DEVO TO PLAY LIVE AGAIN!!!

But I want to go to this. But I swore we wouldn't take a vacation this year. But it's DEVO and the YYYs! But it's expensive! But it's my birthday (kind of)! I don't know what to do!!!!

I'd rather gouge out my eyes than see Stellastar.

Get a flat tire? It's Stellastar's fault. Did you dog die? Blame Stellastar.

It was annoying enough when Jonathan Fire*Eater did it!

I'm actually relieved it isn't. Keeps the riffraff out. It'll still be hot and crowded, but perhaps the audience won't be QUITE as rude and boneheaded as the usual "I'm only here cuz it's free" Summerstage turnout.

Really anything would be better than the last time I saw Devo. The spuds were great, but the Violent Femmes and Ween opened up (this was in '97 or '98 or so). I'll take Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans over Violent Femmes fans ANYTIME.

so did they consult with Shellac for setting this show up? Will there be Pop Tarts or Krispy Kreme donuts available for the devo-tees?

http://the-wall.net/%7Edevo-obsesso/images/latest_news/nike_la_4-04/laplaca_urge2.jpg

July 18, 2004 -- This week might seem like an odd time for Devo's return to New York City, where they last played well over a decade ago.

After all, the band's early '80s heyday - when their record "Freedom of Choice" went platinum, driven by the frenetic smash single "Whip It" - is long gone, and Devo hasn't released a new record since 1988.

But Jerry Casale, who founded the band with Mark Mothersbaugh in the early '70s, when the two were art students at Kent State University, figures Devo's appearance at SummerStage this Friday is perfectly timed.

After all, the edgy art-rock band was built around the concept of "de-evolution" - a belief that mankind is in a continuous state of regression - and Casale points out that recent events prove they were more right than they'd ever imagined.

"Considering the kind of corporate feudal state that we live in today, our predictions came, unfortunately, all too true," Casale told The Post, speaking on the phone from his Los Angeles home. "At one time we were supposedly at odds with the culture and we were futurists, and now all we are is the house band for a devolved world.

"We just sit in amazement saying, you know, we did warn people, but we never thought it would go this far."

The SummerStage show doesn't necessarily mark a reunion for Devo, which also plays Thursday as the headliners of Run Hit Wonder, a Nike-sponsored Central Park road race featuring appearances by such early '80s flash-in-the-pan bands as Flock of Seagulls and Tommy Tutone.

The band, which currently plays some half dozen shows a year at odd special events, never exactly broke up.

But as their popularity waned in the late '80s they "went into some kind of hibernation," said Casale, and ceased touring and putting out records.

"No matter what we did, people either ignored it or critics didn't like it. We couldn't get the right kind of offers for touring, and radio was going in a whole other strange direction, and it just became obvious," said Casale. "It was kind of like Luke Skywalker when he jumps into the void because he sees he can't win, so he dives into the void to fight another day."

Devo busted out the jumpsuits and the flower-pot hats in 1996 to play a number of shows on the Lollapallooza tour, which offered them a chance to connect with some of the many younger bands that have cited the band's quirky, robotic electro-pop as an influence. (Beck, Moby, Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Soundgarden are counted among the band's fans, and their influence can be heard in newer bands like the Hives and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who will open the SummerStage show.)

But mainly Casale and Mothersbaugh have been devoting themselves to their new careers - Mothersbaugh as a composer of film and TV soundtracks, Casale as a director of music videos and television commercials. Still, Casale doesn't rule out a new record at some point in the band's future. "I would never say never," he says.

So is he surprised to still be at it more than two decades after the subversive group of spud-fixated art geeks in yellow jumpsuits became unlikely chart-toppers?

"No, I'm Devo whether I want to be or not," he says. "Devo is a state of mind."

sans energy dome tho sadly

What's the usual Summerstage protocol during these kinds of conditions?

$10 says this will show up on BitTorrent within a couple weeks. Everything does.

http://www.disclive.com/images/large_DV.jpg

I expected that a 2-cd set of a concert would have at the very least
over 80 minutes of music. Most concerts go 90 minutes to 2 hours.
The actual total time is 67 minutes and 25 seconds, and over 5 minutes
of that is sound from an old video and a pre-recorded intro song,
bringing the total time to a little over 60 minutes of music. Granted,
that's all that Devo played, but why the fuck was it a 2-disc set?
And worse yet, when you download the CD's online, you get 192K MP3's
burned onto your CD with 2-second gaps between each song!!! So I'm
pissed off that they charged double for a single and I'm going to post
this now. These are the original MP3's that you download with their
software, not copies."

and to hear hot in here with are we not mean is quite something

Kind of wild that Freese has been in this band for 29 years

Jeff Friedl is playing on this tour, but Freese apparently comes back once in a while. (I think he sat in for a few shows in 2020 after five years away?)

FWIW, here's the Paris television performance, but someone reinstated a handful of songs that were cut out of the broadcast (though the reinstated songs are in poorer quality with substantial stretching). There are two complete 1978 shows that were filmed in Devo's archive, reportedly in excellent quality - hopefully they'll get a nice Blu-ray or DVD presentation someday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JCjn3pksCk

Lots of big Devo news: Netflix announced they were the ones who acquired that doc so it's coming soon. And Devo is actually touring with the B-52s! Another band from that era who's touring after an ostensible "farewell" tour, but I don't care, I'd rather see them play again.