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Los Angeles, CA, USA - The Palladium - 08.06.1998 
photo by Frank Cordero Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 02:35:09 -0700 From: "FRANK X. CORDERO" <fxcordero@roadrunner.com> Subject: (kw) KW Palladium Concert Greetings Fellow Kraftwerkians...just got in from LA....two hour delay in Phoenix...2:30 AM in the morn' in Santa Fe. The Palladium Concert was incredible! I will write more...but I'm sleepy and need to be at work at 8:00 AM. I got busted by security taking a picture before the concert...and only snapped one pic of the stage and roadies unloading the Robot cases and screens. Will post the one photograph and marquee photos on my web page soon. You should have heard the crowd....clapping...screaming...ooohhing and ahhhing. Numbers was grabbing your gut with the bass.......Radioactivity was religious....and The Robots brought the house down....... Musique Non Stop....More later. New York, prepare yourselves!! You're in for a treat! DJ Frank X http://members.tripod.com/~DJFRANKX/index.html Date:
Thu, 11 Jun 1998 13:34:11 +0100 Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 10:18:20 -0700 From: "robot" <robot@humboldt1.com> Subject: (kw) The Agony & The Ecstacy Note- I began typing this when I first got home at 5am. Then I stashed it in "drafts" and started reading the posts. I KNOW this is TOO LONG, but, I really must express this. Everyone's saying how great the Palladium was- where WERE you people?? In the BACK?? I couldn't SEE or HEAR a damn THING!! The Performance was FINE, from what others tell me- but, I was in no posistion to get full enjoyment from it. The place REEKS. Especially security. First of all: No, I did NOT hug FLORIAN!! -(except in my dreams)- Where are you people getting these rumors? Will you knock it off already? It KILLS me that it's NOT TRUE!! All I did was shake his hand and talk to him briefly. I didn't drool on him or anything. Jeeeez. I'm sorry if this upsets anybody, but, I'm telling it like it is. Seeing/meeting KW was great, but, you have NO clue what hell I went through on this trip. Will somebody PLEASE shoot me *NOW* and put me OUT of my misery?!! If you don't want to hear it, just delete this message and move on. If anybody's curious: Okay, I just got home- "safe" but not in one piece. Warfield was EXcellent, but, the Palladium SUCKED! -(I don't mean the performance.)- Some people say the accoustics were better in back, and supposedly the sequences and things ran more smoothly than at Warfield. I wouldn't know. I couldn't see anything but Florian. Okay, I could live with that. Actually, if I really twisted my neck, I could see a glimpse of the others one at a time. The MusiK needed to be louder- atleast from my vantage point. I was in roughly the same position as in Warfield, but, not against the rail, and a tiny bit closer to center. In any case, I am NEVER going to ANY show there ever again. There were too many bad things spoiling it. Nazi security -(bitch made me go "hide {my} pins in the bushes". I think not. Another guy said I could keep my pins, thank you, but, by the time I got inside, I lost my place against the rail.}, it was an unruly crowd, and people were getting hurt/crushed up front, especially during Pocket Calculator. The absolute WORST part -(for me)- was when Florian gave his backstage pass to this young skinny retro-40's style tatooed short wedge-cut red-haired chick right in front of me at the end of Pocket Calculator. -(She was up against the rail, I was wedged in right behind her, and my arm wasn't long enough to out-reach her grasp. I was talking to her and other nearby bodies before the gig- I can't remember her name. 'Nothing against her personally, but, I wanna KILL her. 'Just an expression. I do NOT mean to insult her. I'm sure she's a perfectly good person and all. I'm just DYING of ENVY/JEALOUSY.*ARGH*. She was after Fritz anyway. Most of the chicks were.)- Also note: The girl in the CENTER with shoulder-length dark hair & glasses screaming her head off at Fritz was NOT the girl that Florian gave the pass to. -(See description above.)