Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend a long-desired live performance of an incredible band. Kraftwerk, the German electronic pioneers, played an awesome show in Santiago at the Teatro Caupolican. I have been listening to Kraftwerk for a little over 15 years now, and remember my first time hearing them, after buying “The Mix” on CD. I became a fan, but never expected to have the opportunity to see them live, owing to the typical combination of limited concerts, expensive tickets, and the shows seemingly selling out before even being announced.

My chance arrived this year, with Kraftwerk doing a 2-stop “tour” of South America, with one stop in Argentina (Buenos Aires) and one stop in Chile (Santiago). Incredibly, and to my delight, tickets were both available and reasonably priced. Within hours of hearing about the show, I had purchased my tickets.

Only picked up the tickets a few days before the actual show, and noticed the ticket stated: “KRAFTWERK 3-D CONCERT” I am not a fan of 3-D movies, finding them to be usually gimmicky (and over-priced), but I figured Kraftwerk would do 3-D justice. Upon entering the concert foyer, were given a small red sleeve containing a pair of folded cardboard 3-D glasses (polarized).

Image for Kraftwerk: 3D

We had arrived 15 minutes before the scheduled start time and found ourselves a decent seat in the “platea alta” balcony, stage-left, about 45 degrees from center. The theater was very full, with only the wings of the balcony unoccupied.

Image for Teatro Caupolican

The show started around 21:20, with “Numbers” and “Computer World”, and the quartet took their places behind their musical podiums. With the 3-D glasses, the numbers jumped off the screen and danced in sync with the song.

Image for Numbers

The set-list was pretty much what you would expect – consisting of favorites like “Autobahn”, “The Robots”, “The Model”, and so on. Befitting their aesthetic, the concert mostly proceeded as if the group were unaware they were playing a concert – “die roboter” executing their programmed task.

Image for The Robots

There were only two nods to the specific circumstances of the concert: a modification of the backing video for “Spacelab” to show a flying saucer crossing the Santiago skyline and landing in front of the Caupolican Theater, and a “thank you” and “adios” from Ralf Hütter just before leaving the stage.

Image for Ralf Hütter

The concert was awesome. I am so glad I had the opportunity to see them perform live. The tonal depth of their sounds is incredible live and far exceeds their already masterful albums. Now, let’s see if I will ever have the chance to see them again…

For the curious, Kraftwerk have made available short clips of some of the backing videos.