Review: Kraftwerk creates visions of a very '80s future at the Auditorium Theatre

Chicago Tribune

30-03-2025

The sound of the present and multiple futures resonated as a spectacular series of pulse waves transmitted by Kraftwerk Saturday at a near-capacity Auditorium Theatre. Though a majority of the songs they played were created more than four decades ago, the electronic maestros' precision-mannered performance, thematic statements and winking humor ensured none of the material lost any of its cutting edge.
Being Kraftwerk, the two-hour concert featured abundant visuals and illumination that ensured each tune was accompanied by its own custom, unique treatment. The German band also benefited from the venue's excellent acoustics. Clear and dynamic, the main frequency ranges blossomed with a fidelity not possible at the group's two most recent local gigs at the Riviera Theatre (2014) and Aragon (2022).
Those stops came with a free pair of 3-D glasses and the illusory effects they produce. But Kraftwerk required nothing of the sort to prompt heads to bob, stimulate deep thought or convey clever messages. Everything it needed was arranged onstage in a sleek configuration that looked familiar to fans.
Resembling architect drafting tables, four workstations stood evenly spaced apart and atop a raised platform. A large projection screen served as a constantly shifting canvas. One headset microphone for co-founder Ralf Hütter, the group's last active original member, covered the vocal feed. Members wore matching black apparel scored with grid lines that changed color in coordination with the lighting accompanying a particular song. Red, yellow, baby blue, fluorescent green, magenta, gray: The quartet's look mirrored the aural character of the music's tones.
Touring to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its 'Autobahn' album, Kraftwerk persists as an intriguing merger of band, concept, art installation and enigma. The ensemble last issued new studio music in 2003. As if making up for lost time — Kraftwerk avoided the road for long stretches of the '70s and nearly all the '80s — it sticks to live shows, playing places that range from music halls to museums and European festivals.
Notwithstanding its overdue induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, Kraftwerk remains unknown to a wide swath of the mainstream. This despite the fact that, after finding its footing on three early records, Kraftwerk pioneered electronic music on five groundbreaking LPs released from 1974 to 1981 that supplied the blueprint for many of today's popular styles.
The albums proved an outsized influence on house, hip hop, techno, drum 'n' bass and synth-pop. None of those genres existed when the collective first set up shop in its cryptic Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf. Permitting no visitors, Kraftwerk experimented with bespoke analog equipment to devise songs that also used everyday objects.
Those devices are now digital, and still Hütter — who stood at stage right for the duration — and company embedded Kraftwerk's self-described 'robot pop' with a peculiar warmth and organic textures that announced actual humans were responsible for the output. However methodical, strict or manufactured the rhythms, the group balanced the mechanization with irresistible melodies and danceable grooves.
Crossing the spookiness of a theremin with falsetto keyboards and vocoder vocals, 'Airwaves' segued into the exotic lounge of 'Tango,' whose spiked bass notes caused the floor to vibrate. Expansive, and akin to the equivalent of an echo chamber in which repeat patterns linger in perpetuity, 'Electric Café' toyed with depth perception and prompted Hütter to follow along by tapping his right foot. The concert's closing medley — comprised of the first three tracks from the 'Techno Pop' album — seized on a percolating succession of bleeps and bloops, as well as Hütter's ping-ponging onomatopoeias and repeat declarations of 'music, non-stop.'
Indeed, Kraftwerk's hypnotic excursions occasionally hinted they could go on for days. Yet the group's laser-focused control and fixed positions prohibited excess in the same way its austere arrangements, filtered vocals and minimalist lyrics adhered to form-follows-function techniques.
Kraftwerk's unembellished techniques escalated the significance of works that feel more apropos now than ever. An opening tandem of 'Numbers' and 'Computer World' spoke to technology's infiltration of practically every sector of modern life. The soft symphonics of 'Computer Love' addressed the desire for companionship via a 'data date,' a circumstance that plays out constantly on dating apps and adult websites.
Rather than depict cryptocurrency, electronic surveillance, data privacy or endless swiping, Kraftwerk primarily showed graphics and apparatus tied to the early '80s, the era when these songs debuted. While ostensibly charming and funny, the throwback images appeared to operate with the prophetic lyrics to establish a striking dichotomy: That of a period when technological advancement was largely associated with hope and promise, when humans managed the machines and steered their own fate.
That era's visions of a romantic, alternative future frequently emerged. In contrast to space trips for the super-wealthy, Kraftwerk's come-one-and-all 'Spacelab' put everyone inside a craft complete with reel-to-reel decks, oscillators and a bay window — all sketched by hand. After cruising around the Earth, it naturally touched down in front of the Auditorium. Carefree innocence also fueled 'The Model,' 'Neon Lights' and 'Autobahn,' the latter punctuated with retro-styled portrayals of a vintage Volkswagen Beetle (and its analog radio) rolling through a sun-drenched German countryside. The band's lulling, relaxing instrumentation provided the soundtrack.
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For a 'Trans-Europe Express' sequence, Kraftwerk replicated the motorized chug, low-pitch horn, high-speed whoosh, metallic wheels-on-tracks clatter and departure announcements connected with train travel. On a joyous, upbeat sprint through 'Tour de France' selections, it turned to manual transport. Complemented by black-and-white footage of old races, the group conjured the labored breathing, accelerated blood flow and competitive exertion of cycling up hills, through valleys and across finish lines.
For all its idealism and command of several languages, Kraftwerk recognized Atomic Age inventions had their own negatives. The band saved its harshest, most intense effort for 'Radioactivity,' an apocalyptic commentary on the risks of nuclear energy.
Flashing strobes, toxic symbols and haunting moodiness aside, Kraftwerk barely flinched. Though Hütter broke with tradition more often than he did in the past, the members' rigid postures and all-business demeanors suited the seriousness with which they approached an event that suggested the future depended on it.
As to which future, Kraftwerk isn't saying.
Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.
Setlist from the Auditorium Theatre on March 29:
'Numbers' into 'Computer World' into 'Computer World 2'
'Home Computer' into 'It's More Fun to Compute'
'Spacelab'
'Airwaves'
'Tango'
'The Man-Machine'
'Electric Café'
'Autobahn'
'Computer Love'
'The Model'
'Neon Lights'
'Geiger Counter' into 'Radioactivity'
'Tour de France' into 'Tour de France Étape 3' into 'Chrono' into 'Tour de France Étape 2'
'La Forme'
'Trans-Europe Express' into 'Metal on Metal' into 'Abzug'
'The Robots'
'Planet of Visions'