughy, overgrown frat boys who, from their conversations, were in the music industry. And there was a lot of drinking resulting in the inevitable puking youngster, just like any rock show. In short, it was a blast!

One could buy 2 tickets maximum, no minimum, for the entire run and Radio Activity was first choice, Man Machine was my second choice and alas not available, when I asked if Trans Europe Express was available amazingly they said yes, so I went for it. More on that tomorrow but I'm really glad I got to see Radio Activity live, all those weird tracks about tuning the radio and news snippets along with a lot of silence, quite a weird pop record. Afterword, they performed most of their other hits, including an incredible version of Autobahn, It was a great experience and I can't believe I get to go back again tonight for Trans Europe Express.

 Set List Follows: We are the robots, Radioactivity, Radioland, Airwaves, Intermission, News, The Voice of energy ,Antenna ,Radio Stars ,Transistor ,Ohm sweet ohm ,Autobahn ,Trans Europe Express ,The model ,Man machine ,Numbers ,Computerworld ,It's more fun to compute ,Tour de France ,Tour de France Etape 2 ,Tour de France Etape 3 ,21st century ,Electropop ,Boing boom tschak ,Techno pop ,Music non stop

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Vince Aletti's Wall

You can see a portrait I did of my super, Tony, on the couch right next to Vince