Last night, German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk touched down at the Franklin Music Hall in Philly for the first stop on their 2025 North American Multimedia Tour. While the tour was launched as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Kraftwerk’s watershed Autobahn album, last night’s performance saw the band working through a full-scale showcase of their five decades-plus catalog. As the direct forebearers to —and a foundational influence over— Hip-Hop, House, Techno, and all contemporary electronic music, Kraftwerk are rightfully recognized as frontrunners in the evolution of music technology. However, last night’s show was a reminder that the band’s mechanistic songs are rooted in real human emotion.
Kraftwerk | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Led by Ralf Hütter — the only remaining original member— Fritz Hilpert, Henning Schmitz, and Falk Grieffenhagen took the stage and positioned themselves at four podiums that glowed and lit up in coordination with the musicians’ black jumpsuits. The band played a gorgeous version of “Autobahn” with its relentless downtempo beat, soaring chord progression, and the iconic chorus “Wir fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n auf der autobahn” (“We are driving driving driving on the autobahn”), chanted ad infinitum. 1981’s “Computer Love” shined with its gorgeous synth melody and melancholic lyrics about a desperate man seeking to alleviate sexual and romantic longing with technology. “Radioactivity” built steadily, conjuring an ominous and foreboding atmosphere that perfectly articulates the looming threat of nuclear war under which the song was written. In stark contrast to “Radioactivity,” “Trans-Europe Express” highlighted the utopian side of Kraftwerk with its famous synth line that still sounds as optimistic and uplifting as it did nearly 50 years ago when it was first released.
Kraftwerk | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Playing to a packed-out Franklin Music Hall full of listeners across generations, Kraftwerk was in fine form throughout the show. The multigenerational crowd was more than happy to dance, cheer, and applaud the elder statesmen whose impact has reverberated throughout time. As the first of a projected 32 stops across the United States and Canada, the Multimedia Tour is fitting reintroduction to some of the most human machine music ever made.