Devo Live 1980 - DVD

**** out of *****

This is a DVD of a Devo concert performed at the Phoenix Theatre in Petaluna, California in 1980. The other two Devo concert DVDs that are available show concerts from 1996 (Lollapalooza) and 2003 (Japan). So this DVD is a great chance to see the band perform in their early days. It’s also interesting to see what a gig look liked in a smallish theatre back in 1980 (much the same but with wacky haircuts).

The video quality isn’t great by today’s standards, but you can clearly see what’s going on, and it isn’t bad in a distracting way. The concert is not claustrophobically shot (a common problem in small venue filmed concerts). And it’s not like a guy set up one stationary camera then went off to have a smoke. The film has been pieced together with shots from enough angles to avoid looking static. The only thing I would have liked to see more of is shots of the crowd. You get some good looks, but there are a lot of frustratingly tantalising glimpses of crazy eighties styles.

The concert opens with a series of songs from Devo’s third album Freedom of Choice, starting with their most famous song “Whip It”. The Freedom of Choice album used more electronic instruments than their previous two albums. It’s an album I love, but the songs and instruments don’t give the band as much room to move on stage. The band makes up for it by camping it up with some set dance move and lighting effects. But this part of the set feels more like a performance than a concert. I guess they realised that, which is why they warmed the crowd up with them.

They then head into the more guitar heavy songs from their first two albums Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo and Duty Now For The Future (plus two other songs from Freedom of Choice which use the same set of instruments). And this is where the concert’s energy starts to pick up. The band member’s can get out from behind the keyboards (a few times going into the crowd), the songs rock a bit more, and all feels a bit more spontaneous. It turns into a rock concert. An unusual, innovate rock concert where the band strips from matching jumps suits to matching grips, and the power domes on the heads are no doubt channelling the sexual energy back into their bodies as theory would have it.

I imagine this DVD captures the band somewhere around their live peak. The album they released after this, New Traditionalists, is even more keyboard heavy and unsuited to a raucous concert performance. And, to put it as nicely as possible, they’re not as old as they are in the other DVDs.

The DVD also includes Devo playing as their alter ego band Dove, The Band of Love at the M-80 Concert (also in 1980). They play two Devo songs, “Praying Hands” and “Shrivel Up”, while wearing suits matched with green visors and round black sunglasses (when you see me around town in that get up you’ll know where I stole it from). The songs are shot in what I can only describe as a ‘60s style black and white, and that, combined with the way the songs are performed, give it a new age gospel feel.

Devo Live 1980 is nowhere near the technical quality of the Lollapalooza and Japan concert DVDs, but that’s its charm. The quality is not so dire that it detracts, and that’s the important thing. It’s a burst of new age/pop/punk creative energy in a sweaty California theatre. I’d recommend this out of all the concerts DVD; if you combined it with The Complete Truth About De-Evolution, the DVD of Devo music videos that’s available, you would have an excellent set.

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