West German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk will return to Australia for the first time in more than a decade for a national headline tour this December. The band, whose co-founding synthesiser player, Florian Schneider, died in 2020, will play headline shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
Kraftwerk’s previous Australian visit was composed of eight shows for Vivid LIVE 2013. Their most recent headline dates outside of Sydney took place in 2003 while the band were on the Big Day Out tour. The band will also appear at the Meredith Music Festival in regional Victoria across the second weekend of December.
Kraftwerk – ‘Computer Love’
The current iteration of Kraftwerk is led by Ralf Hütter, who founded the band with Schneider in Düsseldorf, West Germany, in 1970. Hütter is joined onstage by Henning Schmitz, who’s been a touring member since the early 1990s, and more recent recruits, Falk Grieffenhagen and Georg Bongartz.
Kraftwerk have not released any new music since 2003’s Tour de France Soundtracks. However, they’ve continued to tour regularly and in 2017 released the mammoth live album, 3-D The Catalogue, which features recordings from their 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 tour between 2012 and 2016.
The band’s 2023 setlists have included material from throughout their discography, including the seminal albums The Man Machine, Computer World, Autobahn and Radio Acitivity.
Kraftwerk 2023 Australian Tour
- Monday, 4th December – Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Brisbane QLD
- Wednesday, 6th December – Aware Super Theatre, Sydney NSW
- Friday, 8th December – Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne VIC
- Friday, 8th-Sunday, 10th December – Meredith Music Festival, Meredith VIC
- Tuesday, 12th December – Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre, Adelaide SA
- Friday, 15th December – Riverside Theatre, Perth WA
Tickets on sale Wednesday, 19th July via Frontier Touring
Further Reading
Kraftwerk Lose Copyright Case After Hip Hop Producer Samples Their Music
Brian Eno Trashes NFTs In New Interview, Says They Add No Value To The World
