Post-Punk Monk

[…continued from last post]

I had fully given up hope that I’d ever see DEVO in concert!

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I’d come close. In 2018 I got to see Mark Mothersbaugh have a panel discussion with an old Kent State classmate who was now the Art Department chair of the Western Carolina University. DEVO was nothing if not an artistic political protest movement that somehow became an [anti] Rock band! Of course that was edifying to attend. I beseech anyone reading these words to always make the efforts to see your musical heroes in a context removed from the performing stage whenever possible. It gives their art a new contextual framing and will add to your enjoyment thereof.

But at the end of the day you just have to see a band whom you’ve enjoyed for nearly 50 years and whose music you not only know like the back of your hand, but especially one whose reputation as seers of cynicism have been outstripped by the horrors of reality. When they warned of a “corporate feudal state” in the 70s many could not have wrapped their heads around the concept. Now it’s here. It’s almost been here for a whole generation. Maybe two.

As the teams of roadies broke down the impressive B-52’s stage for DEVO, we didn’t have to wait long for the follow through. At shortly after 9:00 p.m. the video screen blazed to life with a hilarious video featuring then and now footage of Big Entertainment industry weasel Rod Rooter lamenting his nearly 50 year association with those stupid spuds, DEVO. After Rod stationary cycled off into the sunset the show began with some real impact.

Then the set began to drift backward in time with the bracing “Peek-A-Boo,” the lead off single from “Oh No, It’s DEVO” bringing its Jungian viewpoint [all about The Shadow] to the dance floor. You’ve just got to love the scope of this band. The next song was a track from my favorite “High DEVO” album “New Traditionalists” with “Going Under.” The backdrop for this track was a new, animated video with two beautiful mutants walking the pavement in a big city and taking an elevator down to a literally underground club. The design was all in keeping with the red and black motif of this show.

Then test pattern stripes animated across the backdrop screen in sync with the beat that we all recognized as the one for “That’s Good.” Unlike puritanical MTV, there was no one here tonight to balk at the famous video images of the french fry and the donut exploding with energy. Thank goodness. The DEVO timeline kept moving backward with a trio of songs from their top selling “Freedom Of Choice”‘ album figuring next. “Girl U Want” dialed down the elaborate visuals for bold, brightly colored title text, several stories high, blasting on the screen to emphasize the chorus.

I had fully expected to see the ubiquitous music video as they launched into “Whip It,” but the visuals here were radically different, with abstract red nebulae [at least that’s what it looked like from row V] filling the screen in the center. I thought it was kind of cocky for them to drop their big Top 20 gold record hit at their set’s midpoint. They followed with a fave rave deep cut from the “Freedom Of Choice” album. The dryly deadpan “Planet Earth.”

It was possibly the most B-52’s-like song they ever wrote and if Fred Schneider had joined them onstage to duet with them on it, I would not have batted an eyelash. As it was, I cannot shake the feeling that a rare opportunity had been missed. The video wall imagery came out for this one with a fleet of energy domes traveling to earth through space before the lyrics from its conclusion [“I lived all my life”] were filling the screen. When the song ended the band left the stage briefly for a costume change for the second half of their set. A Carl Sagan video played while this happened; tying into the theme of “Planet Earth.”

When they came back to the stage the band were sporting their iconic yellow hazmat suits they ripped into their perennially popular “Uncontrollable Urge,” which had gotten MTV saturation airplay as the theme song to a show [I’ve never previously heard of] called “Ridiculousness.” I’ve read that the royalties this brought to writer Mark Motherabaugh was a serious amount of change. At this I laugh… HAH! That in no way impugns the white hot intensity of the song! This evening we thrilled to the original members Gerry Casale, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh [along with drummer Jeff Friedl and Josh Hager of rhythm guitar/synths] still doing their iconic “jumping jack” choreography when playing it live.

I was there wearing my “Duty Now For The Future” t-shirt that night and next thrilled to “Blockhead;” a deep cut from this sophomore album. It was another gift from their early days where the notion of a song in 11/8 time didn’t faze the band! It was followed by the iconic “Mongoloid.” The second song in a row where they examined the desire to adhere to social norms.

