Devo
By: Thomas Hannan
Playing this week:
18/6/07 - Brighton Dome
19/6/07 - London Royal Festival Hall (as part of Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown)
22/6/07 - Birmingham Symphony Hall
23/6/07 - Manchester Apollo
24/6/07 - Glasgow Academy
Tickets: £35.00 face value, available HERE.
Why is this worthy of my time and money?: Thirty five years after they first attempted to deconstruct the fabric of mainstream society, and mankind itself, through their years-ahead-of-its-time synth rock, Devo return to these shores this month for the first time in a decade and a half to show us, once and for all, just what is what. And you might be surprised to find out that what you thought was what is in fact not it at all. The shows include an evening headlining the London's prestigious Royal Festival Hall venue as part of the fourteenth annual Meltdown Festival, curated by none other than Jarvis Cocker, he of Pulp - a long time fan of the band. Support for that show comes from Shigeru Ishihara's band Drumize, a man you might also know as DJ Scotch Egg, who will unleash quite possibly the most disturbing sounds you will ever hear emanating from a Nintendo Game Boy. The current Devo line up, pairs of brothers Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh along with Gerald and Bob Casale, will be joined by drummer Josh Freese for headline shows which will, as ever, draw on surrealist humour, science fiction, deft social commentary and, most importantly, blisteringly brilliant discordant pop and squelchy synth rock par excellence.