From KaisrSolze Sent Sun, Jun 14th 1998, 07:00
From KaisrSolze Sent Sun, Jun 14th 1998, 07:00
It's a spoiler, you know the routine... Who else was there? I was in th= e=0Awhite Kim's longsleeved tee, and I managed to score the box seats on = the lower=0Alevel on the right. Pardon me if I offend you when I call th= eir songs exactly=0Athe same =97 I'm talking about the versions on The Mi= x and live, not the=0Aoriginals... =09Ginger & Posh; Puffy & Mase; Ralf und Florian? =09Well, not exactly, but Kraftwerk didn't get a Number one hit in Autoba= hn, and=0Aan incredibly cultish legion of fans, without perfecting the el= ectronic pop=0Asong, creating a product as wonderfully formulaic as any h= it on Hot 97 or=0AZ100. Instead of a 3 minute single hook, single beat, = single melody ditty,=0AKraftwerk reconfigured pop to the digital age, wit= h sprawlingly long songs,=0Amultiple beat changes, simple synth melody li= nes, and portentiously futuristic=0Avocorded rhymes about technology and = transportation. Every song exactly the=0Asame, every song a gem =97 they= 're the Spice Machines. =09The pop quality of Kraftwerk was made incredibly clear over the course= of=0Atheir show at Hammerstein Ballroom, where they played their perfect= ed,=0Adigititized hits, stripped of any of the analogue warmth and variat= ion=0Adisplayed on the original albums. Instead, the songs were polished= to a fine=0Asheen, slick enough to rival anything on the top 40. Song a= fter song they=0Adrove the adoring crowd crazy =97 the encores were parti= cular highlights, in=0Awhich the black-suited, shaven-pated Kraftwerk 4 e= merged from behind their=0Abanks of equipment to do a little dance and pl= ay a semi-improvised version of=0APocket Calculator. They then proceeded= to leave the stage, and the video=0Ascreens behind them rose to reveal t= heir robot manequin twins playing We Are=0Athe Robots. By the time Kraft= werk came out for their second encore in=0Aglowingly gridded Tron suits, = they had the crowd completely in their iron=0Apalm, and converted to thei= r very German worldview. We all wanted to "Stop=0Athe radioactivity" (he= ll, I learned that some power plant will cause "death=0Aand skin cancer")= , and have "fun fun fun on the Autobahn." If only they had=0Ainstructed = us to partake of "computer love", my night would have been=0Acomplete. =09The only really weak moments of the show were when Kraftwerk deviated = from=0Aformula to play new in-progress instrumentals =97 after all, who w= ould want to=0Ahear Puffy's beats alone without Busta or Sting in the hou= se? The stage show=0Anever disappointed =97 stock footage of the Tour de= France and vintage=0AVolkswagens, flashing numbers, and a Mondrian whose= lines and rectangles slid=0Aup and down the canvas, living in a world bo= th geometric and orderly, yet=0Aconstantly in flux =97 Kraftwerk's world.= By the time the last "music non-stop"=0Aground to a halt, everybody lef= t happy. The only difference between this show=0Aand one of those that s= ells out arenas in 8 minutes, was that the satisfied=0Acustomers weren't = teenage girls or Funkmaster Flex's shoutout faithful.=0AInstead, the sque= alers in the crowd were Gen X hipsters and computer nerds of=0Aall ages, = all of whom had found a pop they could call their own. Sam=0A