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Detroit, MI, USA - State Theatre - 11.06.1998 
photo by Jeff Grote Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 09:30:12 -0400 (EDT) From: "John B. Morgan" <jbmorgan@umich.edu> Subject: (kw) Detroit show Well, it looks like I'm the first to report on the Detroit show! Much like we've heard from the other cities, the State Theater was completely packed (you had to fight to get from the front to the restrooms) and the audience was super-excited. Although scheduled at 7:30, the show didn't actually begin until 8:30 and people got really restless...at 7:45 or so the lights flickered for a moment and everyone started cheering! I didn't notice any flaws at all in the concert...everything: the music, screens, robots seemed to all work perfectly. The set list was identical to the other shows. And like everyone else has said, the idea of the "unemotional" Kraftwerk seems to be a myth. All of them cracked smiles frequently throughout the show, and during "Pocket Calculator" in particular they really let themselves go. I was also really pleased that, while some of the lyrics and screens were in English, they retained a lot of the German. The audience remained wild throughout, although peaceful. The vast majority of people did not leave or stop cheering until the last "Music non-stop" had faded into silence. There was a huge diversity of people: I saw raver kids, middle aged guys in ties, hippies, yuppies, children, couples, techno/Goth people in black (of which I was one), college kids...a really diverse group. I hope this tour is making KW aware of the fact that they can still attract a lot of interest. My verdict on the new songs, having finally heard them "live," is that they are cool but quite obviously unfinished (as Ralf confirmed in the NYT interview). However, I think they could make good backgrounds to some really great songs. As I was leaving I saw their white trucks, but after a couple of minutes of waiting I thought, "This is silly, I should just leave them alone" and left. I may have been dumb after all, however, as we ran into a woman at a coffee house in Windsor a couple of hours later (where they were playing early KW) who was bragging about how some of her friends got backstage passes and got their tickets signed. But who knows, she (or her friends) may have been just bullshitting. Well, I can't think of anything else of note. They didn't start smashing up the equipment or burning the flag or anything. :^) I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to see them. Every minute was fun. On the slim chance that they ever read this list: DANKE! BRAVO! It was wonderful. If anyone recorded the show and is willing to share/sell/trade, please e-mail me privately as I'd love to have a copy.
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 20:45:12 PDT Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 16:07:18 -0500 (EST) From: j <jwgrote@indiana.edu> Subject: (kw) a chicago / detroit report (part two) i went to the kraftwerk shows in chicago and detroit on june 10th and 11th. this is the second part of my obsessive report - - the detroit experience. fotos from this report are posted here: http://php.indiana.edu/~jwgrote/one.html the detroit show was about four hours away from the chicago show. i left chicago on the morning of june 11th and arrived in detroit around 3pm. as i drove off the autobahn and turned the corner, i saw the state theatre and a small group of people (all dressed in black) standing in front of it, staring at the marquee. i was simultaneously blasting 'compuerwelt' on the cd in my car, and as i got nearer the theatre, i rolled down my window to see what was going on. the sounds of 'it's more fun to compute' came spilling out pretty loudly, and the dressed-in-black group turned and looked at me - - it was ralf and florian (and some krew), looking at me while i played their music in my car! a golden moment, i couldn't stop laughing... i quickly parked and grabbed my camera bag. i walked rapidly to the marquee area and found a very surreal and surprising situation: they had all the robots out of their cases, arranging them in various photogenic poses while a fotograffer from deutschland took the pictures. two krew members helped with the arranging of the robots, while ralf and florian stood in the grass, watching and directing. ralf would periodically tell them (auf deutsch) to move the robots this way and that, the krew members would move them, and then ralf would ask florian what he thought. florian seemed a little disinterested, and always agreed with whatever ralf had said about the poses. i asked ralf why they were doing the foto shoot, and he said "it is for us, for our purposes". in the meantime, there were somewhere between 10 and 20 of us (mostly the same diehards from the chicago show) who could not believe our eyes. i started to snap a picture of ralf and florian from the front, and ralf, recognizing me from the day before, smiled, put his arm out, and said "no pictures please." i didn't take their picture, but instead got behind the photographer and started snapping shots of the robots, as you can see on the webpage. ralf continued to tell others "no pictures", and i soon surmised that he didn't want the robots fotograffed either, but he never specifically told me to stop doing it. i probably aggravated him, pissing him off twice with my camera in two days. i was a bad robot... anyway, whenever they weren't looking, i continued to take some candid shots of them. i have some serious misgivings about posting these shots on the web, as i really do respect them and their desire for privacy, but *goddamn* - - they were out in the street, they haven't done anything for their public in almost ten years, and i felt like i had to document