The social commentary continued with their signature song, “Jocko Homo.” The bracing tune still managed to jolt these ears via its radical 7/8 time signature and its ability to distill the provocative DEVO thematic concept into a single song. The band played its cards close to their vest this evening. There was a schedule to maintain for this outdoor show [with curfew] but how I wish I had seen an early gig where they would push the call-and-response coda up to a half hour to attempt to spark riots in their audiences.

The medley of “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA” was another delight from their second album! I usually got the sense that the album had been glossed over by the band since it neither had the cultural pull of the first or sheer popularity of their third albums, but I think that the spuds value it more today than perhaps when it was released to a somewhat indifferent audience. It was the first DEVO album that I had bought on release. With the first album being gifted to me later that year.

All new graphics accompanied the songs. Once more leaning heavily into the red and black. I really liked the jagged, enervated peril graphics like Keith Haring figures with 5000 volt of electricity pulsing through them for “Mr. DNA.” Possibly DEVO’s most “ripe with mythology” songs. The second phase of the concert was a deep dive in the less synthetic, early phase of their career. Until the last song, the powerful “Gates Of Steel.” I always felt that it was the missed opportunity for another hit single from “Freedom Of Choice.” Perhaps even moreso than the title track, which was a single. Though I just saw that “Gates Of Steel” was a single in a live version from the “DEVO Live” EP that followed the “Freedom Of Choice” album. 

With the dare-I-say-it, anthemic “Gates Of Steel” over, the band left the stage, but being the headliners this evening, they soon came back following the video for the “DEVO Corporate Anthem” video to play the last song of the night, the potent “Freedom Of Choice.” Dressed in black oversized tunics with the letters of the band name on each member at the front of the stage. The backdrop couldn’t have been more dramatic with a huge American flag behind them on the big screen, but there were holes being burned through Old Glory in a most metaphoric way. The holes got large enough to engulf the flag and act as match shot segues to the skaters in the pipe music video. It was a hell of a climax for an election year show like this one. 

This had been a gratifying show that had scratched numerous itches I’ve had for most of my life. Seeing Lene Lovich was nothing I ever expected. I really thought I’d missed the boat for good on DEVO but the band seem to be more interested in touring right now. Which I can probably owe to the zeitgeist. Their perspective is needed now more than ever. And The B-52’s were far more joyful than even a jaded old fan who’d seen them on opposite legs of the “Cosmic Thing” tour 35 years ago could have imagined.

And each of these bands were doing no harm to their legacies at all by playing into their seventies. Lene Lovich and her band were positioned to play that amazing body of work exceptionally well with Ms. Lovich singing and playing sax with power and conviction. Having six musicians onstage really did the material justice. To whomever came up with the brilliant idea of enlisting Lene Lovich as the opening act for this co-headlining bill I send a 12 ft. high bouquet of flowers.

The B-52’s secret sauce after so many years together continues to the be the dynamic interplay between Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson harmonizing together with Fred Schneider adding his deadpan sprechgesang vocalizing at perpendicular musical angles. Creating a dynamic that no one else has. I’d not really listened to any B-52’s much in the last 25 years, but hearing this lively show proved that was to my detriment. Their Avant-Cool approach to shewed pop remains effervescent on songs like “Dance This Mess Around” and especially “Planet Claire.” This show may have overtaken the 1990 “Cosmic Thing” tour for my favorite B-52’s concert of the three I’ve had.

And DEVO were playing with fire and passion in a time when they are no longer the canaries in the coal mine. Far worse than they warned against has now come to pass! But to their credit, they are not sticking their heads in the sand! They are engaging with a large audience far in advance of what a band with a single Top 20 hit to their name has any right to expect. Due to their unique point of view their songs bring to the listener.

They, like all of the bands onstage this evening, were children of the sixties who came out of the cauldron of the 70s to herald the 80s that followed in their wake. With all of them issuing iconic debut albums in 1978 to link them forever in the New Wave movement. They each influenced numerous acts who picked up on their unique qualities and tried to run with them. But like the song says, ain’t nothing like the real thing! Today they are the Elders of New Wave and we were thrilled that this caravan was together in once place for a high impact, high-value evening of crucial music for what might be one last time.

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