By Nic Gorman*
Kraftwerk at the TSB Arena in Wellington, November 2023. Photo: Phoebe Mackenzie / supplied
Review - It has been 14 years since German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk last played in New Zealand, and since then the band's long-term multimedia project exploring the synthesis between humanity and technology has grown further congruous.
In an age where large language models like ChatGPT present an approximation of human thought and speech to boost productivity, Kraftwerk's man-machine feels very present.
They're visiting on the busiest week for live music in Wellington that I can remember, but the TSB Arena is still packed and the crowd are friendly, social and excited for the show in that slightly nervous sort of way you get with beloved nostalgia acts.
The show begins. At the front of the stage, each standing behind a lit-up plinth, are four German men in Tron suits. They are largely indistinguishable from each other, which is deliberate - the band's image was always about the collective; each individual subsumed into the whole. The music too is a perfect sum of its parts; sequenced electronic music with simple melodies that sit behind minimal and modernist lyrics.
Of the four current members of Kraftwerk - Ralf Hütter, Fritz Hilpert, Henning Schmitz, and Falk Grieffenhagen - Ralf is the sole original member, and the only one who has a microphone.
Kraftwerk at the TSB Arena in Wellington, November 2023. Photo: Supplied / Phoebe Mackenzie
Their show opens with a pair of songs from the Computer World album: 'Numbers' and 'Computer World'. Ralf's voice is older, there's a vulnerability present as he chants the technocratic refrain of "Interpol and Deutsche Bank… FBI and Scotland Yard", imbibing these institutions with a surveillant resonance that could not have been imagined in 1982. The largely impressive visuals are at their best here - numbers drip down the walls Matrix-style, consuming the musicians beneath a stream of data.
People were starting to dance by the time the slinky synth line of 'The Man-Machine' appeared.
Later, in 'Autobahn', Ralf,'s voice presented itself briefly raw, without filter. Throughout the show the occasional minor mistake gave a human note to the proceedings as we are reminded that these are human musicians working in their electronic garden.
Kraftwerk at the TSB Arena in Wellington, November 2023. Photo: Phoebe Mackenzie / supplied
A highlight was 'Radioactive', a reminder of the potential for nuclear destruction. "Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Fukushima" pulsed on the screen, as the bass put a dent into our bodies.
My favourite of the night was 'Trans Europe Express', intoxicating with its drive and sense of cool; a nostalgia for a future that we never got (a network of passenger railway lines!), the bassline chugging with the train engine, intimate and elegiac; endless, endless.
Then into 'The Robots', the closest thing to a pop song tonight. By now the aisles are full of dancers, some dancing with their phones held aloft in a perfect synthetic symbiosis. 'Musique Non Stop' is the closer before a polite ritual as each member shuffles off the stage one by one. Last to leave is Ralf Hütter, and the loudest applause of the night is given to celebrate this pioneer, this conceptual wizard. It was a special night with music that left an imprint.
* Nic is a writer and filmmaker based in Pōneke.