an interesting moment from one of the most influential bands of the 20th century for historical purposes. it's not as if they commonly throw a bone to their starving audience... people want to know... people were asking them for autographs, and ralf and florian were obliging. this was a different florian than the one that i 'met' in chicago. he obviously decided that today he would meet people, and he was chatting with autograph seekers and a woman that he was very obviously interested in. this woman was dressed fairly provocatively (you can't tell so much from my pictures), and florian was next to her and talking to her the entire time (approximately 20 - 30 minutes). it was a little chilly and her clothing wasn't keeping her warm, so florian took off his jacket and let her wear it for a while. what a guy. as it turned out, this woman was a sycophant, trying to score a connection for her dreadlocked dj boyfriend, a guy who also has a small label in detroit. just as florian had her wearing his jacket, her boyfriend showed up carrying an armful of vinyl from his own label, handed florian the stack of records and his business card, but didn't seem to know who exactly florian was. it was an amusing transaction. i approached both ralf and florian during the foto shoot several times. i got florian's autograff on my 'computerwelt' cd, and first spoke to him in deutsch, telling him that i was sorry that i couldn't speak deutsch better, and that i had to speak to him in english. i then told him that his music had given me a lot of joy over the years and i thanked him for it. he pleasantly acknowledged my comments and signed my cd. i then got the 'heute abend' intro (seen on the website) signed by both ralf and florian. they both seemed to like it, and florian especially studied it for some time. he was checking my deutsch, and he said in a surprised tone to ralf, "the german is perfekt." i also told him that he didn't seem to be enjoying himself in chicago, and he shrugged and said "just another day". i decided to try to get some communication of substance from either ralf or florian. everything coming from them was some sort of mild pleasantry, and i wanted to hear their thoughts on something interesting. i had been carrying bussy's 'kraftwerk' book in my camera bag for the whole time, and i decided to see what they had to say about it. i have heard that the band did not approve of the book, with florian being quoted as saying to bussy, "your book- - it's shit." i pulled it out of my bag, and three other fans saw it and ducked and walked away quickly. ' i walked over to ralf and florian, held up the book, and said "what do you think of this book?" ralf folded his arms, frowned, slowly started shaking his head 'no', and then stared at the ground. florian got animated and talkative. the first thing that he said was: "It is trash". among the various other things that he said, the following are verbatim quotes: "it is not true" "you know, it was done without permission." "you should throw it away" (and he made a foot-stamping motion, as if putting out a cigarette butt.) one of the more interesting things that he said, though, was in regards to the books's source for much of the information. he said, "you know, much of the information comes from someone who was in the band and left." i nodded and said, 'wolfgang fluer...karl bartos...?', he shook his head no, and said, verbatim, "no, the other one - the artist..." i said 'emil schult?', and he said "yes, that's the one, the artist. he talked and now he is very sorry that he did it." as if florian couldn't remember emil schult's name!! he seemed to be acting petulant and wouldn't utter schult's name... finally, the foto session was over, and they started packing up the robots. they removed the heads, put them in little foam boxes, and then put the robots and the heads in the flightcases laying in the gravel. it was about to rain, and both florian and ralf walked back to the stage entrance and disappeared. the rest of us milled around and formed a line to go into the theatre - - there were still only about 20 of us there. as the group of us from chicago stood at the front of the line, we found out that one of us was dave datta, the creator of the kraftwerk mailing list on the net. (3 cheers for dave!) some people from detroit also told us that it was a big night for the detroit music scene, and that a lot of the dj's and artists from detroit would be there. i saw kevin saunderson (cybotron? inner city?) and a lot of other faces that i couldn't put names on, and it was supposedly richie hawtin's (plastikman, +8 records founder) birthday. there was going to be a big detroit-style kraftwerk afterparty, but no one knew where yet. the state theatre is nicer and bigger than the riviera in chicago, and the security people were much friendlier. we got a very thorough body search in detroit, and one of our group got his tape recorder taken away. i sat about 50 feet from the stage, on a little riser, and the sound and visuals were much better than the night before in the front row. the audience was also much more into it than in chicago. as might have been expected, there were more blacks and women in this crowd, and there were a lot of 30-somethings. 