| Dates: |
|
Wednesday, 25 september 2002 - 20h |
| Due
to underground metro strikes, circulation in Paris was very complicated.
Many fans arrived late at Porte de Pantin in the northeast of Paris. Weather
was not too cold, but a little rainy. There was the second show at Le Zénith
of David Bowie (near of the Cité de la Musique), so parking was also a problem. |
|
Friday, 26 september 2002 - 20h |
| This
was the heaviest day, many, many fans were here. Also major french pop star
Jean-Jacques Goldman started a new month of live concerts at Le Zénith today. |
| Friday,
26 september 2002 - 00h |
| Not
too cold, die hard fans only ! Great mood of all the people in attenance. |
| Venue : |
| The
auditorium of the Cité de la Musique is known to have an excellent acoustic.
The major problems are the stupid guys who are working for it : plenty and
dozen of young idiots with Cité de la Musique shirts, who are as boring
as flies… "You can’t do this, can’t do that", ...etc. Also a few
VIPs of Kraftwerk did their show "we are important". Ridiculous.
Security was very tight for cameras, but many DATs, MDs, and DVs/Dvcams
were in attenance. Also a big thanks to the ***holes firemen of the venue
who seemed to be paid only to find cameras. The first step to enter in the
Cité was sécurity. They tried their best, but just think that I entered
in the Cité with a TRV900 DVcam and a DAT! Amateurs… The main fact is that
it was not quick to enter in the venue, and after fans have to wait in front
of a few entrances which are directly connected in the concert auditorium.
So they opened the doors only 30 minutes before the start of each show (so
19h30 for each evening performances and 23h30 for the midnight one). After,
you have to walk as quicker as you can to have seats in front or on each
side. Thanks also to the big number of free seats for ***holes VIPs who
never came to the show. I hate the musical industry. During the first show
a lot of seats remained empty despite they were not VIP ones… |
| Security
: |
| The
two "Laurel and Hardy" (a big little man and a very tall young
one) did a pretty good job during each shows, try to find photo cameras
and recorders. I noticed that for each show they did a nice job at the end
of the main set, during Radioactivity and TEE. Also the ***king VIPs denounced
some tapers ! |
| Guests: |
| During
the first show, Jack Lang (ex-minister of culture in France, very "open-minded")
and Jean
Michel Jarre were in the attenance. David Bowie visited the backstage
in second night. |
| Recordings: |
| Emil
Schult, the 5th man of Kraftwerk, was here for all the shows (i confirm
that for the second and third ones), standing in the first rank of the balcony
with a few very VIPs and a photographer, and videotaped them using a Sony
PC110 (or less quality one). He stopped between some tracks. He did a nice
job, despite having a not so good zoom. But it can’t be used for true future
official live video recordings. To my mind, they were maybe studying the
way to do a official DVD?. All shows were professionally recorded using
audience microphones. Two private Dvcams filmed the shows, and more than
3 DATs and 3 MDs taped them too. A JVC miniDV seemed to have filmed the
second show. Some tapers were caught. Also some recordings were not complete
too (due to very early starts, or too long sets). Many photographers had
problems with "Laurel & Hardy". Some interviews were done during
the parisian week, for newspapers and also MCM. None TV or radio had the
rights to record some extracts of the shows. Also only the small poster
was authorized by the band for the three shows. No advert, no communication
was done about the shows. Tickets were available on the website and FNAC,
but main numbers were available by phone and on the desk of the Cité de
la Musique. |
| Fans: |
| Fans
came from all Europe, and from other countries. Many Depeche Mode fans were
in attenance, some were users of the frenchviolation.com board (almost 20
people). Many young and old people, but all with the faith. I never saw
a such respectious audience. |
| Band: |
| Well,
the band had a great time each night! First night, Florian has the flu,
and Ralf did a lot of hand movements during Pocket Calculator. The two other
members were also very happy. Ralf was very decontracted during the last
show, and all members were joking. The band was very professional playing
live with the keyboards and computer’s loops. They were only stressed by
the problems at the beginning of The Robots, during the second show, when
they had problems with loops. So the curtain was again down… for a few minutes.
