Jockos And Homos All Love Devo

I discovered Devo as a child, like I had with Talking Heads and The Specials, on Saturday Night Live during my musical awakening period in the late '70s and the dawn of the '80s.

Devo performed a herky-jerky cover of The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" while wearing yellow radiation suits on the 1978 show hosted by Fred Willard. The band members then peeled off the suits to reveal black T-shirts adorned with the band name, black shorts and knee pads for an even stranger song called "Jocko Homo."

I was hooked, and went out and bought the Akron, Ohio band's Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! debut album almost immediately. Most of my classmates thought I was strange (and in retrospect, they were probably right), but that album became one of my soundtracks through grade seven and made Devo's next three LPs no-brainer purchases when they followed in subsequent years.

Devo went on an extended hiatus but have sporadically recorded and performed this decade, and their first new studio album since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps will be released by Warner Brothers in the spring.

I saw Devo play an elaborate concert, and some new songs, at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas in March. Since I'd never seen the group before, it was a pretty big thrill.

But when I found out that the now California-based group were going to do a short tour of two-night stands featuring Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! on the first and their commercial breakthrough Freedom Of Choice on the second, I became really pumped. Two of the favourite albums from my youth were going to be coming to life on stage in front of me.

Parts of the group's 1974 film The Truth About De-Evolution, featuring performances of "Secret Agent Man" and "Jocko Homo," were played before Devo took the stage in front of 1,300 hardcore fans at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on Monday (Nov. 23) night for a performance of Devo's first album in its entirety.

Devo emerged to a huge ovation while wearing the radiation suits and 3D goggles and then jumped into "Uncontrollable Urge." There was intentionally awkward choreography, and the whole concept seemed particularly absurd since all the band members are pushing 60. But it worked.

Mick Jagger personally approved of Devo's cover of "Satisfaction" during an initially tense boardroom meeting attended by the band's two main vocalists, Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale. They were nervous that the Stones singer wouldn't like it, but he gave his stamp of approval to include the song on Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, and the rest is history. Guitars screeched through Monday night's rendition, and the band members tossed their goggles into the crowd at the end of it.

This is flu season and everyone was in cramped quarters at the packed club, even more so when Mark Mothersbaugh jumped into the crowd, so I hope those in attendance acknowledged the admonition to "wash your hands three times a day" during "Praying Hands." But perhaps a breakout of H1N1 among Devo fans might be a shining example of the group's de-evolution theory that the guys would be proud to be part of.

The title of "Space Junk" was apparently "ripped straight from the headlines of The Akron Beacon Journal in 1975," according to bassist Gerald Casale. (Casale and Mothersbaugh both have brothers named Bob who are also in Devo, as is more recently recruited A Perfect Circle and former Nine Inch Nails drummer Josh Freese). The bassist took over lead vocals while Mark Mothersbaugh focused on keyboards, and lead guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh delivered some ripping guitar in the song's final bridge.

The Casale brothers and Bob Mothersbaugh stood abreast at the front of the stage while Mark Mothersbaugh waved pom-poms at the side during "Mongoloid," which had a lot of people singing along.

Devo asked the crowd "Are we not men?" a number of times and got a resounding "We are Devo" response after each one before the group tore into the side one-closing "Jocko Homo." Radiation suits were stripped off mid-song to reveal the black T-shirts, shorts and knee pads get-up from more than 30 years earlier. It was even funnier now, however, since most of the musicians aren't quite the same physical specimens they were in their younger days.

The lights went down as the guitars made a grinding sound during "Too Much Paranoias" before blindingly bright white lights flashed from the back of the stage and shocked the crowd (which included a few folks who shelled out $30 for Devo's flowerpot-resembling "energy dome" hats) to life.

"Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy)" sped up toward the end and led into "Come Back Jonee," which rocked out and featured a very cool keyboard line. Mark Mothersbaugh wiped his butt and crotch, and then his face, with a towel that he threw into the sea of bodies below toward the end of the song.

"Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin')" featured an energetic "Hey, hey, hey" chant at the end, which set the stage for the album's final cut. I luckily wasn't reminded of emerging from a cold lake during "Shrivel-Up" (though now that i just wrote that, perhaps I subconsciously was), which was as odd as ever. And you just try to name me a better song with the term "pooty poo-poo" in it.

That was the end of the album, and Devo briefly left the stage before returning for a two-song encore that opened with a somewhat extended "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA" from 1979's Duty Now For The Future. Bob Mothersbaugh delivered another impressive guitar solo during this one.

Devo closed the hour-long show off by offering a hint of what's to come Tuesday by playing a brilliant version of "Gates Of Steel" from the more synthesizer-heavy 1980 album, Freedom Of Choice. The crowd went crazy and demanded more, but didn't get it.

Even though the performance was relatively short, it made an impression on a lot of people. I talked to more than a few who didn't have tickets for Tuesday who said they now wanted to return for the second night. That included a couple of members from Team Devo, who wore hockey jerseys in the old powder blue Pittsburgh Penguins colours with a Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! logo on the front. One of them said he'd wear the different coloured Team Devo road jersey for the Freedom Of Choice show.

About 70 people paid a $50 premium on top of the normal $50 ticket price to receive autographed posters and meet the band members after the concert. I kept my distance and watched from the upstairs bar as these eager fans met their heroes, who looked like a group of dads and uncles off the stage and out of their stage outfits.

Come back tomorrow for a review of Tuesday night's Freedom Of Choice show.