While Cathay Pacific airlines were featuring 'Tour De France' on their in-flight entertainment audio service at the start of this year there was no Kraftwerk music on the flight to Tokyo this February. 5pm seemed an unlikley time to start the Tokyo concert - especially given that the Australian and Japanese dates from 2002 and 2003 seemed to show the band now happy to merge their own performance with supporting dance (d.j.) culture and ambience (and was the band's hearing of X-Press 2's "Lazy" at Electraglide an unconscious influence on T.D.F '03)? Firstly we travelled on the Tokyo subway system, with its many criss-crossing lines, with each station playing its own "special little (musical) melody", then it was on to the monorail towards Aomi - and it seemed very appropraite to be travelling in this futuristic driveless train. The destination station was unmissable because of the large "Sky Wheel" (that's what the Japanese call it) towering above + we headed down to the Zepp venue, which is part of Palette Town. To quote from the 'Town Guide' you learn that, "Zepp Tokyo is one of the world's largest live hall with a capacity of 2709 poeple. Owing to the standing-up-style hall, the audience could share sense of togetherness with an audience and enjoy dynamic play and live performnace". ...ok. We knew our tickets were 1/F standing (rather than the seated 2/F) so were optimistic that we'd get close to the stage. However, arriving outside we found lines of people all behind various alphabetlical signs stretching around the building - decoding the ticket we found that we would be in 'Section E'. So, we found ourselves waiting as the minutes passed and various lines continued to gather and congregate. After close to an hour of waiting, our line was allowed to enter, and we passed on the merchandise - presuming it would all be there the next day. But here we also found that the same rules applied - inside the hall were barriers to seperate each section. While the barrier could easily have been slipped under - from one 'section' to another - not one person was doing so. Would people have stayed in their section in any other country in the world? In Tokyo they certainly did! There was then plenty of time to wait in silence, with no music, to consider the audience and wonder why the curtain was no longer black - now a shade of grey. It seemed that many of the audience were twice the age of the Tokyo Elecrtraglide 2002 all-night dance audience, also here almost equal balance of masculine and femanine. And so 5pm...that advertised start time approached. And at 5.19... 19 seconds late it began - that antenna call sign from ther website - slowed down, a vague reminder of those opening sounds of the song "Electric Cafe". 4 minutes of that decsending call sign certainly acted as a contrast to the way that D.J.s at Kraftwerk concerts have built up audience enthusiasm and expectations. Being a polite audience it was only near the end of this time that one lone person felt the need to shout out! And as the familiar introduction began the first image to appear was black shillouetted figures with what appeared to be bald heads and a red background (so the curtain has to be transparent enough to let light through) - it's the same image that appeared on the German 'The Model' 12" single in 1978! And as the curtains open it's a reminder of those publicity photos that used bald Showroom Dummies wearing suits (a Brazilian picture sleeve and a U.S. cassette case) in the 1970's and 1980's. But on further refelction it's a reminder that 'Wearing A Suit' were part of the image further back to the 'Ralf + Florian' sleve. Was this current choice made by one band member? Starting with 'Man Machine' is definitely in contrast to the pace generated by 'Numbers' and the more subdued pace does give much more emphasis to how the sound is filling the space. it also meakes it more noticible what each member is doing. Henning's feet move - but what's it doing to the sound? Once we're on to Expo 2000 it's more clear that Fritz is using a sliding fader to bring in the reverb sound at specific points. As TDF 03 starts it seems that this song has not had the graphics treatment - for we are back to the 'bar graphic' graphic eq. visuals in blue (as used on 'Home Computer' before?)... for several minutes before the 'new' video is used. And after 25 minutes it's time for Ralf to make a quick adjustment on his head microphone before starting his singing. He seems to be using his right hand to shield the mic., while the left hand is used to alter level a control on his console. It's good to hear that his voice sounds better than ever, one reason that it's so clear being that it's clear that the overall sound level continues to be very very low. As Vitamin is about to begin Florian has a quick drink and then it's on to a new song and new visuals live. What is clear is that it's certainly not a 'filler' song, Ralf is dancing! The concert continues, but being in the middle of the hall it's still not possible to see quite what's happening - for suddenly there's someone walking on to the stage to speak to Ralf. It's hard to see if Florian is using his microphone from this distance, but being in the centre of the hall does at least serve to illustate that in Autobahn there seems to be some sort of quad sound system be used... it's also very clear that in 'Aerodynamik' the sound is being panned left-to-right to complement the song's theme. After the concert we talked for 30 minutes to several of Kraftwerk's sound and production people. These are the largely unsung people who keep the machine running efficiently - and it's interesting to talk to them ...but let's all remember that these people have jobs and it wouldn't be fair to bring them hassles. Anyway, here's a few bits of infoprmation that hopefully don't get anyone into trouble - an example of what is expected of the crew is that the Kraftwerk logo that appears on jackets has to be covered up with a piece of velcro when going through customs and airports (to avoid attention)! We checked regarding the sound + learnt that while not strictly quad the sound system used at some venues such as Tokyo - but not Osaka - uses rear speakers to give the impression of throwing the sound forward and backwards during Autobahn. The stage messanger had been trying to convey the message that the sound was too quiet (it had been turned up during Radioactivity). One explanation given of the stage roles was as follows: Ralf = melodies/singing, Henning=bass lines/filtering, Fritz= rythmes, Florian= f/x. Some other opinions - the best audience was Copehagen, while audiences tend to get better as the concerts move south. Key people who've been touring with Krafwterk since 1998 were contacted about this tour in May 2003 apparantly. Every concert is recorded by the band, but then perhaps that is obvious? It was now time for the crew to eat and checking in with the merchandise stall we found that the one item that had sold out was the 'mobile phone/mp3 player strap' - the one item not yet on the