- Fritz kept smiling at the center girl. I didn't see her at the party afterwards. But, Florian clearly had his eye on this other girl and gave her the pass. GOD, I WANNA DIE!! At the Warfield, I was against the rail, in front of Florian, but, able to see the whole stage and all 4 members. I got my hysterics out that night. It really was overwhelming. But, I had ZERO energy the 2nd night. I couldn't even move my hands up to applaud. I was that squeezed. It was AWFUL!! Yeah, sure, I met all four guys after the gig at Kontrol Faktory, and yes it was KooL that they came to the after-party. They danced a little and seemed to enjoy the MusiK. I spoke to each of them briefly. I met Florian first because he arrived before the others- with his d*te in tow. I spotted him and approached him simply & matter of factly, made a brief comment about seeing both gigs. Then I joked with him; "Was your Calculator WERKing okay tonight? I'm sorry, I did not mean to short it out last night- I was standing too close." He just laughed and took it in good humor. Then I told his d*te she was the luckiest lady in the Universe and asked Florian: "Why is she so lucky? Because 'she's a model and she's looking good'?" He just laughed and shrugged some more. Then I matter-of-factly told him; "I hadn't slept in 6 days, 'got $100 ripped-off in Frisco, and my plane was late getting to Burbank. But, meeting you makes it all worthwhile. Macht nichts." He just smiled and kinda shrugged again. -(He does that a lot.)- Somewhere I also said "I've been into your MusiK for 20 years- I love it!" Then I shook his hand again, said "take care" or whatever and politely got out of his face. He stayed with his "d*te" for the evening. KILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILL!!!!!!! -(Darn- I should've asked him "Well, if YOU don't want me, can I have a date with your ROBOT Doppelgänger?" I missed my chance to offer the ROBOTS a thorough LubeJob.*sigh*. I thought of it too late.)- Part of me wants to die because I'm not young/pretty/skinny enough to please Florian. But, another part of me says: If he ain't man enough enough to handle a REAL warm cuddly overly amorous woman close to his own age, t'HELL with him. I'll just build my ROBOTS and be done with it. Sure, they were all basically nice & polite to everyone who spoke to them, but, it was too painful seeing Florian with his "choice", and the rest with their equally young skinny dates.*ARGH*. Oh- KuTe note: When a small bunch of us were talking with Fritz, someone brought up the names of the new tunes. Someone -(maybe it was me)- said "Tribal?" Fritz said "Yeah, we just call it tribal." and I mentioned the name "Nummwelt...." -(whatever)- and he looked at me all wide-eyed: "How do you know that?" "On the InterNet." -(It was MY turn to smile and shrug.)- A bit later I happened to stand next to Ralf at the bar. He was chatting up TWO chicks. I thought I heard him or one of the girls ask for a pen, so, I offered one in case he was signing something for them- "Oh, it's okay, I have a pen, Thank you." "Okay, sorry-" after a pause in their conversatioon I made the standard comments about seeing both shows and how interesting it was to note subtle differences- accoustics, etc. By this time I was over most of my nervousness and didn't sound so "silly". Last of all I saw Henning and said basically the same thing and went into a bit more detail about the InterNet, Mail List, and meeting with other Fans all over the world. Oh- I also told them about the nice bike trails we have up here. Radtour im Rotwald! Fritz said something about having ridden around SF earlier that day. I said it's like the Alps with all the hills. More joviality. Fine, so they're nice guys when they want to be, but- it still tore my heart out. I honestly thought they'd be less obviously shallow than that. It must be "Mid-Life Crisis"- old men needing a young "trophy" on their arm- and I'm not "good enough" for them OR their ROBOTS. God it hurts!! I'm just gonna crowl away and die somewhere. -(Don't worry. I'll find a way to pay everybody back first.)- Thanks again to EVERYONE for helping me! Buses/trains are an extreme hassle! -(It took me 4 hours to get back to my friend's house in Hollywood from Longbeach. A black chick and a Mexican chick got in a fight on one of the trains I was on. cripes. Just what I needed.)- Wednesday, JBV took me to the Airport and bought me a much-needed drink. THANK YOU!! -(My 5pm flight was cancelled, but, I DID make it on stand-by on the earlier plane. It WERKed out fine!)- An aside, but, something did happen to cheer me up. I made it to SF around 8pm, no problem, dragged my duffle bag around, looked for something to eat, and ended up in a pizza/bar joint. The lady at the food counter asked me to stay for Karaoke in the back. Okay- the tail end of the Bulls vs Utah was on while I ate, -(Bulls take Utah? 88 to 84, I think. It was a tight game, apparently.)-, then they set up the Karaoke machinery. So, I picked "The Rose", "White Rabbit", and "Nights in White Satin". Small crowd, but, they LOVED it. I couldn't believe it. They wanted me to stay and sing some more but I had to catch the Greyhound. Well, I had SOME fun anyway. 'Talked to some nice folks on the ride home, and now I gotta TRY to get some rest. I'll have to catch up on answering Email later. It's been a VERY stressful trip. Agony/Ecstacy is a gross understatement. And that's the rest of the story. KW still RULES and always will- but, do they HAVE be so damned BRUTAL about it? no fair. at. all. ROBOT@humboldt1.com http://www.humboldt1.com/~robot/ ROBOT's Silly Sektor of CyberSpace
