Maximum Occupancy

I am not a die hard fan of Kraftwerk. I do not own any albums nor have I downloaded any of their tracks. Living with a boyfriend who is a DJ does not allow me to be ignorant of them. One of his endearing traits of being in love is when the other person goes on at length with their encyclopedic knowledge on subject, so I have been learning the ins and outs of certain subjects that I would have never sought out on my own. Just as Zach will be happy and willing to pay an exorbitant amount to see my dream act perform (Cher), I was down for seeing his dream show: Kraftwerk. So going into this I am not a die hard fan of Kraftwerk, but I can still enjoy them.

The notorious seclusion aspect of their personalities makes sense with the music and the performance that they put on. Besides being pioneers in electronic music, they are just plain wise. The show was well thought out on several levels and was worth the chance to see it. What they make is interesting, but is not exciting visually. The sounds they use are simple and repetitive, but it is not boring. There are paradoxes to making electronic music, and they have been doing it for so long that they are wise to the process. Any point of the show or the albums could be dissected and pondered upon for far longer than what I will devout to it.

Shit was sold out and no one wasted a ticket for every seat was filled. In the darkness every so often people would move about the rows requiring more beer for whatever fucked up journey they were living through. Even with the pulling back as some squirmed past, only to come back to squish by you, I did not curse the person for breaking my concentration. Though I broke eye sight with the screen, the music was already telling the story. All the visuals were either pulled from music videos are specific to the songs message. As a 3D performance, not everything was nauseatingly whooshing towards your face. The effects were used more subtle than that. It was used to emphasis letters and words within the songs. It was used to help visualize themes and draw you into the repetitive enticing rhythms.

I am sure that if you have a predilection to hallucinogens or mood alerting drugs, that Kraftwerk is the best way to enhance the experience. As a sober person, the effects and knowing that a couple thousand people were having the same type of awed experience was enough to let me loose myself a couple of times. And yes during Autobahn I had issues trying to stay awake, the soothing expense of early graphics computer animated VW Beetle overtaking a Mercedes and the lilting melody of the track was knocking me out. I had to keep on trying to wake myself knowing, that soon another song will play and I will be energized, and I did not want to miss out on it because I was sleeping. Digression over, the point is Kraftwerk must be aware of the drug culture in the electronic scene and how laser shows go hand in hand with music and shrooms. This is less psychedelic and spiritual and more scientific and spatial. To have a show is important and part of the reason why they can play so few shows and still sell out. It makes the experience more special for the rarity and does not dull the senses to the experience. It also entertains while they make music, for DJing is not a performance. Everything else that surrounds it is, but not the the music makers themselves, they are just boring robots.

But to see a robot on screen, that is far more entertaining. To see a 3D computer rendition line drawing of them, clicking buttons while not moving, is far more entertaining than the men up there doing just that. They are brilliant for playing within contexts and experimenting with what an audience will enjoy and what they can say before they no longer enjoy it.

Playing in Austin, Texas, they are very European and a world apart from our mentality. Their references and songs are very strange to what I hear everyday ( I know of it, I just rarely have to think on those terms) old models who wore the clothes for the patrons, Tour de France, and Autobahn. The politics were there, just restrained in its performance. Referring to the radioactive disgraces within its native language in respect to the tragedies.