From Greg Earle Sent Thu, Jun 18th 1998, 23:38
From Greg Earle Sent Thu, Jun 18th 1998, 23:38
I've been reading the articles on Usenet about Kraftwerk since the San
Francisco show, and found a few interesting tidbits I thought I'd pass on.
First, Jerry Grote (not the old Mets catcher (-: ) has a great Web site with
his obsessive fanboy travelogue of the Chicago and Detroit shows, including
lots of great pictures (none of the actual shows, alas). It's at
http://php.Indiana.EDU/~jwgrote/one.html
Highlights of the interesting snippets he garnered from a German crew member:
[...]
4. None of the band seemed to me to be having a very good time onstage
in Chicago. I saw Fritz sigh deeply and make a bored look, and Florian
seemed especially non-plussed. Also, the Chicago crowd seemed a bit
subdued and disengaged. [...]
Q. How do American audiences compare to the Japanese audiences that
you just had in Tokyo?
A. In Tokyo the audiences are much more involved - they sing/scream
every word. In the States, people are more like (he folded his arms
and leaned back), cool. Sort of like, 'OK, let's see what you can do'.
Q. How did tonight's (Chicago) audience/reception compare to the other
American dates?
A. This show was just like San Francisco.
(*boggle* He compared Chicago to San Francisco! Geez, if San Francisco was
"subdued", I wonder what "hyper/involved" must be like ... I guess Tokyo?)
Q. What is live, and what is recorded? How are they doing their stage
show?
A. There is a MIDI clock generated from a pre-recorded source (probably
the bass and drums). This MIDI clock performs certain patch changes
and sequence cues for them, and they play everything else live. The
MIDI clock is also synced with the SMPTE clock from the video outputs
(apparently the videos are on laser disc). Absolutely all the sound is
generated onstage from KlingKlang - there is no tape plugged in at
the house mixing console.
Q. The new song at the end is called 'Tribal', right?
A. Yes. They named it after this thing called 'Tribal Gathering' in
England.
Q. How is the tour going? Is the band enjoying the tour?
A. Oh, the band is ecstatic about the tour. They are very happy about
it, and it's going very well. You saw it tonight. Did you feel this
energy here tonight?
Q. Yes, what did you think of tonight's show (in Detroit)? How does it
compare to the other shows on the tour?
A. Tonight was the best show of the tour. No question about it.
[ARRRGGH! *Sound of gritting teeth*]
Q. Who is the photographer? Why is he taking the pictures [of the robots]?
A. He is a friend of the band. He is taking pictures that maybe the
band will use for publicity pictures. By the way, you are right about
the tour in 1999 that you asked about yesterday. They will be coming
back with a bigger tour in 1999.
[ !!! This was also mentioned in another post by IDM's Greg Clow, whom
DejaNews caught slumming over in alt.gothic. hehe ]
In another post on alt.music.brian-eno, I found:
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Subject: Re: kraftwerk set lists??
From: "Harvest" <xxxx@xxxxx.xxx>
Date: 1998/06/10
Message-ID: <6lmod2$qd5$x@xxxx.xxxxx.xxx>
Newsgroups: alt.music.brian-eno
Don't know about set lists, but ...
The main guy at Chain Reaction (excellent German record label) heard 7 (yes,
7) NEW tracks by Kraftwerk. Some were run-of-the-mill dance type stuff, but
he said he was blown away by the Ambient stuff they were doing! EMI has
bought the rights, so expect a new album this year! I've got wood already!
xxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx
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- Greg
(Who wishes he was in Barcelona at SONAR right now :-( )