K R A F T W E R K
KRAFTWERK 3-D CONCERT TOUR
RETURNS TO THE UNITED STATES
THIS SEPTEMBER
Photo Credit: Peter Boettcher / Kraftwerk
Following another successful round of North American dates last fall, German electro pioneers KRAFTWERK will bring their multimedia 3-D CONCERTS back to the United States this September. The special nine-city run commences September 3 in the Washington, DC/Baltimore area and will stop in Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix and San Diego before wrapping September 18 in Los Angeles at the famed Hollywood Bowl. See below for full routing. Tickets go on sale to the public this Friday, April 29 at 10am local time for all shows except the Los Angeles date, which goes on sale Sunday, May 1 at 10am.
Bringing together music and performance art, KRAFTWERK 3-D CONCERTS are true “Gesamtkunstwerk – a total work of art.” Last year’s 12-city, 14-show North American fall tour received rave reviews-and some striking cover features (see images below)–across the board on its mostly sold-out run. Here’s what the critics had to say:
- “Sure, I’ve seen IMAX and 3D movies, but my jaw dropped because it felt like, in some odd way, I was part of the show…The 3D visuals were really the star of the show…the visuals were a combination of awe-inspiring, amusing, humorous, and retro-futuristic…the robots from Düsseldorf remain relevant as ever. Their song catalog still manages to sound contemporary and they continue to push technological boundaries with their live shows – I cannot think of a better concert experience out there right now. The idea of 3D sounds gimmicky, but the way it’s used during the show added depth and visual interest without taking away from the music.” -Jose Duran, MIAMI NEW TIMES, 9/30/15
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“Not so much a concert as the best art show to ever come through the Jubilee Auditorium, Kraftwerk’s two-hour concert was political, beautiful and ultimately philosophical….Overall, an incredible spectacle.” -Fish Griwkowsky, EDMONTON JOURNAL, 9/17/15
- “Kraftwerk once again blurred the lines between Man and Machine in the band’s 3-D show…the synergy of mechanical music and low-res 3-D visuals was fascinating. By evening’s end it felt like being trapped in an ’80s video game like Tron.” -Alan Cox, DENVER POST, 9/24/15
- “Using the modern methods of 3D video seen to great effect in recent movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Kraftwerk turned what were already interesting visuals perfectly suited to each song into something almost interactive and unlike anything any other popular band is doing…The use of negative space as a visual effect gave the whole array of visuals a fascinating dynamic dimension…The show visually and musically stood a head above almost any other live show going.” -Tom Murphy, WESTWORD (Denver, CO), 9/24/15
- “There is something visually striking about seeing the men of Kraftwerk set equidistant apart in a straight line, and all standing behind platforms fitted out with neon lights that pulsated and changed color to fit the mood of each tune.” -Robert Ham, PORTLAND MERCURY, 9/22/15
- “Kraftwerk proved that they’re still not done innovating. In one of the most singularly unique shows this writer has ever attended, Kraftwerk’s 3D concert thrust fans inside of a visual spectacle that has to be experienced to be believed…Kraftwerk delivered an utterly mesmerizing set that utilized state-of-the-art technology in completely novel, innovative ways.” -Mark Schiff, EXAMINER.COM, 9/24/15
- “The visuals were a perfect match for the retro-future where Kraftwerk’s music lives. Never mind that it was like being in a techno dance club where everybody just sat down for two hours, the trance/mass hypnosis qualities of it all took over immediately, like a ride at Kraftwerk Disneyland.” -Wes Eichenwald, AUSTIN-AMERICAN STATESMAN, 9/27/15
- “Most impressive was how the dinky, beep-beep-swish-zonk! sonics of Kraftwerk’s pioneering electro-pop has been beefed up by being transferred to digital sources and laptop control. This was thick and loud, and lush where it needed to be. Most fascinating was simply witnessing the group at work up close.” -Tim Stegall, AUSTIN CHRONICLE, 9/28/15
- “The animated sequences were carefully integrated into the concert, and their judicious use of minimalist imagery and state-of-the-art 3-D technology had the crowd batting away strings of text and ducking Spacelab as it sailed by. We knew our eyes were playing tricks on us, but we couldn’t resist the urge to try and put a hand between layers of dancing waveforms…Though the whole set was built on constant forward motion, it had a sense of organic groove that you only get from performers interacting in real time.” -Stephen Trageser, NASHVILLE SCENE, 9/28/15
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“The 3-D experience, where numbers flew directly into audience members’ personal space and a spaceship landed (quite convincingly) right out the Wang [Theatre], also allowed people to fully luxuriate in Kraftwerk’s music, which with its clipped vocals and intricately arranged towers of electronics felt modern even today…Kraftwerk’s impressive presentation of its back catalog immersed even the most experienced listeners more fully in its often-gorgeous, often-unnerving music.” -Maura Johnson, BOSTON GLOBE, 10/5/15
