I was lucky enough to see Kraftwerk perform on Friday night, and it got me in the mood to check out whether they had any other live recordings. They don't seem to have a ton (perhaps few by way of official release), but 2005's Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum seemed to be one of the more well-known. Honestly, watching a recording of Kraftwerk is very similar to being at the concert, given how visual and cinematic the presentation is. It just sounded a lot less impressive at home, watching it on my laptop - nothing could really do justice to hearing all these ahead-of-their-time songs through a proper sound set-up.
The setlists were also pretty similar - 2005 versus 2023 - but I didn't mind that. They only have a fairly limited studio album discography, and there are hits that you want to hear (and will likely hear just about all you want, plus a few deep cuts here and there). The four members of the band stand motionless behind their own separate desks, and really, the music plus all the animation in the background and lighting effects over the stage do all the heavy lifting. I don't know - it just works very well. It was great live, and seeing this concert film, it did replicate the same enjoyable experience again.
I feel like this concert film is a good alternative - perhaps better than most - to those who like Kraftwerk but won't get the chance to see them perform. They're a band (or performance act? I'm not sure how to categorize them now) that I've always liked a lot, but have had a huge amount of respect for them added to that admiration over the last couple of days. Kraftwerk's pretty awesome, really. They were entirely unique back in the 1970s/80s, and they still feel distinct and hard to copy completely to this day (influence-wise, though? You can definitely see which artists have taken inspiration from them).
The setlists were also pretty similar - 2005 versus 2023 - but I didn't mind that. They only have a fairly limited studio album discography, and there are hits that you want to hear (and will likely hear just about all you want, plus a few deep cuts here and there). The four members of the band stand motionless behind their own separate desks, and really, the music plus all the animation in the background and lighting effects over the stage do all the heavy lifting. I don't know - it just works very well. It was great live, and seeing this concert film, it did replicate the same enjoyable experience again.
I feel like this concert film is a good alternative - perhaps better than most - to those who like Kraftwerk but won't get the chance to see them perform. They're a band (or performance act? I'm not sure how to categorize them now) that I've always liked a lot, but have had a huge amount of respect for them added to that admiration over the last couple of days. Kraftwerk's pretty awesome, really. They were entirely unique back in the 1970s/80s, and they still feel distinct and hard to copy completely to this day (influence-wise, though? You can definitely see which artists have taken inspiration from them).
