Kraftwerk: Australia and New Zealand Tour 2023

Overview

Some bands are so influential, so pioneering and so ahead of their time that they change the course of music history. Electro trailblazers Kraftwerk are one such group. Forming in Düsseldorf in 1970, they quickly segued from krautrock to diving into the electronic scene — and imagining the future, including experimenting with robotics, in the process. The song 'Computer Love'? Back in the 80s, it foresaw internet dating.

Unsurprisingly, Kraftwerk have left their mark on everything from their chosen genre and techno to synth pop and hip hop since. Also, more than five decades later, the German outfit is still touring. Kraftwerk's live shows are an experience, combining the band's electronic music computer animations and performance art. Take note, Sydneysiders, because the group is heading your way in December as part of an Australian and New Zealand tour.

The multi-media project founded by Ralf Huetter and Florian Schneider, and that aims to create "gesamtkunstwerk — a total work of art" — in each gig, will play Aware Super Theatre on Wednesday, December 6.

Expect synthetic voices and computerised rhythms aplenty — it is what Kraftwerk's music is known for, and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame for — plus a visual show that ponders man and machine to match.

Kraftwerk's latest visit Down Under comes after the band played Vivid in 2015, as part of 3D Kraftwerk — The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, which saw them perform eight albums from 1974's Autobahn through to 2003's Tour de France over four nights at the Sydney Opera House.

Since starting their retrospective gigs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012, they've hit up everywhere from London's Tate Modern and Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum to Tokyo's Akasaka Blitz and Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall.