Kraftwerk Member #3: “And what is this strange, brown surface surrounding us”
Ralf: “It is called wood.”
This is it. Possibly the most transgressive concert ever booked. I was discussing events with chasinvictoria, who, as one might guess, lives in Victoria, British Columbia. He was excited about Kraftwerk playing off the beaten path in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta. Smack dab in the middle of the Canadian Prairie. It’s almost the moral equivalent of them playing Billings, Montana. This made me think, “Kraftwerk are touring North America? I wonder where they’re playing?”
A glimpse at their home page revealed the clock-stopping truth. Kraftwerk were indeed trodding the boards across North America this Fall, with the band in Philadelphia a scant four days after we’re there in September. It’s the usual mix of Kraftwerkian strongholds [Miami, Detroit] salted with some of the more… unflinching excursions into virgin territory I’ve yet seen from the Düsseldorf foursome. One date in particular, burned its location into my retinas.
On September 27th, 2015, Kraftwerk will perform at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville… the Literal Home of The Grand Ole Opry and the Spiritual Home of country music itself!!
That soul-shattering sound you’re hearing now is not Godzilla advancing on your hamlet. It is not the sound of the earth being wrenched from its axis. It is a tearing in the very space-time continuum itself! See for yourself… if you dare, here.
I can’t say who is ultimately responsible for this senses-shattering event, but my Aztec Energy Dome® is well and duly doffed at the way that they obviously plowed ahead with this notion indifferent to the carefully ordered matrices of Reality Itself which would be obviously torn asunder by such an event. The Great Tribulation could clearly begin at any moment now. Here is the full tourbook for the rest of 2015 for the peripatetic foursome and their next booking sees them playing this year’s Tour De France, naturally.
Tour De France ….. Grand Depart 2015
03 Jul 2015 | Utrecht | Tivoli Vredenburg
03 Jul 2015 | Utrecht | Tivoli Vredenburg
04 Jul 2015 | Utrecht | Tivoli Vredenburg
North America 2015
16 Sep 2015 | Edmonton | Jubilee Auditorium
17 Sep 2015 | Calgary | Jubilee Auditorium
19 Sep 2015 | Portland | Keller Auditorium
23 Sep 2015 | Denver | Opera House
25 Sep 2015 | Austin | Bass Concert Hall
25 Sep 2015 | Austin | Bass Concert Hall
27 Sep 2015 | Nashville | Ryman Auditorium
29 Sep 2015 | Miami | Olympia Theater
02 Oct 2015 | Philadelphia | Electric Factory
03 Oct 2015 | Boston | Wang Theatre
05 Oct 2015 | Detroit | Masonic Temple Theatre
07 Oct 2015 | Minneapolis | Northrop
09 Oct 2015 | Kansas City | Arvest Bank Theatre
Europe 2015
07 Nov 2015 | Lille | Le Noveau Siecle
07 Nov 2015 | Lille | Le Noveau Siecle
09 Nov 2015 | Nantes | Cite De Congres
11 Nov 2015 | Monte Carlo | Le Sporting
12 Nov 2015 | Marseille | Le Silo
13 Nov 2015 | Grenoble | Mc2
20 Nov 2015 | Essen | Lichtburg
25 Nov 2015 | Köln | Palladium
27 Nov 2015 | Hamburg | Cch 1
29 Nov 2015 | Stuttgart | Beethoven Saal
01 Dec 2015 | Frankfurt | Jahrhunderthalle
03 Dec 2015 | Prague | Forum Karlin
04 Dec 2015 | Krakow | Ice Congress Center
07 Dec 2015 | Leipzig | Haus Auensee
Of course, synth duo Erasure broke this hallowed ground in 2006 with their CD/DVD package, “The Road To Nashville,” but they chickened out and performed an acoustic show with guitars to match! No such compromise for Kraftwerk! They are taking their mission straight into the belly of the beast! I hope that they can withstand the ghosts of country music past haunting their nightmares until the end of their days. We shall see in September then, eh?
As for Kraftwerk themselves, they are on a high these days. I’ve been pretty critical of their music of the last 29 years here, but the exercise of their Katalog shows, as well as advances in technology mean that today Kraftwerk are putting on a fantastic show with plenty of diversity and inventiveness. I saw three shows back to back at Moogfest 2014 and they shocked me with how different each one ended up being. The Katalog residencies mean that multiple versions of any song they released after 1974 can be performed in their sets, which places them in a good space for growth by mining their past, if they want to open themselves to it. Time, and the next Kraftwerk album [should there be one] will tell. If you’ve never had the pleasure, by all means everyone should see Kraftwerk at least once now that it is a going concern. The Kraftwerklivemusikdraught of 1981-1994 has been laid to rest with the diligent push of the band to leave their reclusive studios and travel the world’s stages.
