Electronic music wasn’t always a force to be reckoned with. Long before DJs sold out stadiums and headlined festivals, a groundbreaking German group called Kraftwerk was busy anticipating the inevitable synergy of music and technology in the days when arena rock still filled the airwaves. Friday night’s Kraftwerk concert at New Orleans’ Orpheum Theater was a glorious demonstration of this legacy, as the band’s modern incarnation–led by founding member Ralf Hütter–delivered a career spanning set complete with classics like “The Robots,” “Man Machine,” “Autobahn,” “Computer Love” and “Musique Non-Stop.” In perfectly Kraftwerk fashion, the show made use of a stunning 3D visual display that seemed to transport the band, and the audience, to a techno-pop wonderland. Nostalgia acts may be a consistent money maker these days, but with the seismic changes that have rippled through the music world in recent years, Kraftwerk seem as positively current as any act out there. The past rarely seems so… futuristic.
All photos by Jeffrey Dupuis. Click here to view the full gallery on Flickr.
Photo by Jeffrey Dupuis
