Sure, when Shakespeare coined the phrase “what dreams may come,” he was talking about the afterlife, not how mindblowingly awesome it would be if Kraftwerk were to perform all eight of their studio albums in their entirety. But surely that’s because Kraftwerk didn’t yet exist. Because afterlife, schmafterlife — surely this is as close as many of us will ever get to heaven, right?
This spring, Kraftwerk was invited to do the residency thing at MoMA in New York, an event with the unGoogleable name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. At this time, the group first unveiled the “performing an entire studio album every night for eight nights” concept. Naturally that ish sold out faster than [I was going to insert a joke about wacko politicians here, but nah, everybody’s sick of that crap. You’re welcome.] And for those who missed this Kraftwerkstravaganza the first time around or for those who just can’t get enough of Düsseldorf, Germany, the robots have announced another eight-night journey into MAGIC, hosted by their historic hometown.
The event takes place at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Museum from January 11-13 and 16-20. (The break in between is so God has some time to judge sinners. Hey, even in heaven, work doesn’t do itself.) 3D visualizations are promised, as are an additional bonus helping of tracks from the band’s back catalogue at each performance. The schedule is as follows:
Jan 11 Autobahn (1974)
Jan 12 Radio-Aktivität (1975)
Jan 13 Trans-Europe Express (1977)
Jan 16 Die Mensch-Maschine (1978)
Jan 17 Computerwelt (1981)
Jan 18 Techno Pop (1986)
Jan 19 The Mix (1991)
Jan 20 Tour de France Soundtracks (2003)
• Kraftwerk: http://www.kraftwerk.com