Three casually dressed men with free bus passes took to the stage, knobs got twizzled, and squinting glances were exchanged before a smattering of weird noises became audible, then the Neu! groove began. Krautrock legends Michael Rother, Deiter Moebuis and Hans Lampe don’t carry themselves as if responsible for influencing so much of the electronic music since the late 70s. In fact, Lampe hardly looks like a man physically able to keep a perfect motorik beat for 90 minutes. But the slow-burning start was classic Rother.
As the array of sounds increased and the volume rose, so the crowd grew increasingly wide-eyed. Without ever becoming danceable, the rhythms got heads bobbing and bodies swaying. From the septuagenarians to the kids, all were drawn as if in a trance to the electronic flame. Fur Immer ebbed and flowed, as wave upon wave swirled around an audience refreshed by kosmiche classics. The songs weaved perfectly through the Neu!, Harmoina and La Dusseldorf canon, with Rother the sonic pivot, his laser-guided guitar crisp in the electronic air, as Moebuis fired off dub-style, disjointed synth sounds, with an element of improvisation. With no euphoric finale, the show ended in reverse, chords phasing out, noise receding, and the three pioneers leaving the stage as the kids stood awed by the modernity of the sound of 40 years ago.
