April 12, 1975 review: Kraftwerk and Sparks in the Century Theater

 


Kraftwerk was the headliner on this show, an off-the-wall offering of that season’s fashionably alternative bands in the Century Theater, but I was there for the act that was second on the bill. 

April 12, 1975 

Head-Spinning Sparks Bring

Welcome Breath of Fresh Air 

          As the cheering rises to a shriek in the dark Century Theater Friday night, a single spotlight picks out a rock ‘n roll dandy at the side of the stage. A riding crop is stuck into the top of one of his high boots.

          It’s Russell Mael. He sings for a few moments in a frantic falsetto until a spotlight hits the thin, starched figure at the keyboards, the guy with the tiny mustache and the short hair slicked back.

          Charlie Chaplin? No. That’s Ron Mael, Russell’s older brother.

          Together they’re Sparks, expatriate Americans and the newest darlings of British rock, the group that outpolled Bad Company to be Melody Maker magazine’s top band of 1974.

* * *

WHILE RUSSELL flops and struts in a pouting Ray Davies fashion, Ron sits virtually motionless. All that changes is the tilt of his head, the swivel of his eyes and the elevation of his stern eyebrows.

          Framed by a guitarist and bassist as strong and anonymous as porch pillars, driven by an extraordinary drummer named Dinky Diamond, the Maels roll out the stuff of which great rock is made – brashness and energy.

          It sounds like the wildest of Gilbert & Sullivan operetta music, all done up to a heavy beat. The mad-mad-world lyrics zip by like gunfire. Russell says he has to sing fast because Ron stuffs so many words in each line.

* * *

RUSSELL POPS across the stage sneering at the audience in a breakneck song called “Achoo.” “Reinforcements,” a mixture of military and interpersonal relationships, is rendered as a burlesquing cabaret number.

          An ominous ditty called “Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth” finds hyperactive Russell challenging the towering immobility of brother Ron, mimicking Jerry Lee Lewis pianomania behind his band.

          It’s a sensational, head-spinning performance. In the stale realm of present-day rock, Sparks is a breath of fresh air.

          Sparks is second-billed to Kraftwerk, a German electronic rock quartet which does the song “Autobahn,” but it should have been the other way around.

* * *

NOT THAT Kraftwerk doesn’t offer some interesting possibilities – synthesizers, flute, vibraharp and, instead of drums, an aluminum-covered stand that turns out to be a nifty synthesized rhythm deice.

          But while the electronic pop of the rhythm and the drone of the synthesizer run through your head like computer tape, Kraftwerk fumbles about like laboratory apprentices. This after taking more than an hour to set up.

          They’re better somehow than Greenslade, the vaguely demonic opening act that featured a guy dressed in a skeleton suit, but they can’t keep people from walking out. And the ones that stay, they can’t keep awake.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTOS: Kraftwerk, below, and Sparks, top, circa 1975.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Kraftwerk has proven to be an inspiration to more than one generation of electronic rockers, as acknowledged by their induction a few years ago into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Sparks, meanwhile, has maintained their status as cult favorites and has endured. The Mael brothers returned from England to their native Los Angeles a couple years after this concert and have put out albums every few years or so ever since.



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