Kraftwerk hasn’t toured in the Twin Cities since 1975 and the StarTribune wasn’t particularly excited to welcome them back. I’m not sure what Kraftwerk could have done better to impress Jon Bream, but his article seems like a rehash of a Wikipedia article with some bitterness thrown in just for the sake of being a curmudgeon. Perhaps there is a reputation to protect, who can say? The Pioneer Press critic provided a more favorable review, but he does admit to being a nerd. This may be why I enjoyed this show immensely also. Nate Patrin at City Pages also reviewed this show favorably.

This show was an exercise in precision. Here’s how it went down: I was standing next to my gaggle of folks who came to the show. We were just off of stage left standing on the main floor having drinks and chatting. It’s true, we were thrilled to be there and we were very excited to see a foursome renowned for inspiring millions of fans and thousands of artists. A soft thumping beat started a little before eight o’clock. It eventually got louder until at precisely eight the curtains swept open and there they were! Four Germans and their laptops with on-screen eye-candy for the entire show!

Every now and then the oldest one sang. Every now and then the youngest one would smirk and almost smile, but not quite. It seemed as though they were slightly surprised that they actually had a crowd of people cheering for them. The youngest one was definitely almost smiling by the end of the show.

Every song was accompanied by on-screen video and graphics. The giant road whizzing by during Tour de France even made me slightly dizzy. The lyrics to Home Computer seemed a dated (I program my home computer / Beam myself into the future) yet they are a testament to the group’s influence and vision - the album Computer World was released in 1981. This was far before people thought of tinkering with PCs without an expert.

Their setlist was indeed Musique Non-Stop right up until the curtains closed. The crowd rallied for an obligatory encore and we saw movement behind the curtains. When the curtains came back we were treated to Robots!

They closed with Musique Non-Stop with each member of the group walking to stage left and taking a final bow. I think most of them smiled when they bowed, the youngster definitely smiled.

And once the house lights came up, our group was all smiles as we raved about the excellence of the performance we had just witnessed.

From the matching Tron gridline outfits to the performing robots to the exact timing of every facet of the show, this concert experience was a musical techno extravganza to cherish forever.