{"id":731,"date":"2012-09-19T19:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T19:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/216.71.127.204\/wordpress\/?p=731"},"modified":"2015-10-13T16:11:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T16:11:07","slug":"blondie-w-devo-arena-theater-houston-tx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/19\/blondie-w-devo-arena-theater-houston-tx\/","title":{"rendered":"Blondie w\/ DEVO – Arena Theater – Houston, TX"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Written by Dave Clements <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sep 19, 2012 at 07:00 PM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Blondie, featuring THE Deborah Harry, and DEVO, rolled into Texas Wednesday night to give H-Town exactly what this Arena Theatre crowd of 1,000 plus wanted.\u00a0 And\u00a0 GIVE they did ,all night long, song after song , at this lovely venue.<\/p>\n

DEVO was the first to appear in Houston\u2019s best \u2018Theatre In The Round\u2019.\u00a0 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\u00a0 a long overdue dose of the band they\u2019d been celebrating since way back in the 1970\u2019s.<\/p>\n

These gents, back then and today, have it together, doing it THEIR WAY\u2026and that way it very different than any others around in the 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s or today.\u00a0\u00a0 The way they dress, their singing style, and how they entertain are all VERY DEVO…and you either get them or you don\u2019t!\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing there\u00a0 are several people who have not been exposed to their stage act and might fall into an apathetic middle ground.\u00a0 Most, though, will have a strong opinion –\u00a0 yea or nay!<\/p>\n

I had\u00a0 heard their 1980 hit song \u2018Whip It\u2019 and\u00a0 thought it was a catchy tune.\u00a0 It tipped me off that these guys were different.\u00a0 Beyond that, though, these guys were not on my radar screen.\u00a0 Neither, for that matter, was Blondie.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll get to them in a moment.<\/p>\n

DEVO , indeed,\u00a0 Whipped It early in the set and they Whipped\u00a0 It Good,\u00a0 for the entire set!\u00a0 As well,\u00a0 they provided a lot of SATISFACTION, again their way.\u00a0 They took the signature Rolling Stone\u2019s song, one of my favorites, and put the DEVO twist on it.\u00a0\u00a0 It was significantly different than what my ears were used to and still had a lot of appeal and was easy to embrace.<\/p>\n

What wasn\u2019t as easy to embrace were\u00a0 the multiple uniform changes that occurred during the 60 plus minute set.\u00a0 I wish I had photos to show all of you non- DEVO devotees the other \u2018uniforms\u2019 the group wore after I put down my camera!\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I have the right words in my vocabulary to properly describe what we were exposed to clothing-wise.\u00a0 Each wardrobe change had their familiar logo on that piece of apparel, generally a \u2018jumpsuit\u2019 design, often very colorful, or pale gray. I wasn\u2019t wowed by all the activity.\u00a0 It looked like it was a \u2018time waster\u2019 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\u00a0 nonsense.<\/p>\n

The \u2018highlight\u2019 attire-wise was the cone hats worn by \u2018the guys\u2019 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.\u00a0 I may be in the minority but, really? For $50?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get it.\u00a0\u00a0 Guess I\u2019d rather see the purchase of a new \u2018cone hat\u2019, though,\u00a0 than to realize any of these fanatical folks had saved one for the last 30 years in their music memorabilia closet.\u00a0 Yikes!<\/p>\n

As all of this was going on these fellows were into their music \u2018full speed\u2019. And that wasn\u2019t the only thing going \u2018full speed\u2019.\u00a0 On this night, the Arena\u2019s rotating stage was in full throttle. I had never seen it go that fast, frankly didn\u2019t know it had more than one speed, but I know better now. I hope someone didn\u2019t mistakenly say \u2018crank it up\u2019.\u00a0 I think I heard keyboard player\u00a0 Bob Casale\u00a0 say\u00a0 he was moving so fast he was having a tough time getting with the beat of the music.<\/p>\n

They did however get into the beat of the music and made it through the 13 song set with ease.\u00a0 It is amusing to think that they are still doing what they were doing back in the early 70\u2019s and doing it well.\u00a0 I take my cone hat off to them.<\/p>\n

These guys look so \u2018non-show business\u2019 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,\u00a0 straight\u00a0 from the Bank Of America in New York,\u00a0 heading to their\u00a0 tour buses where next stop, once again they transform into\u2026 DEVO!\u00a0 Rock Stars from Mars breaking into their chant \u201c Are we not men? We are DEVO!\u201d.<\/p>\n

Finally, their last song and message to the audience was \u2018USE YOUR \u2026FREEDOM OF CHOICE!\u2019\/ With the state of \u2018things\u2019 these days around our Country and the Globe\u00a0 and the Presidential\u00a0\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n

And speaking of using your voice, Blondie\u2019s Deborah Harry got up on stage and let us know very quickly that she still had hers!\u00a0\u00a0 It was immediately obvious that she wasn\u2019t afraid to put it out there from her very first note. This rock legend, at 67, had her act together and didn\u2019t mind letting loose for all to see.<\/p>\n

A sharp contrast from when Pat Benatar came to town earlier this year.\u00a0 Although younger than Harry,\u00a0 Benatar\u00a0 would not let the spotlights be shown brightly on her or\u00a0 let the photographers shoot her.\u00a0 Deborah Harry\u2019s energy shouted \u2018bring \u2018em on\u2019!<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 She and her formidable band mates did a good job as she pranced and danced through her set that included a great opener \u2018Dreaming\u2019, and crowd pleasers \u2018Atomic\u2019, and \u2018Rapture\u2019.<\/p>\n

The highlight for me was hearing her sing her hit \u2018Heart of Glass\u2019 \u2026\u00a0 or was it when I got to photograph her?<\/p>\n

Deborah,\u00a0 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\u2019m sure that you did not leave this audience wanting or feeling they got anything less than your \u2018A\u2019 game.<\/p>\n

Before closing, I do want to share my one \u2018low light\u2019 of the evening.\u00a0 On this night, there was a\u00a0 significant gap in time between acts that really took away from the overall experience. The Tour\u2019s Production Manager needs a lesson on \u2018pace of play\u2019, especially when it\u2019s a school night.<\/p>\n

Until next time, hope you\u2019ll keep it between the navigational beacons.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Dave Clements Sep 19, 2012 at 07:00 PM Blondie, featuring THE Deborah Harry, and DEVO, rolled into Texas Wednesday night to give H-Town exactly what this Arena Theatre crowd of 1,000 plus wanted.\u00a0 And\u00a0 GIVE they did ,all night long, song after song , at this lovely venue. DEVO was the first to… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}