DEVO – at The Fonda Theater – Hollywood, CA

In a time when you see things that are very generic, pre-packaged, done before / updated, it's very refreshing that an original band like DEVO exist. Tonight kicks off 2 nights of sold out shows with this band that started in the late 70’s and in 2009 they remain just as iconic today. This round of shows that dots the US and Canada to mark the re-issue of albums, “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” and “Freedom of Choice” that remain huge favorites today.

 

Each of the 2 nights they would play the 2 albums in their entirety. One on each night with the show tonight featuring the “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” album played from start to finish.

A little back drop on this album as sourced so eloquently from Wikipedia, according to an essay by Jerry Casale included on the Complete Truth About De-evolution DVD, the cover of their debut album is based on an image of the famous professional golfer Juan "Chi Chi" Rodriguez that they had found on a golf strap. According to Casale, David Burnam, the manager of business affairs at their label Warner Bros. Records, decided the image could not be used because "he was a golf fan and felt we were making fun of Chi Chi." The band offered to contact Rodriguez personally but were faced with time constraints, due to the forthcoming production of their album. The head of the label's art department, Rick Serini, recommended an artist who could airbrush and alter the face in the picture, while Mark Mothersbaugh offered up a picture he'd procured from a local newspaper that morphed the faces of United States presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. These ideas were morphed with the original "Chi Chi" Rodriguez image to create the cover of the album.

As a footnote to the story, the band did manage to get Rodriguez's permission to use the original photo. Since the "morphed" album sleeves were already in production by that time, Serini claimed it would cost the band $2,500 to halt production and reinstate the image originally intended by the band, which forced the band to keep the morphed version. According to Casale, "we were able to come out with something that by the corporate interference and misunderstanding of the business side of Warner Bros. Records, actually unwittingly produced something far more DEVO than the original [image]."

DEVO was way ahead of their time. If you were a fan of this band back at their inception you knew you paid the price at times for saying you were a fan. However the consolation to that is the same people that gave you shit for being into DEVO, where is their music and the bands they proclaimed as more supreme? The easy answer is: Nowhere and certainly not selling out a large venue like The Fonda Theater 2 nights back to back, haa haa to you lame jocks from the 80’s.

Opening the show was Reggie Watts who can be found at www.reggiewatts.com or www.myspace.com/reggiewatts. Not sure how to describe the music he was performing that may be a cross between rapping to comedy to some very wild tones going back an fourth. Full propers to Reggie for opening the show because all that can be said is that he was the one chosen by DEVO to open the show.

Certainly one of the fun aspects of this show was the sense of community. Every person around could be heard talking about their keystone DEVO album and what it meant to them and the stories were endless.

The VIDEO and photos enclosed with this report speak for them self of the show you missed. Log on to the DEVO website and stay up to date on all things DEVO  www.clubdevo.com

Set list
Side one
1. Uncontrollable Urge
2. Satisfaction
3. Praying Hand
4. Space Junk
5. Mongoloid
6. Jocko Homo
Side two
1. Too Much Paranoias
2. Gut Feeling
3. Come Back Jonee
4. Sloppy
5. Shrivel Up

Encore:
Smart Partol - Mr. DNA
Gates Of Steel
 

 

-J. Moncrief-
Big Wheel Music Scene Reporter

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews
 

 

Complete coverage of the second night:
DEVO – at The Fonda Theater – Hollywood, CA – November 4, 2009

Devo’s second consecutive night playing at the Fonda was dedicated to playing their epic "Freedom Of Choice" album from start to finish. Though there were children and adults of all ages present, most of the audience was made up of people over the age of thirty five. This was one show where nobody seemed to be concerned about being "That Guy" as Devo shirts were everywhere Read the story »