Ralf Is Live
Gang, we have to have a little talk. It’s about our beloved Kraftwerk. Yes, we all agree that they are the unchallenged leaders in the growth and acceptance of electronic music. I would take that further: that Kraftwerk were visionary about how we would come to use and accept technology as an essential, completely integrated part of our everyday lives. It’s hard to remember now, but when “Home Computer” was released in 1981, computers were still way out of anybody’s reasonable price range and required cassette tapes for data storage.
But I’m sick of the backhanded compliments for the live show. No, you object, you said you loved it. You gave strong reviews to the new live tour document, Minimum-Maximum. But you’re always slipping in something about “four guys standing around with laptops” or “what’s the point of a live performance by a band that’s just triggering their loops.”
Let’s start with what we mean by “Live.” I propose the following definition, as useful for a classical pianist as a drum circle as a guy with a laptop: A live musical performance is one in which the musician is 1) Performing music from a score or via improvisation; 2) Making conscious decisions about how the music is played as it is performed, and; 3) Injecting meaning through his/her actions, words demeanor and stagecraft.
With Kraftwerk, I don’t think anybody has any doubts about 1) or 3). It’s 2) that you might have a problem with.
My observation is that Kraftwerk does indeed make lots of decisions as the music is performed. I saw them last May at The Warfield, and even to say that they “are just standing there” is dishonest and wrongly dismissive. I stood at the very front towards Stage Right, just in front of Florian Schneider with a clear side view of the other three band members’ set-ups. Ralf Hutter has a MIDI controller that he uses frequently, playing the vast majority of the melodic parts. He also sings and is a might good dancer. The two fellows in the middle, newer members Henning Schmitz and Fritz Hilpert triggered bass lines and percussion. The one who does the bass lines had several foot pedals that emphasized and deemphasized different elements of the bottom tracks. And Florian … well, actually I’m not sure what Florian was doing. Everquest? Checking local maps for a bike ride tomorrow? He did cut some awkward dance moves during “Music Non Stop,” but otherwise your guess is as good as mine.
The cut from Minimum-Maximum I’m putting up today, “Neon Lights,” is a great demonstration of Kraftwerk’s musical ‘chops.’ Hutter sounds practically emotional, awestruck by the spectacle of a city lit up for the night. Above all, it sounds like he’s having fun, which is not something you can glean from any of Kraftwerk’s studio recordings post-Autobahn. There’s lots of interplay between the loops and lines; it’s closer to a group jamming than a simple triggering of a program. Most telling, it sounds like Hutter makes a mistake playing out the melody at the very end. Maybe the non-exactness is part of the art, programmed in to add humanity to the proceedings, but having seen how he operates on stage, I’m not buying it. It’s human error, right there in the middle of a Kraftwerk song. Given 30 years of dehumanization as an art form (in a good way!), that slip-up and its preservation by the artist who made it is worth noticing.
The song titles, which feature the city of the performance used on the album, are also a dead giveaway that there is something more going on here than pantomime with MIDI controller. If the guys in the band feel like the performances are different from city to city, we should take that seriously. We owe that to them as musicians. On the other hand, maybe it’s just another in a series of wry jokes going back through 30-plus years of recording and playing live.
[Soundtrack]
Kraftwerk – Neon Lights (London).mp3
Here is a great shot from above that gives a glimpse of each member’s on-stage set-up.
PS How come no enterprising computer company has gone and got the Kraftwerk product endorsement yet? What would Dell give to have had their name on their on-stage laptops? Thank goodness it hasn’t happened yet, really; every effort should be made to keep Kraftwerk from looking like a NASCAR team. Or maybe that’s next year’s joke. I was a little surprised to see that they were on PCs and not Macs, though.
PPS I concede that when the robots are on stage that that is not a live musical performance. Nice stagecraft, though.
Great defense of Kraftwerk. I saw their first tour at NYC’s Academy of Music in 1974(?) and they were great then, altho the set up was much more primitive with a cheap slide show and intros like “Now ve vill play Autobahn.”. Of course I don’t remember much else because my friend ,my girlfriend and I dropped some windowpane acid during the first act-the Michael Quatro Band(Suzie’s bro), marvelled at the second act’s lead singer who dressed up like a lizard(Greenslade),and were just peaking when Kraftwerk ended their set. We ended up at a doughnut shop where my girlfriend started freaking out and the owner threw us out. I don’t know how we got back to Connecticut that night.
Dose we “re da Daze.