and boring the pants offa me - I'm 'disking' it for some Belgian chums

I never was much of a Kraftwerk fan anyway so it's obviously not for me

they've moved their performance on with the technology available to them? I'm certainly no techie, but what would be the logic behind toiling with 'obsolete' machinery when all this is available to them? They have been there, done that; their performances have evolved exponentially in styles commensurate with their conceit of the Man-Machine.

to listen to than to watch, I'd say.
And did I see people dancing in the audience??

they've moved their performance on with the technology available to them

why do so many seek to recreate the sound of the old analogue synths that they buy them up for extortionate prices?

us "behind the curtain" , I'd be more than happy for them to have 3 big buttons to press and little LED to say which track they were on.
The programme before showed part of problem where a member of NEU or CAN (or who ever) explained he couldn't make the same noises two days running from his ancient synthesiser.
The thing that makes this different from a lip synching X-factor gimp is Kraftwerk are open about the artifice and in fact embrace it. Where as everyone from Cheryl Cole to Seasick Steve like to pretend it's "real" when there performances (key word there) are loaded with artifices Kraftwerk have never claimed to be that sort of performers.
I think Kraftwerk are last band to see for spontaneity it's antithetical to their whole ethos.

It is mainly a practical issue, far easier/cheaper to tour with the software version than ship the entire Kling Klang studio around, although I agree its not quite so visually interesting and I do miss the syn-drums played with knitting needles!.

There is more 'live' interaction with the music than you'd think.
One of Kraftwerk actually controls the visuals live from the stage. The other three are engaged in remixing the tracks and adding effects on the go, and Ralf Hutter does play some of the keyboard parts live and sings live. They do improvise and jam on certain bits, probably more than some 'real' bands.

Throbbing Gristle's recent live performances (as I've managed to shoe-horn in to a few different threads in recent weeks!) are master-classes in how to play almost purely electronic music in a spontaneous, engaging, fascinating, evolving & clearly unrepeatable fashion.

If you're interested in any of TG's recent American shows,There are ROIO's on "thee Brad Miller" blog.

One of the finest live musical experiences I ever had was to see them when they toured Phaedra. The audience was not large enough to completely fill the auditorium (Plymouth Guildhall), which had been thoughtfully carpeted with rush matting for the occasion, so you could pick your spot from which to listen. The speaker stacks were in all four corners of the room, which has reasonably fine acoustics as council concert spaces go. We settled down close to the centre of the room, glad to have the fashionable evening attire of the day (enormous greatcoats) with which to make a little perch to sit upon. After a short while, the lights went down. In the dim light we saw someone who looked as if they might be a member of the roadcrew tinkering with one of the massed banks of keyboards and whatnot that sat on the stage. Various LEDs blinked. Another person became visible on stage, almost feeling their way through the gloom towards the equipment. There may have been more of them, it was hard to say. A low hum was heard from the back of the hall. And then the music started. I can't remember how long they played, and I'm not sure exactly what each piece was called, as it wasn't until a few months later that I bought my own copy of the album. What I do remember is being utterly transfixed by the power and creativity of their material. I still have the vinyl, and I still play the albums today. Wonderful stuff.

Kraftwerk album. Bit of a virgin on their stuff.

whilst I prefer Computer World - especially the beautiful 'Computer Love'. 'Neon Lights' from Man Machine is another favourite.

are on spotify so you audition them there or just well you know listen to them for free.

Pioneers of modern electronic music.

Massive influence on dance, hip hop, house, techno and electronica.

Great classical composers of our times.

Yip, I quite like them.

I'd recommend the Minimum-Maximum live album as a good starting point. You can't go wrong with Computer World or The Man Machine either.

Course if Kraftwerk isn't your bag you could always try their rival band: Neu Labour:

surely don't go together. But that.s just as it should be''[[[[=======

By the images on screen and how it worked in with the music. When I saw them, I think I witnessed something amazing. It was no Rossi and Parfitt mid-riff chat, but there was a brief few moments where, I believe, a "joke" was being shared between them. Certainly a few smirks going on up there on that stage, I can tell you.

...but really looking forward to receiving my remastered box set when it's released.

a fluey fug, and found it hypnotically brilliant.

Question: do they always sing in German live, or does it depend on the venue? Just wondered.

...since the early-80s, all over the UK and in Ireland, Norway, France, Holland, Germany, Poland and the US. The last time I saw them play with the whole studio set-up was at Tribal Gathering in 1997 and that was incredibly special. Since then, it's been laptops and widescreen and much of the fun lies in determining the minute changes in performance from show-to-show. The Manchester Velodrome gig in Summer had an extra dimension in the cyclists whizzing around during Tour De France, about which Ralf got pretty animated.

I'm not expecting any more shows from them for a while, but will be there when they play again. Somewhere.

As is mentioned above, they do play live and jam regularly - if you compare the two versions of "Minimum-Maximum" (the German and the international edition have different versions of the songs, recorded at different concerts) you can easily hear it. And it's also quite obvious in the close-up shots on the DVD where you see them operating their machinery. In a recent interview Hütter states that the new digital technology enabled them to improvise AND to have the studio sound they wanted.

Oh, and I saw Kraftwerk live in 71/72 when they played at our school (the line-up with Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother).

Having seen them a number of times, it's worth mentioning that when the Kraftwerk robots appear for "The Robots", it invariably gets the biggest cheer of the night.

Consciously or otherwise, the audience automatically seems to "get" the satire of cheering along to a bunch of (showroom?) dummies dancing along to pre-programmed music (and is a Kraftwerk show really any less "live" than (say) Britney Spears'? Discuss.)

And no, it didn't really come across on TV the way it does when you're there, especially the fact that it's frickin' LOUD, but clear as a bell, possibly the best sound I've ever heard at a gig...

.

after all your enlightened comments:

it still doesn't work for me, I had to FFWD and the grafiks are dull, their chosen colour scheme is a bit questionable too

and have watched most of it, enjoying it immensely, though I did think The Man-Machine was a touch protracted. I think the point has been made elsewhere, but I think one of the principal pints of Kraftwerk now is to be 'disconnected' from the playing in some way. Much of their work has played with the mechanistic and the dehumanising elements of technology. I kind of wish I'd been able to go and see ghem at the Velodrome if that show were any indication.

By contrast, I saw Jean Michel Jarre play Wembley Arena earlier this year. This too was a fabulous gig for very different reasons. After JMJ's period working with musicque concrète in the late 60's a and early 1970's (look for 'jarre la cage' or 'jarre erosmachine' on youtube to see, he went downa very much more classically influenced route. Loking at stuff like 1972's Deserted Palace, there was more than a touch of the baroque and a suggestion of Walter/Wendy Carlos. The release of Autobahn fell between Deserted Palace and Oxygène, for comparison. By the time of Oxygène the point was that he wanted the music to sound warm and organic and that the use of the elctronic was just another way to do it. The recent Wembley gigs had a few musicians on stage, and the vibe of just playing the music live without too much of his previous love of making an event a multimedia experience.

In some senses this idea of electronic music as only one part of a multimedia experience is the major thing that links both Jarre and Kraftwerk. It seems in many ways that both have, in later years particularly, reverted to national stereotype: Jarre sounding expressively French, while Hütter and chums sound resolutely Teutonic.

I love them both, though.

they sound only a hair away from Hawkwind! Kraftwerk, the grandfathers of space rock.

I saw them live on the min-Max tour and thoroghly enjoyed it. Amazing sound quality. They were actually scary at times.

Hey, it's electronic musique- whaddya want?! Maybe Ralf will set his laptop on fire?!