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 00:13:45 -0700 Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 14:10:58 -0700 From: llacost@juno.com (Larry R LaCost Jr.) Subject: (kw) S.F. & L.A. Show. This One Is Important!!! One thing to note about both the San Francisco and L.A. concerts, lots of press. I'm sure a review is out by now from the San Francisco Chronicle or the San Jose Mercury Newspaper. L.A./Long Beach's papers should have something on them tomorrow. Guarantee there were reporters from magazines. Also, the press were there for a longer period than the S.F concert. NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS! Do I have your attentions people??? Tripod video cameras were station on each side of the upper balconies. I was in the front first row looking at Ralph in both concerts (actually my girlfriend had first dibs in the front row in L.A.) as I was in San Francisco. When I turned around to look at the crowd in L.A. 2 vidoe camera on opposite ends (stage left & stage right) were on and filming (the bright red light was on!). And this was good... I saw no mistakes or bugs in the concert. If they had to film a flawless concert, L.A. was the place to do it (I only mention that because I've heard in the past that mechanical difficulties were present at previous concerts... such was not the case in L.A.). I could not see if there was a camera center stage of not but I'm sure there had to have been one. To give you an idea on how the two were placed, see below: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo | | | Stage | | | | | | | oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo | Audience | X | | X | | | | Outside the veritcal bars, in the audience area represent the upper balcony... audience is below stage level... and X marks the spot for the video cameras! Excellent concert to be filming this. I was only nervous briefly when I noticed how shallow the stage was and how close the audience was... how could they pull off performing Pocket Calculator? But in the end they did it without a hitch and the rest is on film. I must add that the the L.A. crowd was much more aggressive than S.F. I could see the concern in each of the band members eyes... already the crowd pushing there way closer to the stage and the 1st song wasn't even 1/4 of the way through. It was also very hot in L.A. Poor ventilation and the heat even caused one person next to us to pass out. I think the majority would agree that security was at its tightest. Unlike S.F., a 2 tier security system was present and as soon as I saw the wands, I immediately reached for my disposable camera, located in an obscene location, and threw it away... well I got away with getting a camera in at S.F. and, quiite honestly, I got a better spot in S.F. Funny, the first person in line at S.F. had a boom box playing KW... the first person in line at L.A. had a boom box playing KW... ;-> Hope all is well and we'll talk soon. Larry R. LaCost Jr. Date: Wed, 10 Jun 98 12:28:53 -0000 Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 19:13:58 -0300 From: Mark Fonda <markfonda@setarnet.aw> Subject: (kw) Kraftwerk in Hollywood - Live or Memorex? I was lucky enough to have attended the KW concert in LA the other night. Here's a few of my comments and observations: The concert actually started a full two hours after the doors opened and lasted just over 2 hours. Security was very tight.. a double frisk-down with metal detectors and "empty all your pockets". KW played the exact program as all the previous Tokyo and SF concerts. The sound system was awesome and the bass rattled your bones but was not deafening. I was on the floor level about 75 feet from the stage... no seats... standing only. All their 'oldies' seemed to be updated with a strong techno beat which made them more contemporary sounding. I really liked 'Autobahn', 'Radioactivity' and 'New Song 2' which is a very powerful upbeat techno number with some cool melody woven in. I really liked the fluorescent green striped jump suits they put on for 'The Robot' and the last two tracks including 'New Song 2'. 