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Comment by gdubs | Hacker News Reader

Legend. I saw Kraftwerk live years ago and it was one of the most overwhelming performances I’ve ever seen in my life. Beneath the bouncy, poppy hooks there was a massive darkness — the pairing of visuals with the music really drove that home. (The only other live musical performance that I recall giving me a similar feeling was the band ‘Godspeed You Black Emperor‘, who also made use of projected imagery in such a tightly-coupled fashion.)

One of my favorite Kraftwerk songs is probably “pocket calculator.” [1]

1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBybJGZoCU

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For the record, I agree with your choice of favorite song (alas, there are so many to chose from). That said, I think the German version is better. I think that's generally the issue since the German language seems more conducive to their brand of Gesamtkunstwerk.

I've also seen them a few times, twice open air and what surprised my most was the absolute insane sound quality. They are insane perfectionists and I was just blown away.

Arguably the most important and influential "band", which ever existed.

I always enjoyed the part of the show where they'd pulled the curtains down, then when they were put up again, the entire group was replaced by robotic mannequins! Since their show was sync'd to the video in back of them, I'm pretty sure the music was all queued up too. They didn't really need to be up there at all!

I think only Aphex Twin pulled off such a stunt as well, where he walked to the stage, pressed a button to start the music, then walked off. But Kraftwerk would do it for an entire tour.

I've seen Kraftwerk live many times, and on two or three occasions they've played a bum note, or messed up the drumline, and had to stop and re-sync. So I can definitely confirm that they are playing "live", even for their most recent "3-D" tour.

(Though not, I assume, during the "Robots" sequence, which I assume is recorded. And I think that's actually the whole point of that sequence.)

My favorite is Bill Bailey's tribute to Kraftwerk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaxWoJPUC0

Recently saw a Chemical brothers show that amazed me, I'm sure they borrowed liberally from these pioneers.

Same! I wasn't expecting much, but they were in the top few concerts I've ever seen.

Here's a recentish live performance of "Computer Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2SklZ5mNpg

Ah, another favorite. Computer Love is a brilliantly sweet song. It actually is a great encapsulation of their genius — somehow marrying human warmth with technology.

I love Kraftwerk, but didn't enjoy their show.

It felt high tech but low effort, and I know folks are okay with that, but it all felt so trade-show/product demo and not rock show. I would have been happier if it was a bar and not an arena.

This may be because: The Knife and New Order, though. Much better shows ..

/ymmv

i love new order but i thought they were well-know for having bad live shows? Stuff going wrong, bum notes, lousy singing etc

I don't think they're that bad lately, certainly in the 80's, but their live shows these days are pretty tight .. and anyway, the cold hard precision of a playback-show like Kraftwerk gets tiring after a few tracks, unless there are other major distractions going on, which is what I found to be the case. It got boring to watch them checking their email on stage ..

Yeah, I saw them in NYC many years ago and was supprised how openly people were smoking weed. :-)

Anyway, the show was great!

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