Then the show was perfect. A real complicity between all the Kraftwerk members
was also shown. |
| Setlist: |
| During
all the songs the crowd listened in silence. Also between 10 to 20 seconds
were needed between each song. Each show has the same running time. Total
time was 114 minutes (excepted of the second show). The big wall behind
the band was very efficient : colours were so intense, and gave to the show
a wonderful designed touch. The wall was composed of three synchronized
screens (excepted during Airwaves/New Song which was a bit chaotic with
not so good continuous films). Colours were associated with the universe
of each song : |
| *Red
for mechanical and robot (The Robots, It’s More Fun To Compute, The Man
Machine, Trans Europe Express) |
| *Blue
for Autobahn (freedom/pleasure/holidays - red for car) and Neon Lights |
| *Black
and white films for The Model and Tour De France (original clips) |
| *Green
for Expo 2000, Computer World and Numbers (concepts and designs) |
| *White
for Pocket Calculator (it needs an operator to operate, less than other
mechanical in the Kraftwerk universe) |
| *All
the colours for Radioactivity (during a nuclear explosion all the colours
are fading into pure white) |
| Musics: |
| Vocoder
intro: as most of the Kraftwerk shows, the audience waited as religious
the spelling of the name of the band before a thunderstorm of cheers and
massive applause. The familiar warm-up music from previous tours has been
replaced by a constantly-evolving pattern using the same sound as the "Antenna"
from kraftwerk.com, played during 5 to 10 minutes before hte vocoder voice. |
| The
Robots : this hit played as first song (in the second night) was a blitzering
one as opener! All may be resumed in this one: visual films, colours, rhythms,
all the universe of Kraftwerk, simple but so powerful and conceptual. You
may note that during the second show (as in Gent) the band had problem starting
the main loops. So the curtain was of a few minutes (Florian made us a "goodbye"
with his hand before the curtain was totally down). This song was a shortered
version. Main colour was of course red. Film: special
effects (words) and videos (Ralf and Florian robots). |
| Expo
2000 : this remixed version was more great than the usual minimalist
one. It appears like Resonance Underground mix version. The main colour
were black and green. Film: special effects (Expo 2000 german site, 4 members
playing) |
| It's
More Fun to Compute/Homecomputer: again, a new version, with various
colours on screen. Main colour was red again, and other ones (black, white,
etc...) Film : special effects (geometric forms) |
| The
Man Machine: this big hit played again since 1997, this included black,
red and white colours. All the visuals were very synchronized with the sound,
as all the songs. Film : special
effects (words and sentences) |
| Tour
de France : this "french song" was again a big success, with
Ralf singing it very well each night (excepted the second show) in french
of course. Film : black and white film (clip) including all the big legends
of the cyclism (Anquetil, Copi, Bobet, Poulidor, Bahamontès, and part of
the 1964 Tour de France – Mont Ventoux step) |
| Autobahn
: one of the best song with TEE and The Robots live : fabulous pictures
and images, fabulous atmosphere, an ode to the highways all over the world,
especially in Germany. Short version again. In german. Various "retro"
colours. The song started with a big white autobahn road sign on a blue
background! Excellent! the song ended with the same sign with a red line
over it. Films: coloured
pictures and drawings, black and white films and modern security films
of german highways |
| The
Model : common version, well awaited too (was not included in the 1997
tour but due to the Rammstein cover, was again settled in the 1998 one).
In german. Film : usual black and white clip, with really gorgeous models |
| Neon
Lights : not played for decades (last time was during the winter short
tour in late 1981), this version was not very reworked, but includes wonderful
coloured films of neon lights of Germany. The logo Mercedes was very predominant…
Background is black or night colour. Films: coloured
ones of neon lights in the night. Partly in german and english language |
| Pocket
Calculator : with a white background and a "mini-calculateur",
band had always a funny time… Ralf was adding and composing with his right
finger during the first and third show. He missed the last verse in french
during the last night. First two verses in english, the last two in french.
