Celebrating Freedom of Choice with Devo

Exercising Freedom of Choice with Devo at Hollywood Park, July 1, 2010.

I saw Devo in concert for $7, thanks to a Facebook ad.

Everyone loves to have freedom of choice, not to mention a good deal. So when I found out I could see Devo live for $7—no, that’s not a typo—instead the usual $70+ fee that most concerts charge these days for tickets (plus service charge, convenience fee, etc., etc.), I was all over it. It became a family outing. And best of all, kids were free.

Funny anecdote: When trying to look up the band online before attending the show, my teenage daughter had to ask, “How do you spell ‘Devo’?” She had tried searching for “Divo” first. Turns out there’s an operatic-pop outfit by the name of Il Divo, and she got worried for a minute that we were taking her to see them. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

Calling all mutants: whip it good.

Hollywood Park has been promoting its summer concert series this year with targeted ads on Facebook. I didn’t notice this particular concert advertised anywhere else, although radio station KROQ also had a van there. Clicking on one of the Facebook ads took you to a landing page with the Devo concert details. As an added incentive, you could save $1 off the already low, low admission price ($8 before 9 p.m. — $15 after) by sending a text message.

Devotees were out in full force by 9:00, snapping up “Energy Dome” hats, which sold out in an hour, along with other souvenir merchandise.

Modeling the latest "energy dome" head gear at the Devo merchandise table.

We're all Devo now. Even the Hollywood Park bartenders.

Something For Everybody at the Races

The band said this was the first time they’d played at a horse racetrack. The event looked like a runaway success, for both the band and the track. The band took time to thank the audience for participating in their focus group song-test, thus helping to select the tracks included on their first album of new material in 20 years, “Something For Everybody.”

Another indicator of the plugged-in nature of the audience: Checking in at the racetrack on Foursquare, I earned a “Swarm” badge, since there were at least 50 other people also checking in on the mobile app.

The show was a multimedia extravaganza using a digital screen backdrop and plenty of costume changes, starting with their new “Something For Everybody” look and going back in time to the “Freedom of Choice” flower pot hats (now dubbed “energy domes”), all the way back to the low-budget yellow jumpsuits from their first album.

De-evolution is real. And it sounds as “Fresh” as it did in 1978.

Here’s a taste of the show with some photos and videos. Enjoy. And happy Independence Day.

The "Fresh" new Devo look, minus the Phantom-of-the-Opera-meets-Frankenstein's-forehead masks.

Josh Freese, Gerald Casale, Bob Casale, Bob Mothersbaugh and Mark Mothersbaugh. The Spud Boys, looking for that real tomato.

Bob 1, Mark Mothersbaugh as Booji Boy, and Bob 2.

Booji Boy says, "It's a Beautiful World (For You, Not Me)"