'tour de france' and 'numbers/computerworld/it's more fun/home computer' got the biggest response, which isn't surprising due to the early 80's break-dancing popularity in detroit. all throughout the show, the deutsch fotograffer was taking pictures on a tripod from the area around the mixing board. he shot at least five rolls of film, dancing to the music between shots and while changing lenses. the band seemed more jovial, and the looks that they shared with each other appeared happier and more frequent. there were no major musical gaffes that i could hear. the crowd definitely didn't want to leave after the show, staying beyond the 'non stop' repetitions and calling for an encore for quite a while. i met with the krew member (KM) that i had spoken to in chicago, and he asked security to leave me alone while they were making everyone leave. i asked him some more questions: Q. what music has the band and krew been listening to? A. first of all, the band and the krew do not travel together. the band travels at a more leisurely pace, while we have to be here at 8 am to set this shit up. however, i have heard everything from steely dan to the prodigy in the dressing rooms. Q. why do you think that we have heard so little from kraftwerk in 12 years? A. well, think about it. when they started out, there was nothing else like what they were doing. they were a singular electronic group. now there are thousands and thousands of people doing thousands of electronic music songs. it is difficult for them to make their own sound come through in the middle of this storm, but they have succeeded. you have heard it, their sound is there, just as you heard it tonight. Q. the new song at the end is called 'tribal', right? A. yes. they named it after this thing called 'tribal gathering' in england. Q. how is the tour going? is the band enjoying the tour? A. oh, the band is ecstatic about the tour. they are very happy about it, and it's going very well. you saw it tonight. did you feel this energy here tonight? Q. yes, what did you think of tonight's show (in detroit)? how does it compare to the other shows on the tour? A. tonight was the best show of the tour. no question about it. Q. who is the fotograffer? why is he taking the pictures? A. he is a friend of the band. he is taking pictures that maybe the band will use for publicity pictures. by the way, you are right about the tour in 1999 that you asked about yesterday. they will be coming back with a bigger tour in 1999. Q. who is the sound man that kraftwerk has entrusted the mixing desk to? (the spindly, unhealthy-looking genius deutschmann) A. he used to be their robot teknician. the other man that was doing their sound had to leave, and now he's doing it. Q. i'm concerned that the audience at the tibetan freedom show is not going to understand what they're seeing. a daylight american rock festival crowd is not typically amenable to robotronik. what do you think? A. yes, i'm afraid of that, too. kraftwerk creates its own environment that you see here - it's an entire room constructed for their show. in washington they will have to play in the daylight, without lights, video, or robots. we have from 3:05 to 3:35 to play, and there won't be time to set up everything. we talked some more about KM's personal life (background, how he got the job, etc), and then said goodbye. a very nice guy, helping the little folks who want to know more... then i got in my car and drove home. i hope that they come to your area on the next tour. cheers - jeff grote, indiana 
photo by Jennifer Jeffery
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 19:46:42 -0400 Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 03:27:55 +0600 From: Henry Krinkle <epepper@vt.edu> Subject: (kw) Detroit show additions Hi, I just wanted to add my praise of the Detroit show to the list, along with a couple of points. I avoided the reviews from the other shows, so I wasn't sure if they brought the robots with them on this tour. Well, when they were showing videos of the robots during "the robots" I thought they didn't. When they were unveiled after what I thought was the end of the song... I was sooo happy! I was struck with the political natures of Radioactivity and Autobahn. And, Pocket Calculator was a very happy time on stage! No one mentioned (that I caught in my readings) that Florian played air guitar with the calculator! He took the chord and held it up like it was the neck of a guitar and did his best cock-rock impression!! I was cracking up!! :) Anyway, is the guy with the bright yellow(green?orange??) radioactivity shirt who was in the front row on this list? Boy, you really stood out from on the boxes on the balcony. I can't wait until 1999 for that tour!! The ecstacy from the kw show certainly dulled the pain of finding out that the phoenix festival is cancelled, thus bringing my chances of seeing new order to nearly nil. Anyway, that's all. Emmett
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 11:56:33 -0400 Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 20:51:38 -0400 From: John Talbert <jtalbert@ameritech.net> Subject: (kw) Concert Review, Mellotron SF2, + other stuff Hello! First a super quick concert review. Chicago, very good! Detroit, FANTASTIC!!!! The enthusiastic crown in Detroit certainly added to the experience. I also had the chance to meet some very wonderful people and list members. The details of the concert have already been posted so I won't rehash. But I can say that the true way to fully experience a KW concert is from a center spot in the balcony. From this vantage point, you get to take in the FULL multimedia experience. The stereo mix was so perfect and the lighting effects, videos, colors and stage presence were all much better appreciated as a whole. I was on the main floor at Chicago, so I can make a clear comparison. I also got the chance to "spy" on Kling-Klang with a set of powerful binoculars! So let me put the rumors to rest - Kraftwerk do plenty during their shows!!! Fritz was super involved. The man's hands never stopped moving. And thanks to the binoculars, I got a very close up look at everyones setup (except Florian due to the shape of his console) Certainly a great show. And to quote a friend who just learned about Kraftwerk last year and were seeing them for the first time: "Gosh. They certainly were awesome!"
Subject: kw in detroit... Subject: Detroit Review Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 17:34:25 -0700 (PDT) From: rhodri kasperbauer <kasperbauer@yahoo.com> I travelled overnight by bus from Chicago to Detroit. Leaving behind a rather grand bus terminal for a tiny one - complete with motorized barbedwire security fence (very mad max). I crossed the downtown centre, massive theatres and department stores all closed and derelict, they had the appeaence of (neutron)radioactivity. On the outer limits of this zone was the State Theatre- which appeared very large - I arrived at 8am, just as the equipment truck arrived. Went downtown once more, found that for Detroit this was Stanley Cup playoffs... many people dressed in red and white. Just as Chicago had been caught up in basketball playoff mania, so was Detroit. Found one music store - manager told me there had been no publicity for Krafwerk, that he had thought of making hiw own signs. He checked on the computer, there were still unsold tickets. He assured me that Detroit would not be 'cool' to Chicago, that there would be a much more mixed audience. While I talked to him, a girl came in and said "I can't believe that Krafwerk are playing tonight". She wanted tickets, but would have to pay cash on the day apparently. Back in Detroit, I'd also found few Kraftwerk items for sale - the lowest most crass item - a CD with the name Kraft...with remainder of name (welt) stickered out by price. I also got to witness the amazing scene, with Ralf and Florian outside the Theatre. I find it interesting to read the recollections, because upon at least one occassion my recollection of what was said to/by Florian is different, ok Jeff! Anyway, great photos. I spoke to Ralf, I said that the Chicago concert was the best of the 3 I'd seen. He was interested to find that someone from England was at the show, and he also added, "Today it will be better". He asked my about downtown detroit and we talked about architecture. I found it fascinating just witnessing the presence of Ralf and Florian, I spoke to Florian asking him if he still playee the flute. He replied, "Too limited". We then got to talking about the limits of equipment being what is creative, but of the flute he repeated, "Too limited". I had on my Man Machine t-shirt from the 1981 tour, which I got Florian to sign (a epiosde during which he added some of his Florian humour) and then Ralf. I also got to get a really good look at the dummies...as in several inches away...the detail close-up is really errie, as are the eyes. For one phot sequence, a local black kid was asked to walk along. The photographer (from Cologne) told me he had know the band "a long time", that the photos were "commissioned by the band for publicity"; he was a bit more vague as to who was paying him. He also added that he would also be at the New York concert and Spain, "Because it will be sunny". Once more I was in the front row, but this time the main PA speakers were behind us. We got the stage mix. I was surpirsed to hear the initial 'random' synth sounds that prceed the vocoder intro... not only was this different from Detroit, but there was a second sound source present which was akin to Pocket Calculator sounds. Audience was more manic and frantic, hand-waving in air, singing along,etc. Many of the front crowd seemed to be from Toronto. The band's photographer gave his pass to the girl next to me, to give her an entree to Florian, and he joked (?) that she would have to kiss him on the head. At this concert it struck me that the tron suits were diving/wet suits (ie- stiching on top of feet, zip down middle). The t-shirts were from a different manufacturer and country for this concert. My only disappointment was that the end of the concert was teh same as Detroit, same as ZKM... what was intreesting was to see that the band came back on stage after the final curtain closed (was this to start the final sequence). Of the final solos, those who haven't seen the show are always surprised to see Florian go. He really does run off the stage, fast. On this night he could be seen siting on a flight case, off-stage, swinging his legs to the music of the 3 remaining band members. Off into the night once more, next concert New York.
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