Gang, Just got back from what it will definitely be a weekend to remember for the rest of my life. Coachella 2004 gathered some of the best electronic acts of the world and scattered them around the beautiful Empire Polo Field between Saturday and Sunday. Me and my brother (both KW fans, of course) got there Friday 4PM. Set tents out on lot A of the campground next the venue and basically did everything we could until it was time to go to the Polo Fields for the concerts Sat AM. The weather was beautiful. Full moon Sat eve. 100F in the shade during the day, we're talking desert here, us coming from Arizona, it was like a walk in the park. Not big deal. They had a main stage, a theater and three huge tents, the Mohave, Gobi and Sahara, this last one was where our beloved fab four played. We wore our red man machine T-shirts and sunglasses. Making our way to the concert Saturday morning, four kids stopped us and asked if we could let them in to see Kraftwerk performing sound check. They thought we worked for them. One could only wish we replied. Kraftwerk, btw, was to first to do a sound check in the early hours of Sat. MOUTH WATERING, yes, with caps. To make a long story short, we fulfilled a lifelong dream. We patiently waited for them at the Sahara tent since 7:30 PM (they were set to play, which they sharply did, at 10:40 PM). We watched and danced to Laurent Garnier's crazy beats (this French guy is really really good) but then Mark Farina almost destroyed the mood Laurent help created with some pretty sluggish tunes. Anyway, that made us the more impatient. What happened after Farina left the stage was history in the making. While the Coachella crew was cleaning up the DJ decks from the stage, the whole tent started clapping while chanting "Kraftwerk Kraftwerk Kraftwerk" then "Machine Machine Machine". We couldn't believe it. I still get goosebumps. We were in front row, right up there. We didn't wanted any other way. Next to us were people from all over the United States: Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, California, etc. One of them even followed KW from Seattle (Warfield in between). The giant Sahara tent was sardine packed. About half a mile away, Radiohead played at the main stage and finished their gig just minutes before Kraftwerk was set to go. There was a sea of people moving from that stage to our tent in order to catch a glimpse of Ralf, Florian and Co. AFAIR, the setlist was: Vocoder intro The Man-Machine (tons of people loved the placement of this song, right at the start) Expo 2000 Tour de France 2003 Tour de France Autobahn (short) Radioactivity (with slow intro) Trans Europe Express/Metal on Metal (loved the audio/sound synchronization) Numbers/Computer World FIRST ENCORE: The Robots (the place went nuts at this one. Unbelievable. Loved the robots moves.) SECOND ENCORE: Aero Dynamik (The bass... DAMN what a bass! btw, in comparison, they looked skinnier in the black suits they had before the wireframe ones) Musique Non Stop (seeing and hearing each one of them doing a little something special, right before they left the stage with this song, was an out of this world experience). What can I say? They rocked from minute one until they, one by one, vowed to a pleased crowd that sang, cheered and danced every one of their songs. Amazing. They loved it too. I know that. I saw them smiling all the time. Their body language showed us how much they were enjoying the night out there. I saw a happy Kraftwerk in front of me. Ralf smiled plenty. Florian was the only one striking a serious pose almost during the entire show, he also kept very quiet. The shorter guy to Florian's right seem to be pretty quiet as well and at times, more concerned to what was going with the screen on the back. For what I saw, Ralf and the guy to his left really earned their money, they were extremely busy tweaking (specially the tall guy) and keying everything in front of them. They all seemed to wait for Ralf's signal before the beginning of each song. He'll nod a bit and then we knew we were in for a treat. I took a ton of pictures. I was so nervous and excited at the beginning that I even dropped a roll of film on the floor trying to change it. Yes, I managed to find it. While exiting the place through the back, I saw a big white van parked right outside and got kind of curious... and who did I see? Florian standing by a palm tree (tons of these beautiful trees out there) chatting away with somebody. When I got closer, he jumped into the van and who showed up running right behind him? Ralf. I yelled Ralf and he glanced at me for a good second. I was two meters away from a living legend. What came to mind? Absolutely NOTHING. I was in shock! Paralyzed. There I was, a production manager in real life, that knows what to say in a crunch, but then, there I was, speechless at such magical and blessed time of my existence. While the van was about to take off, I put my arms way up with open hands and yelled to the whole band "THANK YOU KRAFTWERK". They all smiled and waved back. I was in state of shock for the rest of the night. Back at the tent, I hear music from the VIP party Coachella held at a small club and the DJ played Numbers full blast. He was as happy as we all were. Merchandising? The Coachella team had the following KW T-shirts for sale at US$ 20 ea: red man machine, blue autobahn, black aerodynamik (bought two of them), white kraftwerk and that was it. The rest of Coachella? Sunday, kind of cruised around and got bits and pieces of Air, Basement Jaxx and The Cure (not a Cure fan). For the most part, we hang out at the Sahara tent, where the techno was blasting out loud. Adam Freeland did OK, Crystal Method was great as always, Ferry Corsten is a happy guy, he really is and Paul Van Dyk rounded up a great weekend. Enrique. PS: If you'd like to see a few of my "KW live at Coachella" pics, send me an e-mail. Privately, please.