Devo Aus Tour: July/August 2008

[Hitman]

Devo, the original free thinkers, inadvertent inventors of electro-pop, the drum machine and the energy dome - return to Australia this coming winter to headline the Splendour in the Grass Festival and to perform a series of side shows in concert halls around the country. They'll be joined by Regurgitator and Sydney / Melbourne audiences also get garage rockers Eddy Current Suppression

JULY

31st - Festival Hall, Melbourne
With Guests REGURGITATOR, EDDIE CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING
Tickets $93.40 (includes GST and booking fee. Some transaction fees may apply) from http://www.ticketmaster.com.au, via phone 136-100 or from all ticketmaster outlets.

AUGUST

1st - Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
With Guests REGURGITATOR, EDDIE CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING
Tickets $93.65 (includes GST and booking fee. Some transaction fees may apply) from http://www.ticketek.com.au, via phone 132-849 or from all ticketek outlets.

4th - Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
With Guests REGURGITATOR
Tickets $88.50 (includes GST and booking fee. Some transaction fees may apply) from http://www.venuetix.com or via phone 8225 8888.

6th - Metro City, Perth
With Guests REGURGITATOR
Tickets $85.00 + bf from http://www.moshtix.com and all moshtix outlets (Jumbo Entertainment, Galaxy Entertainment, Mills Records, Planet Video and Rockeby Records). Also available from http://www.bocsticketing.com.au and http://www.78records.com.au.

[BJN]

I'm going!



*to the Hordern show.

[BJN]

Eddy Current Suppression Ring were an appropriately weird, garage rock band from (Melbourne?) Australia. Good energy, the singer walked around out into the audience, but mostly they played close together on a fairly large stage, making it look like they believed they actually were in an invisible garage. The first time I've seen them, they left a good impression.

I personally enjoyed Regurgitator far better than DEVO. Partly because I'm familiar with all of Regurgitator's songs (that are performed live) and mainly because they're just such a great live band. Although Quan can be a bit hit and miss with his enthusiasm on stage, despite apologising for being "tired", he was on the ball and the whole band had a tremendous amount of energy that I was compelled to rock my heart out to. Even the fill in drummer (apparently Peter Kostic recently fathered a baby) was tight with the band. They performed songs that I personally hadn't heard live before ("Polyester Girl" and "I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff"), the fairly obscure song, "Bong in My Eye" (which I think has only been released as a single in 2004, not appearing on any other releases, hence being obscure) as well as eventually playing the classics "F.S.O." and "Kong Foo Sing" from Tu-Plang... ...I was surprised that they didn't play the title track from their new album, Love and Paranoia, the recent single "Romance of the Damned" or "Track 1" (usually a regular high point in their gigs). But over all, their set was absolutely frigging awesome and definitely put them as one of the best bands IN THE WORLD in my honest opinion.
I was damn near fainting by the end of it, utterly exhausted in the uncontrollable dance/mosh/jumping they bring out of me, irrespective of my own free will. Wow, they are good!

So anything after that (bar NIN or the Dillinger Escape Plan) could top such a performance. Even so, I think I would have been disappointed by DEVO. Mind you, the screen projected intro was ominous and amusing, but once they came on stage, they really did look like old men (unlike the fit masculine beasts of Iron Maiden) and put less than 100% into the first few songs, which included "Girl U Want" and "Whip It" fairly early on the set. But by "Secret Agent Man" (sung by one of the Bob's) and the Rolling Stones cover, "Satisfaction (I Can't Get No)", things were heating up. "Mongoloid", "Uncontrollable Urge", "Freedom of Choice", "Blockhead" and the monumental "Gates of Steel" all rocked my socks and showed they were a hell of a lot fitter than they appeared. The in between stage banter was amusing, or at least interesting (mainly coming from Gerry Casale, who's physical proportions make him look very weird now, which is perhaps fitting and gives him more visual character), but things started going down hill again when he introduced *Boojie Boy*, who many were not completely familiar with (myself included) and ended up being a character who looks a bit like the fat kid on King of the Hill. Really, it was just Mark Mothersborough in costume, singing in an annoying "Towelie/Hankey the Christmas Poo" style voice. Which rather fucked "A Beautiful World", which is a song probably better un-tampered with. Turned out to be the last song too. With *Boojie Boy* throwing (what seemed like hundreds) of little bouncing balls from out of a bum bag. No encore, although those last few songs may have been the encore, as they had gone of stage earlier in what I thought was an intermission. It was a fairly short concert and I, amongst many others, was feeling a bit dissatisfied (punny reference!), knowing that it could have been a whole lot more than what it was. There were a few songs I really would've liked them to have played and they could've played with more intensity throughout the whole set. But overall, I'm still glad I went and happy with the merchandise that I bought.