Film: only special effects (pocket
calculator, with japanese texts on black banners on each side of the screen) |
| Airwaves/New
Song (also called Tango song) : a very basic "interlude" to
me and most of the audience. Nice music however. Only a green sound level
on a black background. The band seemed not to really play it live... |
| Radioactivity
: the big hit started with an intro presenting the madness of the nuclear
energy, a very powerful speech on screen and on roboter voice (like VNV
Nation during their last tour during "Carbon" song). The song
has a less technoid sound as in Luton for example, but is still very massive.
Many colours were used, from the nuclear logo of radioactive product on
yellow and red to the hymn "stop radioactivity". The whole song
had a funest impact on most of the audience, due to the oppressive motto
and the speech at the beginning. Film: only special
effects (logo and words / sentences) |
| Trans
Europe Express : TEE used magic old 70’s TEE videos of red and white/brown
trains in the green landscape of Germany. Wasn’t Kraftwerk the first europeans?
The Metal on Metal used black and white films of old trains (1950-1960),
and it’s looked to me as parts may come from the french film "La Vache
et le Prisonnier" (images of railroads, rails, speeds etc...). Most
problably they came from 1960 films. The sound and images were very appaising,
like during Autobahn. The train and the car, the two major vectors of the
industrial revolution… This version was not as long as in 1981-90-91. The
last image was the new TEE logo of an ice. Then the logo of the Kling Klang
Kraftwerk’s studios… just right before the curtain fall down before the
encore. Colours were those of the TEE trains in the 1970’s. Films: coloured
and black and white ones. |
| Numbers
: the usual opener for more than 15 years was used as encore, and was
not really reworked. Green, white, yellow numbers were used, with a black
background. The numbers were mainly in french, english, german. Film: special
effects (numbers). |
| Computer
World : this song was played linked with Numbers as during the previous
tours. Was warmly acclamed. As many songs, the words sung by Ralf were played
on screens. This was a single version which was played, not different to
the old ones. Green was the main colour, with a black background. Film:
special
effects (words). |
| Music
Non Stop : started with the Boing Boom Tschak motto, with the "sounds"
written as comic’s ones. The band seemed not to really plays during all
the encore, but has a lot of fun. Ralf who played around all the show mainy
of the main melodies, played after the exit of the three other members (1
each minute starting from Florian) a short solo (some night it was quite
experimental). Then after Ralf exits, the curtain went down, and the music
stopped. The "music non stop" motto was verylong the first night,
very short at the second one and a little more long the last night. Film:
special
effects (faces of Ralf and Florian) |
| (Review by Vince DOME - Versailles - Paris)
|
|
| Music
Non Stop-Consoles:On
the final midnight show, I got a good opportunity to look at what they were
actually doing on stage, as I was watching from the second balcony, and
moved right down the side of as far as you could go. Besides the laptops,
all of the consoles are the same size, but have subtle differences. Henning
and Fritz's seem identical; a small musical keyboard to the right, and rows
of switches and faders to the left, with Fritz making particular use of
these, creating reverb and delay FX on the drums. They also appear to have
some kind of jogwheel on the top left. Ralf's console has a more full-length
keyboard across the whole of the front, while Florian's has the shorter
keyboard but replaces the fader panel with some kind of green-lit LED-covered
device showing text; I'm guessing that this is something to do with the
famous "Robovox" unit spotted on previous tours. I really do believe that
they are doing most of the mixing on-stage; the front-of-house guy only
had a dozen faders pushed up, seemingly in stereo pairs, and I'm guessing
that 8 of these are the straight stereo feeds from the 4 KWers onstage.
When it was time to make their exit, an illuminated "pathway" on the floor
at Florian's side lights up, guiding the guys away. On the first show, Florian
and Fritz gave shy little waves, otherwise I didn't notice any of them acknowledge
the audience in any way at all. Robots to the end! |
| (Review by Mark Stagg - Manchester - UK) |
|
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