MUSICDVD

DEVO

Live 1980 Wienerworld

For some reason there’s a whole slew of Devo material being re-released. It could well be that’s it only now the (very) alt-synth band are seen less as oddballs and more as ahead of their time. This is taken from their Freedom of Choice tour back in 1980, just after the band had broken through with the single Whip It, and it finds them in fine form. You kind of forget just how original and perplexing Devo were when they came out, and certainly there’s never been a cover of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction to match theirs. On the downside, the production values aren’t the best, and there is the odd bit of distortion here and there. Still, given that there looks to be a full-scale Devo revival in motion, it might be best to get in early with this. Brian Boyd