- “Glancing about the opulent theatre at a capacity crowd, all smiling behind their cardboard-framed white glasses, gave one the impression of traveling back in time to the move-houses of the 1950’s. The dichotomy of this spectacle with the beats and synths driving the music in a decidedly futuristic fashion provided a wonderful juxtaposition…To their tasteful credit, Kraftwerk never allowed the riveting 3-D production to distract from the presentation of their remarkably impressive catalog.” -Tom Kielty, DIG BOSTON, 10/5/15
- “While the sleek music was often transfixing, the staging starred, as the four technicians went about their business and the B-movie spaceship looked as if it were going to float off screen. The high point came in the first encore of ‘The Robots,’ in which the entities at their podiums literally were robots, mechanized dummies more animated than the presumably human counterparts who had been making the ingenious machine-driven music all night.” -Dan DeLuca, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 10/5/15
- “[A] thrilling two-hour, 20-minute show, in which the foursome played in front of a video wall of eye-popping retro-futuristic images, rendered in glorious 3D…They played crisp, tight electronic jams that blurred the lines between man and machine, humanity and technology.” -Adam Graham, DETROIT NEWS, 10/6/15
- “There’s eye candy. And then there’s visual caviar. Guess which one Kraftwerk served up on Monday night, Oct. 5, at the Masonic Temple [in Detroit]?…a jaw-dropping two-hour and 20-minute feast of 3D images that redefined what a concert could look like…Kraftwerk’s music, meanwhile, was sturdy enough to hold its own as more than merely a soundtrack for the arresting visuals – ‘perfection mekanik’ in the group’s terms.” -Gary Graff, THE OAKLAND PRESS (Oakland, MI) 10/6/15
- “It was like an Atari-era video game nerd version of a Pink Floyd laser-light show.” -Chris Riemenschneider, STAR TRIBUNE (Minneapolis, MN), 10/7/15
- “A lavish journey through Kraftwerk’s music catalog, all of it performed before a wall of video images rendered in 3-D…the star of the show was the music, some of it now more than 40 years old…This show was a retrospective, and the quaint visuals reinforced that feel, but most of the music felt as contemporary and innovative as ever.” -Tim Finn, KANSAS CITY STAR, 10/10/15
- “From an artistic standpoint, the show was hugely successful – Kraftwerk, 45 years into its life as a band, is still creating something unique and entirely pleasurable…A once-in-a-lifetime experience with a band that arguably invented electronic music.” -April Fleming, THE PITCH (Kansas City, MO), 10/10/15
Dates for Kraftwerk’s 2016 3-D Concert tour are as follows:
| DATE | CITY | VENUE | |
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Sat
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9/3 | North Bethesda, MD | The Music Center at Strathmore |
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Tue
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9/6 | Atlanta, GA | Cobb Energy Peforming Arts Centre |
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Wed
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9/7 | Memphis, TN | Minglewood Hall |
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Fri
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9/9 | New Orleans, LA | The Orpheum |
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Sat
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9/10 | Dallas, TX | Bomb Factory |
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Mon
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9/12 | San Antonio, TX | Tobin Center |
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Thu
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9/15 | Phoenix, AZ | Orpheum Theater |
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Fri
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9/16 | San Diego, CA | Balboa Theatre |
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Sun
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9/18 | Los Angeles, CA | Hollywood Bowl |
About KRAFTWERK:
The Kraftwerk project was started in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf, Germany, where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums. By the mid 1970’s, Kraftwerk had achieved international recognition for their revolutionary electronic ‘sound scapes’ and their musical experimentation with robots and computers. With their visions of the future, Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century. Their compositions, using innovative techniques, synthetic voices and computerised rhythms, were a major international influence across an entire range of music genres: from Electro to Hip Hop, from Techno to SynthPop. In their live performances, Kraftwerk—Ralf Hütter, Henning Schmitz, Fritz Hilpert, Falk Grieffenhagen–illustrate their belief in the cooperation of both men and machine.
With the retrospective of THE CATALOGUE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012, Kraftwerk have returned full circle to their origins within the Düsseldorf art scene of the late Sixties. The 3-D concert series at MoMA was followed by further presentations at Tate Modern Turbine Hall (London), Akasaka Blitz (Tokyo) Opera House (Sydney), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Louis Vuitton Fondation (Paris) and Neue National Galerie (Berlin). At the Los Angeles ceremony in 2014 Ralf Hütter was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
