DEVO was the first to appear in Houston’s best ‘Theatre In The Round’.  Once these five guys got lined up, they marched into the arena , on time, in uniform, with a mission to accomplish! Their mission, which they whole heartedly did decide to accept, was to give their DEVO fans  a long overdue dose of the band they’d been celebrating since way back in the 1970’s.

These gents, back then and today, have it together, doing it THEIR WAY…and that way it very different than any others around in the 70’s and 80’s or today.   The way they dress, their singing style, and how they entertain are all VERY DEVO…and you either get them or you don’t!   I’m guessing there  are several people who have not been exposed to their stage act and might fall into an apathetic middle ground.  Most, though, will have a strong opinion –  yea or nay!

I had  heard their 1980 hit song ‘Whip It’ and  thought it was a catchy tune.  It tipped me off that these guys were different.  Beyond that, though, these guys were not on my radar screen.  Neither, for that matter, was Blondie.  But I’ll get to them in a moment.

DEVO , indeed,  Whipped It early in the set and they Whipped  It Good,  for the entire set!  As well,  they provided a lot of SATISFACTION, again their way.  They took the signature Rolling Stone’s song, one of my favorites, and put the DEVO twist on it.   It was significantly different than what my ears were used to and still had a lot of appeal and was easy to embrace.

What wasn’t as easy to embrace were  the multiple uniform changes that occurred during the 60 plus minute set.  I wish I had photos to show all of you non- DEVO devotees the other ‘uniforms’ the group wore after I put down my camera!  I don’t think I have the right words in my vocabulary to properly describe what we were exposed to clothing-wise.  Each wardrobe change had their familiar logo on that piece of apparel, generally a ‘jumpsuit’ design, often very colorful, or pale gray. I wasn’t wowed by all the activity.  It looked like it was a ‘time waster’ to me as they stopped the show, marched into their little makeshift dressing room in the pit and marched back out on stage. The obvious true fans, though, seemed to genuinely enjoy all this  nonsense.

The ‘highlight’ attire-wise was the cone hats worn by ‘the guys’ as well as many fans in the audience. Shoot me if you ever see me at the merch table spending $50 to purchase/wear one of these ITEMS.  I may be in the minority but, really? For $50?  I didn’t get it.   Guess I’d rather see the purchase of a new ‘cone hat’, though,  than to realize any of these fanatical folks had saved one for the last 30 years in their music memorabilia closet.  Yikes!

As all of this was going on these fellows were into their music ‘full speed’. And that wasn’t the only thing going ‘full speed’.  On this night, the Arena’s rotating stage was in full throttle. I had never seen it go that fast, frankly didn’t know it had more than one speed, but I know better now. I hope someone didn’t mistakenly say ‘crank it up’.  I think I heard keyboard player  Bob Casale  say  he was moving so fast he was having a tough time getting with the beat of the music.

They did however get into the beat of the music and made it through the 13 song set with ease.  It is amusing to think that they are still doing what they were doing back in the early 70’s and doing it well.  I take my cone hat off to them.

These guys look so ‘non-show business’ ordinary that what kept coming into my mind during the show was visualizing these men marching out the front door in their 3 piece, black pin-striped suits, briefcases in hand,  straight  from the Bank Of America in New York,  heading to their  tour buses where next stop, once again they transform into… DEVO!  Rock Stars from Mars breaking into their chant “ Are we not men? We are DEVO!”.

Finally, their last song and message to the audience was ‘USE YOUR …FREEDOM OF CHOICE!’/ With the state of ‘things’ these days around our Country and the Globe  and the Presidential   election coming up, this would be a good time for all of us to heed their message and cast our vote! This is not a time for apathy, we must cast our vote and make our voice heard regarding what we think is best for Our Nation today , tomorrow and well into the future!

And speaking of using your voice, Blondie’s Deborah Harry got up on stage and let us know very quickly that she still had hers!   It was immediately obvious that she wasn’t afraid to put it out there from her very first note. This rock legend, at 67, had her act together and didn’t mind letting loose for all to see.

A sharp contrast from when Pat Benatar came to town earlier this year.  Although younger than Harry,  Benatar  would not let the spotlights be shown brightly on her or  let the photographers shoot her.  Deborah Harry’s energy shouted ‘bring ‘em on’!

She is a talented and beautiful woman. She was perhaps more strikingly beautiful at 20, 30, 40 or even 50 but make no mistake about it, you can still see what all the fuss was about for the last four decades.  She and her formidable band mates did a good job as she pranced and danced through her set that included a great opener ‘Dreaming’, and crowd pleasers ‘Atomic’, and ‘Rapture’.

The highlight for me was hearing her sing her hit ‘Heart of Glass’ …  or was it when I got to photograph her?

Deborah,  thank you for keeping the sound going and not being afraid to put it out there for all your devoted fans to see. I was impressed and I’m sure that you did not leave this audience wanting or feeling they got anything less than your ‘A’ game.

Before closing, I do want to share my one ‘low light’ of the evening.  On this night, there was a  significant gap in time between acts that really took away from the overall experience. The Tour’s Production Manager needs a lesson on ‘pace of play’, especially when it’s a school night.

Until next time, hope you’ll keep it between the navigational beacons.