Crucial Music (Volume XV: Devo)

One man's One Hit Wonder is another's Career Artist.  Many bands I've covered here on this blog (Simple Minds, Madness) could be considered One Hit Wonders despite long, successful careers without more than one Top 40 hit.  Enter Devo.  If you said Devo to a casual music fan, they'd likely be able to recall their 1980 hit "Whip It"  (here's a rare, killer Remix of it) and not much else, maybe some would remember their near complete deconstruction of "Satisfaction".  That's a shame because while certainly quirky, Devo made some really compelling music over the years. If you have smaller children, it's nearly impossible for them to have escaped the musical genius of Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh, to say nothing of his work on conventional films and television.

One of the greatest musical ideas to have blossomed in the past decade or so is the All Tomorrow's Parties series of performance in which a legendary band performs an iconic album live, in its entirety.  A recent performance of Devo's first two records inspired their current tour in which the band performs those two records live over two nights. I was fortunate enough to have seen them perform their highly acclaimed Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!album, front to back Thursday night at the Vic Theatre.  Certainly everyone has their favorites and I was most excited to see them perform "Gut Feeling", a song I first became familiar with covering it in my first band in high school.  Of course, those who show up for night two (tonight as of this writing) will see the Freedom of Choice record performed, containing "Whip It" but I stand by my decision to see their debut, a better collection of material.  However, if I were to choose an album that would place a close second to Q:A:, it would be New Traditionalists featuring, among many greats: "Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth".

Funny story: A friend of ours came to visit a few years ago and as we were driving in town, she said: "That's so cool, you have a street named after Devo here."  We almost didn't have the heart to tell her the street is actually called Deyo, having a Devo street would be so cool.

Have a great Friday the 13th and a good weekend. Enjoy the music.

Comments

[Jay]

"Gates of Steel" as an encore was a highlight for me at the Henry Fonda performance. And I couldn't get over how much Bob Mothersbaugh (guitar player) and Fred Armisen look alike.

[ken]

"Gates of Steel" was an encore and highlight at the Vic night one. And yes, Mark could be Fred's cool uncle.