| Both
of the concerts Kraftwerk decided to give here in Oslo, were sold out a
month or so in advance. That explains quite a deal concerning their popularity.
Norwegian newspapers also hyped it up prior to the concerts by publishing
extensive stories with interviews (!), their enormous influence on today's
music and run-throughs of their discography. |
| Rockefeller
is a club with a 1400-1500 people capacity. It consists of 2 main plateaus,
2 balconies further up on each side and 5-6 bars spread around the place.
In my humble opinion it's the best club in Oslo: It has a decent capacity,
but it doesn't compromise too much of the intimacy of a smaller club. |
| Kraftwerk
started around 9:30 pm with an intro consisting of beats and weird noises.
It then went fluently into "Man Machine" which was an excellent beginning.
What surprised me was that Ralf Hütter alternated between English & German
lyrics. Sometimes man, sometimes mensch. But directly after this song came
a long break: They started a new song, but it turned out they'd started
"Man Machine" again. So they ended it abruptly, and there was a minute or
two of silence. One of the new guys (Henning or Helmut?) said "Was ist los?".
A minor problem, but they fixed it, and went into "Expo 2000". |
| "Expo
2000" was a real cool experience, because the background video was fantastic:
Green & black shaped figures inside a building banging their computers.
Out of the "newer" songs, this one was my favourite of the evening. |
| "Tour
de France part I" was next, and it was way too long. "Photographie, transmission"
and so on, although, again, the background video was great. |
| "Vitamin"
got one of the loudest cheers of the night, due to the pill background.
Some people might've actually mistaken it for actually being drug-containing
pills, but when Ralf started singing about Carbohydrat, Protein, A B C D
Vitamin, they understood:) The song was ok, too. |
| "Autobahn"
started the 'hit-parade' of the night. Enormous applause when the intro
voice started, and Ralf sang beautiful. I esspecially loved the car & horn
sounds during it, it sounded so fucking authentic! I was a bit worried concidering
the length of the original, but they cut it down to 7-8 minutes which was
fine by me. |
| "The
Model" had more great vocals from Ralf, and had been slightly re- arranged
with a more pompous focus on the keyboards. A lot of the audience tried
to accompany mr. Hütter on the vocals, with mixed results! |
| "Neon
Lights" was also a bit re-arranged, not quite sure how, but the keyboard
lines sounded a bit different. During this song, a guy who stood behind
me and was dressed in "Man Machine" clothes started singing loud, and screamed
his lungs out when Ralf switched from English to German lyrics about halfways. |
| "Intro/Radio
Activity" was the best song of the night. Period. Can't define it, but something
just clicked during this song. One of the most beautiful songs Kraftwerk
has ever made. Superb melody. |
| "Trans
Europe Express/Metal On Metal" I was worried about this one because I still
the 13-minute original is too long. But it was 6-7 minutes long, and had
a lot stronger focus on the melody. Also during this song came another glitch:
During the train video in the background, a Windows® window appeared on
the screen! It was for the playing of the mpg. video that ran in the background,
but everybody laughed. Another rarity during this song was that Florian
Schneider snuck up a bottle of water, and drank it all the way to the bottom. |
| Then
a break. Went to the bar and bought another beer. Stood beside it, and listened
to "Numbers". Then I understood what an influential song it is. Hip-hop
beats pared with techno synths. Good version. |
| The
two next songs I don't remember anything at all of, but they were both from
"Computer World". "Pocket Calculator" however was highlighted by the fact
that I finally noticed that they had blinking ties! |
| Then
"The Robots". Ecstatic reactions when the shadows of the robots appeared
on the curtains, which increased further when they opened. But to be honest,
I'm not a big fan of the remix of this song. A bit TOO 80's for my taste,
but it was redeemed by the robots. What a statement! Has the technological
development come too far? |
| Another
break, then "Elektro Kardiogramm" with new costums: black with green (self-lighting)
stripes. Actually I was a bit tired by this stage so I can't tell if it
was good or not. Same with "Aero Dynamik" and "Musique Non Stop", so someone
else should fill in those blanks. |
| All
in all, a great concert experience, and certainly one of the most unique,
without a doubt. The main set of the concert was the best, but that's because
it consisted mostly of songs I know. I hadn't heard any of the "Computer
World" songs before (I don't own any Kraftwerk after 1978) But I was still
proud of paying tribute to one of the most influential groups of all time. |
| The
audience: Consisted of... well everybody. Technoheads, hip-hoppers, goth
people, hippies and plain ordinary people in a happy blend. Under other
circumstances this might not've worked at all, but it did. Simply because
it was Kraftwerk on stage. Hope you all get a chance to see this show, highly
recommended by me. 9 out of 10. |
| Review
by Thomas Johnsen - Oslo - Norway |
|
