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before i left my house to meet up with my aunt, i familiarized myself with some of kraftwerk's stuff...
didn't really hit the spot for me, since i have been enjoying much techno recently, and just couldn't get into the slow melodies that i was hearing... i had some doubt about the show.
got in the ricoh at 8, and sat and waited. had seats dead centre, with tons of legroom, so that was good.
at around 8:30, start to hear a deeeeeeeep bass line. looked at the stage, and it was still drawn by a dark grey curtain. there was three projectors up at the top too, and i started to hear the main melody of 'man machine'. right there, i knew i was in for a surprise. the curtains were drawn back, and there revealed kraftwerk, decked out in their black and red suits, standing infront of four stands. man machine fully started up, and the three projectors played some awesome minimal display of sqares and lines... needless to say, i was very impressed.
what followed was one of the best live performances i have ever heard. 'radioactivity', 'tour de france (2 versions! a newer, upbeat one, and the older one, which totally went into some hard industrial stuff, with steam whistles and trains colliding, all suplimented by awesome footage!) 'trans europe express', 'neon lights' 'model (i think... can't recall the title) a short but awesome version of 'autobahn'...
all through these songs, the guys were tweaking the sounds, looping things, adding echoes.. it was unreal...
the curtains were drawn again, and immediately the place erupted in a cheer. 5 min later, sound starts back up, and strobes start flashing behind the screen, revealing shadows of robots! no legs, but a torso, head, arms... amazing.
the curtains were drawn open, and yup, mechanical robots playing 'we are the robots' what a surreal performance that was. the song finished, curtains drawn again, and another 5 min wait.
curtain reopen, and out come kraftwerk in some crazy neon 3d grid suit! blacklights all over illuminated them, and they played 'aerodynamik', 'boing boom chok' (sp?) and last but not least 'music non stop'
amazing night, and probably the only chance i will ever get to see the godfathers of electronic music. at 25$ a ticket it was a STEAL!
hope more people went and enjoyed this, describing it only does so much... 
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