Kraftwerk kommt zu Edmonton!
Before electronic music became a thing, before DJs became “performers,” there was Kraftwerk – the famed German electronic group that set the bar for all electronic music to follow.
Now there is great rejoicing that the group is coming to town. Kraftwerk launches a short North American fall tour in Edmonton, of all places, at the Jubilee Auditorium on Wednesday, Sept. 16. Tickets are $75 to $95 and on sale Friday.
This will be a “3-D” concert spectacle, never mind that real life is already three dimensional, with material spanning albums that stretch all the way back to 1970, when brainiac multi-instrumentalists Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter met at music college. Using synthesizers that today are considered as an antique as a harpsichord, Kraftwerk’s resulting experimental electro-pop took the world by storm, while helping give the Germans the reputation for being frightfully up to date on this sort of thing.
A huge influence on a number superstar acts – Radiohead, Depeche Mode, every electronic artist working today – notable albums included the self-titled debut in 1970, and the 1974 release, Autobahn, whose title track became the symbol of, er, the autobahn – that magical highway where you can drive as fast as you want. Do they still have that? They still have Kraftwerk. That’s fast enough.
