The Feel Good Blog

To my utter surprise, last night's concert by Kraftwerk was almost filled to the brim. This was that show which I had to go alone because not a single person I know in Singapore is aware of the band's existence. Nevertheless, I did not let my solitude dampen my mood. My excitement had me arrive a good thirty minutes before the show. Everyone else inside the Esplanade Theater were just as excited to watch the band's first ever concert in Southeast Asia. A little bit more than half of the audience were Westerners, mostly working people in their 20's or 30's. I barely saw any students or teenagers, unlike the crowd in the Death Cab for Cutie concert. However, as with that concert, someone in the crowd screamed "Welcome to Singapore" in a really cheesy way during one moment of silence in between songs. This is so typical of the culture here. Perhaps, the graciousness campaign by the government has found its way into concert etiquette as well (if there is even such a thing).

I was for the most part, enraptured by their timeless, minimalist, synthesized melodies (which has been sampled by artists such as Coldplay) that lasted almost two hours. Unlike most concerts, this was was less about vocal prowess or passionate singing and more about the evocative melodies against the bold graphic backdrops. Just the same, the show came in varying moods - from the ominous "Radioactivity" warning of the dangers of nuclear energy to the light-hearted "Pocket Calculator" which got the crowd dancing for a few minutes. Needless to say, this was one of the most unconventional concerts I have been to. The lead singer (Ralf Hutter), barely sang (or should I say "chanted"). The entire band was just standing in front of their laptops the whole time and they could have very well been checking their emails.

Set list :

Man Machine
Tour de France (Etape 1 & 2)
Tour de France (original version)
Vitamin
Planet of Visions
Numbers
Computer World - excellent, seamless transition from "Numbers"
It's More Fun To Compute / Home Computer
Pocket Calculator - (English and German version)
Autobahn
Computer Love
The Model
Neon Lights
Showroom Dummies
Radioactivity
Trans-Europe Express / Metal on Metal
The Robots
Elektro Kardiogramm
Aerodynamik
Boing Boom Tschak / Musique Nonstop


The concert ended ironically, with "Musique Nonstop." The band members took their bows one by one as they each left the stage, with Ralf Hutter saying "Auf Wiedersehen!"

This concert is a wish that came true. The Mosaic group had asked me to fill out a survey last March and I indicated then that I wanted to see Kraftwerk which I thought then was a very long shot for a place like Singapore. This band is so unknown to mainstream music listeners especially in this part of the world that I actually thought the chances of the band coming here was extremely low. But they came. And the pictures below just prove how a Kraftwerk show can command a full house in Singapore.

With this done, the next concert I am targeting is David Byrne's which will be held at Suntec in January next year. Am not familiar with his solo material and I am planning to go only for the Talking Heads songs (hope he'll play a lot of them). Again, I might have difficulty finding a companion on this one.

Labels: Electronica, Esplanade, Kraftwerk, Singapore, Techno