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Rating: Friday, July 11, 2008.
The day before, while walking through the center of Naples, I notice a twisted flyer on the ground, under the wheel of a stopped scooter. It could have been a flyer about a culinary contest or a center for printer refills, but that visible lettering wasn't new to me. "Karl Bartos Live@Arenile di Bagnoli".
In fact, this live was supposed to happen more than a month ago, precisely on June 6th. However, it was canceled due to rain (in June!?), as Arenile is entirely outdoors.
So, here comes July 11th, at 10:30 PM, and I'm heading to Bagnoli. The line is quite short to get in, and the crowd is certainly small compared to the artist's caliber: folks, we're talking about a certain Karl Bartos, a member of the German Kraftwerk during their most successful period, truly a piece of history in that genre.
In about an hour, I realize that the open space is quickly becoming cramped, so it was either the alcohol or people were starting to flock in. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle, but in this case, I believe it's the people since at 1 AM, moments before Karl took the stage, final touches and checks were being made on the numerous instruments, I turned around and noticed a massive audience, and at the same time, I astonishingly found myself in the front row. The evening kicked off with two guys making techno music with experimental sounds and were notably skilled and inspired that night, managing to create an atmosphere and warm up the present audience.
The two opening performers leave the DJ set, and a 1930s documentary-style voice in Italian starts talking about not falling into banality whenever discussing men and machines: a brilliant entrance.
In these few minutes, I take the opportunity to look around and see the type of crowd drawn to this event. It can basically be reduced to three stereotypical types: those who came to listen and savor a live performance of Mr. Karl Bartos with crossed arms and noses in the air, those who came to listen and lose themselves in the electronics of the ex-Kraftwerk and will remember this live for a long time, as a big fan, and then there are those who inevitably came because the price was just 10 euros (absurd), there was house music and lots of pretty girls.
Personally, I believe I belong to the second group of people. But enough with useless details because suddenly Karl appears there, on stage, in front of me. Perhaps only ten people noticed it was him, Bartos, and not another electronic technician, but it doesn't matter because he immediately presents with numbers falling from the screen behind: "Numbers" by Kraftwerk is served, a huge emotion for yours truly. The tracks of the entire live set are excellently mixed between Kraftwerk's classics (on the setlist "Robots", "Trans Europe Express","Computer Love", "Computer World", "Home Computer", "It's More Fun To Compute") and solo pieces. For the uninformed public (in the sense that they ignore Kraftwerk), every piece was welcomed the same way, but for someone like me who knows everything about Kraftwerk and nothing about solo Bartos, well, there is quite a difference. And Bartos realizes this: indeed, he is visibly less involved when performing the classic tracks from his previous life, whereas he gets excited and tries to energize the audience with his solo tracks. And I must say, he's quite right: Karl as a solo artist is not bad at all, sometimes it feels like listening to Kraftwerk in the 2000s, but it's enjoyable, indeed. Tracks like "15 Minutes Of Fame" or "The Camera" or "Ultraviolet" are really excellent pieces that adapt to the needs of the third millennium, very different from those of Kraftwerk's time. Everything flows, the body moves, hits are given and received, one is captivated by the rhythm and the wonderful images accompanying each piece of the live performance.
Karl stays for an hour and a half before leaving, thanking everyone, ignoring various shouts ("encore", "lovely Germans"), and heading to his encampment.
I turn and still hear techno music. It's the same people from before continuing for another hour, but I decide not to go back under the stage and instead move towards a sunbed and listen in peace, even if they truly dominate and amaze: Karl is gone, now I can also cross my arms and lift my nose towards the starry sky.
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