Review: Devo's 'Are We Not Men' show is short but super

Are we not '80s fans? No, we are Devo fans. At least many of us are, including Stuck in the '80s correspondent Christina Kajtsa, who lives in possibly the most un-'80s city of all: Seattle. (Death to grunge!) She caught Devo in concert last week and provides this short review:

Last night I went to see Devo in concert at the Moore Theater here in Seattle. They're only performing in 6 cities, doing two shows a night. One night they are only performing songs off their Are We Not Men?... We Are DEVO! album. The second night they're performing Freedom of Choice. I went to see Are We Not Men?....

The theater was sold out, and a little after 9 p.m. a giant screen came down from the top of the theater and starting showing old DEVO videos (specifically, Secret Agent Man and Mechanical Man). The crowd went wild once all the band members came on stage.

All of them wore their trademark yellow jumpsuits with the word "DEVO" printed across the chest and during the first two songs -- the setlist was the same order as the album... starting with Uncontrollable Urge and ending with Shrivel Up -- Mark Mothersbaugh kept ripping off parts of each of the band members suits (a sleeve here, a pant leg there).

I have to say, I was quite impressed with the show. I thought they would just stand around playing their old songs, but they had choreographed moves for each number (mainly just a lot of marching in place and in circles) and Mothersbaugh was all over the stage. He played the keyboard, the guitar, sang and ran around the stage with pompoms.

At one point in the show, they ripped off their yellow jumpsuits and wore nothing but black t-shirts and black shorts.

Unfortunately, the show was only about 70 minutes long. I thought they were going to play their greatest hits as well, but they mainly stuck to the songs on the We Are Not Men album.

Overall I really had a great time and I was impressed as hell that men who are well into their 50s and 60s still know how to show the crowd a good time.

[Click here to see if Devo is coming to your town.]

[Photo by SIT80s LA correspondent Brad Williams]

Comments

[Douglas Arthur]

Kevy, I am all in with you. I like the new wave, but I liked the music of the early 90's, too. Grunge indeed got its start in the 80's, but didn't grab a foothold until Nevermind dropped in '90. Grunge bands are big into Devo, too. Nirvana covered Turnaround, and Soundgarden took on Girl U Want amongst others (This last Halloween, Pearl Jam of all bands came out on stage dressed in the trademark Yellow Radiation suits and Energy domes and played Whip It...look it up on YouTube!) Not to mention that Gerald V. Casale was tapped to direct music videos for Foo Fighters and Soundgarden, amongst others, so there is a kinship there.

[Neil]

Christina, those red, blocky hats the band wears in the "Whip It" video are called "Energy Domes"!!!!!! You should know that!!!!!! I am going to see DEVO Friday night at the Vic in Chicago. Should be a great show. I have seen them 3 times before. I flew out to California to see them play the Boom Boom Huck Jam skate boarding tour. That was great. I am going to see the Freedom of Choice night. It is a toss up for me, I really like Are We Not Men? But it is on Thursday night and Friday just works better for me.

[Cathy]

Christina, admit it, one of "some of the people" in the audience wearing the Devo hat and jumpsuit included your boyfriend! ;)
Great review - thanks!
Great

[Sandro Mazzotta]

I am looking forward to them returning to Australia in the near future. I was just reading an interview with Gerry Casale in this book titled 'Rip it up'.

Long live the Devolution!

[Kevy Metal]

I saw The Cult at The Moore a couple of months ago. They played their album "Love" in its entirety. I'm sure both Devo shows rock, I'm just not fan enough to see either of them.

Steve the Seattle grunge sound you scorn so freely originated in the 80's. You can't deny it of it's birthright. Love it Steve. Love it like the problem child of the family. Toughlove Steve. Toughlove.

[Douglas Arthur]

Indeed! I've only had an opportunity to see them once before, and that was 12 years ago on the Lollapalooza '97 tour in their hometown of Akron! Was a great show, but had to suffer through Korn and Snoop Dogg to get to them (Though I kinda dug Tool, but I digress). Since Devo was on stage last that night, most of the Korn/Snoop Dogg crowd left before they started and more left after they played Whip It about 3 songs into their set that night. All that was left was rabid Devo fans and it was great! Devo fans are known for their homemade shirts and paraphenalia, too, so that is always fun to see (Though some of the folks dip into Star Trek convention territory if you know what I mean...)

just 5 days left until my trip to DC, and I am stoked! thanks for lending a voice here, Devo fans may not be as plentiful here as, say, Journey fans, but we are dedicated and enthusiastic to be sure!

Duty now!

BTW, great pic Brad, I'm hoping to snap a few myself...maybe even closer to the stage!

[Christina K]

Douglas: absolutely! It's pretty rare for a band to play all the songs from one album (although that seems to be the trend lately. I think Steely Dan did that too when they came to Seattle).

I loved how some of the people in the audience were wearing those red, blocky hats the band wears in the "Whip It" video, and one guy even had a yellow jumpsuit on. Devo fans are quite the enthusiastic bunch.

[Douglas Arthur]

I'll be hitting both nights in DC this weekend, and will issue a full report afterwards! Sounds great! Not sure if they ever performed Shrivel Up before, if not it's definitely been a while.

Christina, they may have stuck to Are We Not Men? But at least it's a great album!

[Brad]

Dang, somebody beat me to it! Steve, I'm sending you some of my pictures from the Los Angeles Are We Not Men? show.