Kraftwerk played Japan’s Fuji Rock festival on Saturday, and in the midst of iconic electropop singles “The Man-Machine,” “Autobahn,” “Tour de France,” “Computer World,” “The Model,” “Trans-Europe Express” and more they took time out to honor fellow synth legend, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died in 2023.
“The next composition is by my friend, Ryuichi Sakamoto,” Ralf Hütter told the Fuji Rock crowd to a wave of cheers, as a photo of Ralf and Ryuichi was shown on screen. “We are friends forever since our first concert in Tokyo in 1981. For the No Nuke Festival in 2012, Ryuichi wrote new Japanese lyrics for me for ‘Radioactivity’ which we will play.”
Before getting to “Radioactivity,” Kraftwerk intro’d with their take on Sakamoto’s main theme to the film Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, which led into “Geiger Counter” (as it does on the album) and “Radioactivity.”
Watch the performance of that, and Kraftwerk’s full Fuji Rock set, below.
SETLIST: Kraftwerk @ Fuji Rock 7/27/2024
Numbers / Computer World / Computer World 2
It’s More Fun to Compute / Home Computer
Spacelab
The Man-Machine
Autobahn
The Model
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Ryuichi Sakamoto cover)
Geiger Counter / Radioactivity
Tour de France 1983 / Tour de France 2003
Trans Europe Express / Metal on Metal / Abzug
The Robots
Dentaku
Boing Boom Tschak / Musique Non Stop