Kraftwerk in performance (Photo by Peter Boettcher)

The legendary synth pioneers Kraftwerk are returning to the DC metro area to launch a tour at the Strathmore Music Center on Saturday, Sept. 3.

Ralf Hütter, Henning Schmitz, Fritz Hilpert and Falk Grieffenhagen witll return with their Kraftwerk 3-D Concert, which they launched in the United States in 2014, including a previous stop at the 9:30 Club.

Now brought to you by IMP Productions, the Kraftwerk tour reignites with the German synthpop band’s groundbreaking compositions coupled with their performance art. It’s “gesamtkunstwerk” – a total work of art, as they say in German. Tickets for the Strathmore show go on sale Friday, April 29, at 10am!

Watch “The Robots” by Kraftwerk in an official 2013 retrospective video on YouTube:

In 2014, Kraftwerk toured a show concert series THE CATALOGUE – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 with stops in US cities like New York City. Said Jon Pareles of the New York Times of the NYC United Palace Theatre show: “Kraftwerk has billed itself as the man-machine, and its songs are equally enthralled and wary of the emotionless precision and pervasive reach of computers, media, high-speed transportation and other inventions with unintended consequences. ‘Business, Numbers, Money, People,’ flashed in midair in ‘Computer World,’ a song released in 1981 that was tersely prescient about big data and surveillance.”

Ralf and Florian Schneider founded Kraftwerk in Germany in 1970, setting up their famous electronic Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf, where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums. By the mid-‘70s, the band were hailed as innovators influencing bands across many genres of music globally. When I saw Kraftwerk at Moogfest 2014 in Asheville, NC, I wrote, “Although the concert offered many highlights, I was particularly pleased with a stretch of songs from my favorite Kraftwerk album, The Man-Machine. Released in 1978, the album was certainly among the more pop offerings put forth by Kraftwerk, as I believe at the time they were riding the tide of a generation of musicians they themselves had influenced.”

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to see Kraftwerk in action.

Kraftwerk
Music Center at Strathmore
Saturday, Sept. 3
Doors @6:30pm
$68-88
All ages