'The Robot' was actually all without anyone on the stage... the video screen came down and there were four robots all moving in unison to the music... pretty cool!! The music was so precisely synchronized with the video that it would have to have been mostly pre-recorded. I could not really tell if any of it was live except that it did sound a bit different from the original recordings... but that could have just been some studio mixing back at Kling Klang for all we know. From the front you could not see any hand movement behind the keyboards except for some occasional shifting and knob tweaking. I went off to the side at one point and I did see Ralf's hands moving some on the keyboard but I honestly could not tell if he was playing any notes live. He was the only one that sang, but he put his hand up to his mouth most of the time... he could have been lip synching. They all got up front for 'Pocket Calculator' and they each had little keypads... again, I couldn't tell if it was all a recording or not... but they were for once out of their 'robot mode' and were having some fun with it. Nonetheless, it was a very lively and entertaining show and I relived many pleasant memories since Kraftwerk (Autobahn) was my first e-music listening experience. The concert was flawless and "live" or not, I had a great time. I'm curious to hear other people's reaction to the "live" question. Tangerine Dream does not play much live anymore either. They claim they are just giving the fans what they want... in other words, rather than risk a few bum notes and off-key harmonizing, they play 90% from DAT and then just lay in some synth or guitar over the top to give some live feel. I think the same must be true for Kraftwerk these days. The question is... is that what we want?? Mark Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 21:41:10 EDT From: <DplusH@aol.com> Subject: Re: (kw) Kraftwerk in Hollywood - Live or Memorex? In a message dated 6/11/98 6:25:32 PM Central Daylight Time, markfonda@setarnet.aw writes: > He was the only one that sang, but he put his hand up to his mouth > most of the time... he could have been lip synching. I think he did that to direct his voice to his headset. In Chicago he definately sang and I noticed that he started to sing without his hand to his mouth and his words got lost. After he put his hand to his mouth it sounded better. As for it being taped I think that certain songs were like "Metal on Metal" and obviously "Robots". I think its great. I loved the sound. Why it was a religious experience!! David Hubbell Chicago
Date: Thu, 11 Jun
1998 23:10:46 -0700 Date:
Fri, 12 Jun 1998 08:54:55 -0400 Here
is my review of Kraftwerk at the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, (Note:
Both sets were essentially identical. Ill point out some The show
began with odd recorded music and electronic sounds for a few The songs: 1) Numbers--Great
opening number! (no pun intended). Different numbers 2) Computer
World/ it's More Fun to Compute/ Home Computer--The = 3) Man
Machine--Included German and English Lyrics, which were flashed 4) Tour
De France-- this one included old newsreel footage of the = 5) Autobahn--The
familiar road sounds announced the start of this one, = 6) The
Model--The great ditty about a man's obsession with beauty. 7) Airwaves/
Instrumental-- included multiple green wave patterns on = 8) Radio
Activity-- Kraftwerk at its most political. The song opened 9) Trans
Europe Express/Abzug/Metal on Metal--The classic tune, with The encore: 10) Pocket
Calculator--Kraftwerk at their most playful, they gestured, 11) Robots--Actually,
Kraftwerk was not on stage for this one! The 12) Robots--
Same song, this time with the 4 robots standing and moving 13) Instrumental--Previously
unheard instrumental (at least I've never 14) Boing
Boom Tschak/Music Non Stop--Some cool visuals with the sounds Additional thoughts and comments: 1) I
liked the use of different color lights in different songs. These 2) The
precision of the performance was remarkable. The coordination 3) There
were some vocal problems in Chicago. Ralf had some trouble = 4) The
Hollywood Show was slated for 6:30pm, but the performance didn't 5) The
Chicago show was scheduled for 7:30pm. Its security was much 6) Both
shows lasted a total of about 2 hours (1:20 for the first part, 7) The
Hollywood Palladium was small, included a main dance floor 8) The
Chicago Riviera is a very old theatre, with a big balcony. I = 9) It
is rumored that Kraftwerk will be releasing a new album this = 10) Please
email me (or post in the newsgroup) any comments or David Mischoulon
Date: Fri, 12 Jun
1998 13:19:05 -0700
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