Hollywood Popular Artists

Apr 18th 2012, 15:52

By Christopher Smith

NEW YORK – Groundbreaking German greats Kraftwerk closed out their epic, eight-night "Kraftwerk-Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8" at the Museum of Modern Art Tuesday night (April 17) in New York City. The sprawling and ambitious series focused on a different album from the electronica pioneers each night (alongside a healthy dose of other staples), with the final show focusing on 2003's "Tour de France Soundtracks."

Tuesday's crowd was ready to make the most of the band's rare appearance and was surprisingly energetic throughout the "Tour de France" portion of the set culminating with the tremendous and sprawling La Forme.

But that was just the beginning, as Kraftwerk launched into a series of staple tunes from throughout their career – this was a retrospective, after all. Autobahn, Radioactivity and Trans-Euope Express had the crowd entranced and were just a few songs from a set that closely mirrored that of the band's 2005 live album, Minimum Maximun.

Much of the imagery was also carried over from the band's 2004 tour, updated in spectacular looking 3D for the special occasion.

The band closed the night and ended the retrospective with their anthemic Musique Non-Stop and while the quartet may have rocked metallic-looking suits recalling the false visions of the future that came so decidedly from the '70s and '80s, the sound is anything but dated. The sonic future they envisioned and foreshadowed and dreamed of turned out to be not so far off.

Check out two more images from the show below!

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