Every Woman Adores a Robot

If it were any other band but Kraftwerk, I'd probably scoff at the idea of going to see a group that only has one remaining original member. But Kraftwerk were never like any other band in any respect whatsoever, and they don't come out of hiding very often, and they were playing on our 15th wedding anniversary, and it was their new 3-D show, and it was in Munich, and we shouldn't really have gone, but I wouldn't  have missed it for anything.

I last saw them about ten years ago when Florian and Ralf were still buddies; since then Florian has gone his own way, announcing that he was 'leaving the band' in 2009 ( was there one single, terrible row, during which Ralf threw a circuit board at Florian's head and Florian tried to stab him with the stylus from his own Stylophone? God I hope so.). But we are all replaceable units, and Ralf has three appropriately anonymous-looking electro droogs alongside him when they take to the (relatively small) Alte Kongresshalle stage on the stroke of midnight. We all have our 3-D glasses on, and as the giant arm of the Ralf Robot on the screen behind them sweeps out across the crowd, people are ducking. It's fabulous, and it's all uphill from there. We get two and a quarter hours of the very best, a resounding 'Computerweldt' you can feel thumping in your chest, a transcendent 'Vitamin' with exploding effervescent bubbles appearing to pour out over the auditorium, a messianic 'Radioacktivity' which is HUGELY well received by the awestruck crowd - remember, this is the home of the 'Atomenergie? Nein Danke!' sticker - and of course, a sublime 'Autobahn', with its little trundling VW Beetle graphic bringing the song to a perfect close when it follows the 'exit' sign off the motorway. The audience applause is rapturous, but during the songs there's a respectful studiousness and not much movement beyond some serious nodding. The single pilled-up twit wandering around trying to engage new friends to join him in his Gibbon Dance is, predictably, an English bloke. Everyone else seems to be there for the music, and the event. Ralf eventually makes a great show of grappling in the half-light to look at his wristwatch, and then tucks his palms under the side of his head to tell us that he's getting a bit tired. We've all of us had a big night, and after such a value-for-money set it seems fair enough to let him go off to whatever it is robots do at an aftershow party.  I would have been thrilled to hear my adored and prophetic 'Computerlove', but it's not on the list and I wonder if they've regretted letting Chris Martin get his anaemic hands on that riff, for his bloody awful "Ta-aaa-aaa-aaalk" song.

Whatever, I leave the venue lighter than an electron and happier than Mr Data when he got his emotion chip.

And, Munich is out there, waiting to be explored. More follows.


©Ishouldbeworking2011