Kraftwerk
Trinity College Dublin
★★★★☆
This June’s live music calendar is more congested than the M50 during back to school rush hour. The subsequent advent of earlier stage times has resulted in three distinct and unwelcome phenomena.
First, audiences cannot enjoy a band with the visual power of Kraftwerk to its full potential, as headline acts are effectively going onstage in broad daylight, which was also evident at recent shows by Pulp and Blur. Second, an early start stacks the odds against the time-honoured ritual of going for a pre-gig pint, which is now in grave danger of becoming totally extinct on school nights.
Third, there is an elevated risk of bees stinging the audience. For the very first time in my concert attendance history, I was stung by a bee as Kraftwerk were performing their 1981 hit, Computer Love. This incident ultimately transpired to be a sign of tremendous good fortune, as the evening became the most enthralling show I’ve witnessed the robotic wizards of electronica deliver since the Olympia in 2004, when all four members of U2 looked on owllike from a stage side box in the hallowed Grand Old Lady of Dame Street.
[ Computer love: Kraftwerk’s motorik beat was powered by a human heartOpens in new window ]
A Kraftwerk live show in 2023 is anchored from stage right by lead singer and keyboardist Ralf Hütter, who cofounded the group in 1969 alongside the late Florian Schneider, who died in 2020. For the highly anticipated Irish appearances at Limerick’s St John’s Castle and Trinity College Dublin’s cricket pitch, Hütter is flanked by Henning Schmitz, Falk Grieffenhagen, and Georg Bongartz, none of whom were original members of this phenomenally pioneering band, who are undisputedly The Beatles of electronic music.
Then, there is the little matter of their aesthetic influence. They started wearing suits and ties from 1974, the year they released their fourth studio album, Autobahn, after Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider attended an exhibition in their native Düsseldorf by British art duo Gilbert & George.
In 2012 and 2013, Kraftwerk staged retrospectives in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries, performing entire albums in full at London’s Tate Modern, New York’s MOMA, and the Kunstsammlung in their hometown. They remain one of the most sampled groups in music history.
Hip-hop, electro, Detroit techno, Chicago house, electronica, and quite possibly Coldplay’s later career, would not have been possible without Kraftwerk. I think the latter is what most irked that bee, as Chris Martin was granted official permission from the German giants to use Computer Love as the motif for Coldplay’s 2005 monstrous hit, Talk.
Hütter and company are resplendent in skintight fluorescent suits, which for four men of quite an advanced age, they pull off surprisingly well. It certainly helps if you’ve got one of the finest back catalogues in musical history at your disposal.
The Model is a perfect pop song. Neon Lights is shimmering and pretty. Autobahn is a timeless epic that sounds like it was freshly forged this morning in their studio, Kling Klang.
What might be lacking in terms of suitable darkness for this spellbinding performance is compensated for in volume and pristine sound quality.
This is fourth time I’ve seen Kraftwerk, and quite easily the best after the aforementioned tour de force in the Olympia, despite the valiant efforts of an enraged Trinity bee.
