Live baby live: Q1 2025

Toronto concert reviews, January to March

No member of Kraftwerk uttered a word during their March 8 show in Toronto, other than sole original member Ralf Hütter saying, “Thank you, good night” at 10 p.m. sharp (at a show that started at 8 p.m. sharp — so German!).

So when early in the evening the visuals showed a flying saucer descending to Earth in North America, then the Great Lakes Area, then Toronto, then finally Massey Hall — to the loudest cheers of the evening — my friend turned to me and said, “Is this Kraftwerk’s way of saying, ‘HOW YOU FEELING, TORONTOOOOOO!’?”

Well, yes. And in a very Kraftwerkian way, the gesture felt more personal than a hollow rock’n’roll cliché.

Kraftwerk was one of 17 gigs for me this quarter, which also included a Hearts on Fire hero at Massey Hall, Wavelength’s 25th anniversary, a resurrection of one of my favourite Toronto bands of the mid-2000s, an Americana legend, a recital of one of the greatest/nerdiest albums of all time, women in space and a Martians’ ball, a New York jazz clarinetist playing Nirvana, and more.

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