Just got back home after flying up to the northwest to crawl around Portland and Seattle to consume mass quantities of coffee, records, and food, culminating in the Kraftwerk show at the Paramount in Seattle. For a music genre that demands constant rejection of the “same old stuff”, Kraftwerk in 2004 really hasn’t changed much in twenty years. Presumably the software on their otherwise featureless laptops has been updated, but their show is even more retro-futuristic with all the Tron-level graphics intact and the robots once again dusted off. I haven’t ever seen them before, but I imagine it’s like going on an old, beloved Disneyland ride: there might be a fresh coat of paint and some minor adjustments here and there, but you expect a certain amount of familiarity to remain. The show was terrific, and I’d go see it again without thinking twice. Sort of like racing out of the exit and running back in line to get on the ride again?
The defining moment of the show came during the break in between encores when the cheering audience held up their lighted cell phones in lieu of cigarette lighters. Totally classic.
FYI: “Kraft” means strength, or power; “werk” means work, more in the physical than in the economic sense (“Arbeit”). “Atomkraftwerk” is, naturally, an atomic power facility. Franz von Papen, antepenultimate chancellor to the Nazis, once wrote: “Das gesamte Finanz- und Wirtschaftsprogramm ist ein Beweis eigner Kraft, denn nicht um einen Pfennig sind unsere Auslandsschulden vermehrt.” (The entire financial and economic program is proof of its own strength, for our debts to foreign powers have not increased by a single cent.”) Incidentally, “Die Kraft,” as a noun, is feminine. “Werk,” however, is neuter–“das Werk”–and hence “Kraftwerk” is also neutral, since compound words take the gender of the final element therein.
You were about four blocks from our apartment. Next time you’re in town, let us know. We’ll take you for Cold War chicken
I was at that show,I saw those cellphone lights..it was pretty classic
We’ll be back to Seattle soon enough for a proper visit.