NEW YORK -- Kraftwerk's invasion of the Museum of Modern Art is in full swing. The legendary German group is performing eight of its classic albums, in chronological order, over the course of eight consecutive nights here.
The concert series -- the centerpiece of a MoMA retrospective sporting the charmingly literalist title Kraftwerk -- Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 -- is the hottest show in town. Only 450 tickets were available to the public for each night, making them practically impossible to get. (Some scalpers were charging nearly $2,000.)
On Wednesday, Kraftwerk rocked the entirety of classic 1975 album Radio-Activity -- along with several vintage hits, including "The Robots," "Trans-Europe Express" and "Autobahn" -- in the MoMA's cozy second-floor atrium. Attendees, which on Wednesday included Portlandia's Fred Armisen along with other indie celebs, received old-school cardboard 3-D glasses to view the massive video backdrop.
The band's current lineup features Ralf Hütter, the last remaining original member of Kraftwerk (key member Florian Schneider left the group in 2008), along with three newer recruits. The group, sporting matching skintight bicycle outfits with a fluorescent grid pattern designed by Belgian cycling company Bioracer, ably played Kraftwerk's classics, with Hütter handling vocals.
The sound in the MoMA atrium Wednesday night was shockingly fantastic; many speculated that the museum's sound system was drastically upgraded for the concerts to meet Kraftwerk's exacting specifications.
"It was very clear, clean and accurate," marveled attendee Bryan Kasenic, organizer of The Bunker event series in New York. "The way sound should be reproduced."
Radio-Activity, which features songs about the radio along with songs about radiation, is one of Kraftwerk's warmest-sounding records. It is also among the nerdiest, with song titles like "Transistor," "Ohm Sweet Ohm" and "Geiger Counter."
James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem once called Radio-Activity "the saddest of all the Kraftwerk records" and "the record I would listen to, and still do, when I want to feel alone." The song "Radioland," in which Hütter glumly intones lines like "Turn the dials with your hand / 'Til you find the shortwave band / Electronic music sounds from Radioland" is "the most aching thing I've ever heard on record," according to Murphy. "I can easily sit in my house and cry listening to that song."
On Thursday, the band plays Trans-Europe Express; on Friday, they do The Man-Machine. Stay tuned for more updates as the week progresses.
