A projection of a grainy black and white photo filled the screen above the Brisbane Powerhouse's stage.
The subjects of the photo are two young men with long hair, one with a scraggly beard, both looking like mad geniuses. They are Michael Rother and the late Klaus Dinger of the German experimental band Neu!On the stage below, Michael Rother gazed up at the portrait of his younger self, a smile beaming from his face. "Seems like yesterday," he told the crowd.
For Michael Rother, 'yesterday' spans over 50 years, pioneering the repetitive German music style known as Krautrock. It's a sound he helped develop in Neu!, Harmonia, and as an early member of Kraftwerk, and has influenced the likes of Brian Eno, Radiohead, and David Bowie.
After ill health led to Rother pulling out of the inaugural ΩHM Festival Of Other Music last year, the German experimentalist made his long-awaited return to Brisbane (28 February), and local fans joined him on his journey through 50 years of cosmic jams.
A clatter of percussion filled the theatre during the opening set by Melbourne trio Panghalina. On either side of the stage, percussionists Maria Moles and Bonnie Stewart made their sticks sprint across their kits, hitting bells and metal bowls strewn across their kits. In between them, Helen Svoboda's bow rubbed against their double bass until its strings creaked.
The trio of musicians manipulated their instruments in interesting ways throughout their set: stuffing note paper into bass strings; plinking a thumb piano through a delay pedal; dragging a chain across their drum kit. Out of these unusual methods, rhythms emerged and morphed, and the sizeable early crowd listened closely for each new sound.
"I won't be talking much," Michael Rother announced to the crowd. "No time to lose – Monty Python," he added, referencing a sketch by the English group.
Immediately, guitarist Franz Bargmann and drummer Hans Lampe laid down the motorik rhythm of set opener 'Neuschnee'. A former bandmate of Dingler's in the band La Düsseldorf, Lampe hit his electronic kit hard, keeping the steady driving beat throughout.
Standing behind a massive bench of electronics and laptops, Michael played the song's sustained melody, overdriven and much fuzzier, sounding enormous compared to the recording from 50 years ago.
The trio expanded into a quartet when Vittoria Maccabruni joined the group for a run through Harmonia's 'Veteranissimo'. Taking a spot on the other end of the bench, Vittoria and Michael twisted knobs and played keys, creating whooshes of electronic sounds, and giving Hans a chance to stretch his hand. With a look from Michael, Hans hit the ground running on his hi-hat – a strong piece of his kit that takes a battering throughout the night.
While Michael's former bandmates in Kraftwerk have created a spectacle of a live show, his own show is a much simpler presentation, performing beneath a screen projecting road journeys and light shows. However, eyes were firmly set upon the musicians – they may have been repeating the same bars, but it was mesmerising to watch.
A familiar single chord vamped from Franz Bargmann's guitar, joined by Hans' steady beat. Fans cheered when they quickly realised it was Neu's 'Hallogallo' from their first album. The fans who had their feet planted to the ground, heads nodded and toes tapped along to the song's groove.
However, some couldn't limit their body's response, instead giving in to the groove and dancing and spinning around for the length of the song. "Thank you," Michael smiled. "We also enjoyed playing that."