– 30 –
![Chris Cross: 1952-2024 [part 2]](https://i0.wp.com/postpunkmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ultravox-cross.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1)
Post-Punk Monk 
Hmmm…Miami in September…I think that will work for me.
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Echorich – Yeah. It’ll probably only be 98 degrees instead of 101! I almost saw Kraftwerk in Miami. They were supposed to play there in ’90-’91 and we had tickets, but the show/tour was cancelled. It would remain until 1998 until I finally saw them.
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Makes my decision to forgo the LA show last year, a good money saver. As well, if Tour De France will be the focus, I will be on the edge of my comfortable seat.
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Have you noticed where Kraftwerk are *not* playing?
New York. Chicago. Los Angeles. San Francisco.
They’re skipping all the big markets for some reason.
Very indie of them!
Tom Waits did the same thing a few years ago.
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JT – I think they have a deliberate market penetration plan that will see them eventually covering the earth. Then, when Ralf is gone the next generation [or just the robots] will continue until Kraftwerk become a worldwide brand; larger than even their position in the scope of pop music.
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hi mr monk,
this was the last kraftwerk post.
they are re-releasing their catalogue in
colored vinyl versions with the 2009 masters.
not as a boxset, but individually. in
english and german where there were
different versions.
yes, the mix is also part of it 2xlp,
yes, tour de france soundtrack is 2xlp,
yes, electric cafe is renamed technopop with
a slightly different listing.
will be another expensive addition to the
collection for fans. oh, and they all come
with booklets too.
later
-1
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negative1ne – Wow! That’s a long time back for the last Kraftwerk post! But I think that my words may have been prophetic. After 2015, I think there might have been a rip in the cosmic fabric! It would account for a lot of weird, bad things since then!
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negative1ne – So there is now a way to get the German language versions on physical media, but LP only. My copy of “Trans Europa Express” has always been the German since that was the first version on CD in 1985. What I would like to hear in addition is the English version, which was the first one I was familiar with.
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hi mr monk,
happy holidays. hope yours went well.
i’m still going crazy with boxsets and filling in gaps.
i have one more huge ‘grail’ purchasing spree coming
up in the first week of january.
anyways, back to the kraftwerk theme, they have released
a new 19 track digital compilation of remixes, with a few
interesting things:
1) non stop – new remix of musique non stop from the old mtv bumpers, in full form
2) radioactivity – william orbit edit (which was US vinyl for the full mix)
possibly some other different edits.
these are available online, so you can pick up the tracks you are missing, as the rest have been released already on several singles:
——————–
Kraftwerk – Remixes
Label:
Parlophone – none, Kling Klang – none
Format:
19 × File, AAC, Album, Compilation, 256 kbps
Country:
US
Released:
21 Dec 2020
Genre:
Electronic
Style:
Electro, Synth-pop
Tracklist
1 Non Stop 8:32
2 Robotnik (Kling Klang Mix) 7:58
3 Robotronik (Kling Klang Mix) 5:05
4 Radioactivity (William Orbit Hardcore Remix – Kling Klang Edit) 5:35
5 Radioactivity (François Kervorkian 12″ Remix) 7:26
6 Expo 2000 (Kling Klang Mix 2000) 6:50
7 Expo 2000 (Kling Klang Mix 2002) 5:40
8 Expo 2000 (Kling Klang Mix 2001) 6:49
9 Expo 2000 (Orbital Mix) 4:57
10 Expo 2000 (Francois K And Rob Rives Mix) 7:21
11 Expo 2000 (DJ Rolando Mix) 7:29
12 Expo 2000 (Underground Resistance Mix) 3:58
13 Expo 2000 (UR Infiltrated Mix) 3:26
14 Expo 2000 (UR Thought 3 Mix) 2:43
15 Aéro Dynamik (Kling Klang Dynamix) 6:58
16 Aéro Dynamik (Alex Gopher / Etienne de Crecy Dynamik Mix) 7:42
17 Aéro Dynamik (Francois K Aero Mix) 7:52
18 Aéro Dynamik (Intelligent Design Mix By Hot Chip) 8:34
19 La Forme (King Of The Mountains Mix By Hot Chip) 11:31
Total Time: 2:06:26
later
-1
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negative1ne – I immediately saw these on Discogs and saw the discussion. Weird that they made a new edit of the Orbit Hardcore mix; an all time favorite Kraftwerk remix. I have the CD singles but any of these that might be different, I’m in for downloading. Especially since the “Robots” CD single I bought in 1990 had a pressing error on it. Mine plays “Robotronik [single edit] on it while the cover/label states track three should be “The Robots [single edit].”
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