Klingklang merchandise site. The local staff promised that if we got there at 3:30 they's have about 20 left. We could at least get our 'Aerodynamik' t-shirts (a.k.a. "the teletubbies shirt" to one child we know, or, "the cable cars t-shirt" to a certain adult). After we left the hall and wandered round to the main street, there standing alone in the darkened doorway and talking on his mobile phone was someone wearing a 3-piece suit and hat: Florian. After waiting patiently for his call to end ( wishing that we had a better command of german) it was time to remind him of the advice he gave when meeting in Detroit 1998. As with Ralf the signature certainly does seem to change over time! Finally Florian was ushered over to the waiting vans. A few fans were present and so there a chance to talk to Fritz and Ralf about the concert (Henning remained at the back). On the following day we had a clearer idea of when we needed to be at the Zepp and decided to investigate the surrounding area. Next to the Zepp we found 'Mega Web Future World' and the 'Toyota City Showcase', but what was more interesting was 'Venus Fort' - a shopping plaza devoted to women, of which the ceiling projections change from blue sky to sunset to night sky...a simulated reality. Apparantly it is the place for dating couples and it also seemed to be the place for women to take their toy dogs (which reminded us that there's a Kraftwerk video that features just such dogs). Checking back in with the merchandise stall we found that the promised mobile strap was not now available - but fortunately somone in the Kraftwerk organisation gave us one on the condition that we didn't show it to anyone outside the hall..thanks! While the various alphabetical lines had not yet formed, we found ourselves approached by another visitor of this mailing list - it was good to share experiences and as our colleague had an 'A' (front) Section ticket we decided to keep talking. As Section A entered, we found that the numbers inside a Section also determined who went in first. It was time to weigh up the best time to try... and 3 checks of tickets later we found that our Section C tickets had not been sufficiently scrutinised to stop us entering Section A. One of us is a big fan of Fritz and so we decided to go for the front of that side of the stage. While waiting we noticed that the band - not bootleggers - had microphones directed at the audience from either side of the stage - so we decided to sing a quick rendition of "15 Minutes of Fame". Because of the use of the 3 background projectors (overlap of images slightly evident in Tokyo) there still isn't that much light on stage. This contributes to the band really noticing those audience members who are at the front. Earlier on this list someone mentioned that Fritz acknowledges specific people - but is that just our ego? The lesson of Tokyo is that it's certainly not. Fritz does signal to those he recognises, and, if you're a girl and remove clothing just see if he reacts! Henning seems to oscillate between appearing mildly amused and grumpy on stage (when someone cuts off his bass part in Radioactivity especially?). Florian is obviosuly studying the audience, but if your eye catches his he will immediately look in another direction. Ralf seems to be continually reading the crowd, with a slightly surprised or puzzled look on his face. Ralf was definitely the one who's dancing most - interesting that it's particularily so on "Vitamin" and 'Electrokardiogram". Just to remind us that there are humans on stage, Florian had his first drink after 'Vitamin" of the second night. He's also the band member who slips the most candies/medicine/vitamin pills in his mouth as the evening progresses (he's not the only one!), but it's done so discreetly that you might not notice. During the 2nd Tokyo Coincert there were alot of subtle changes in the sound,less 'mistakes' which ironically are often very interesting in their own way. It sounds strange to say it, but Florian really is doing backing vocals on 'Autobahn' - they are not quite in sync. As to quite what's going on, when one band member (or more) look at another it's often because something unexpected has been done by that other person. One of the most memorable moments came in "Pocket Calculator" when Ralf started pointing at his video screen and then looking at the other band members. He continued doing this several times...but nobody seemed to be taking any notice of him! Meanwhile, as with the previous night, the volume was increased during 'Radioactivity" which led to Florian to give and then repeat hand signals to lower the volume during "Pocket Calculator". It was also Florian who left his screen up during 'The Robots' performance - he really is human! As the band left the stage on this second Tokyo night they also all gave a sort of traditional Japanese salute (?) before leaving (other than Henning, who seems to be practising the 'Florian Run'). We decided to see if we could speak to the band again + went round to the same location as the night before. Rather appropriately the security guards placed traffic cones to cordon off the area surrounding the 2 vans and car. After some time a guard passed carrying The Case - the one that carries the most essential equipment/data - which left first via the car. While waiting we talked to the Japanese fans/musicians present. It was good to share experiences and we were very happy to accept a copy of their CD tribute to Kraftwerk. Standing next to a busy road it seemed rather absurd when a security guard came over to tell us to be quiet! So, what do you do? The area has been cordoned off by security- do you get a great photo or hope that the band will come over to speak? Deciding on the latter we called out + found that Fritz, followed by Ralf, were happy to come over to talk rather than leave immediately. Fritz's opening question was, "was it loud enough for you tonight?" (following on from our converstaion the night before). Asked about the 'Elektrokardiogram' radio mix, he said that it was intended only for German radio promotion. I commented that it was a pity that the remastered CDs weren't on sale and asked if the artwork would be changed on T.E.E. (apparantly so - but one lesson from Tokyo is that band members do have different opinions - so we shall wait and see). Also, given that Japanese CD releases in the past could have "Dentakau" or more recently the TDF 034 videos as bonuses surely that should be so elsewhere. Keep reminding them of this at following concerts! And with a tip of his hat Florian, and the band were on there way. Looking back to 1978, specifically that German sleeve to 'The Model' 12", showing that 'Showroom Dummies' image it's amazing that a quarter of a century later that same image came to life on a Tokyo stage. Hopefully there will be plenty more times after 2004 when Kraftwerk's inspiration and ideas will "beam into the future"! __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what youre looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com