DEVO
2019-10-12
Desert Daze Festival
The Moon Stage
Moreno Beach, Lake Perris State Recreation Area, Perris, CA
SOURCE:
SP-CMC-8 (w/Mods) > Sony PCM-M10 > Sandisk Mini-SD Card (32gb - Class 10)
TRANSFER:
.WAV (24 Bit) > Adobe Audition 2019 CC (normalize/amplify/tracking/dithering/downsampling) > .WAV (16 Bit) > Trader's Little Helper > FLAC (Level 8)
SETLIST:
01. "Something for Everybody" Short Film Intro (audio only of course)
02. Don't Shoot (I'm A Man)
03. Peek-a-Boo
04. Going Under
05. That's Good
06. Girl U Want
07. Whip It
08. (costume change interlude)
09. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones cover)
10. Secret Agent Man (P.F. Sloan & Steve Barri cover)
11. Uncontrollable Urge
12. Mongoloid
13. Jocko Homo
14. Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA
15. Gates of Steel
16. Freedom of Choice
17. Beautiful World
NOTES:
In my seven short years of taping bands, this set right here was easily my most anticipated and "important" one yet, one of which for I felt like that immediately after seeing them announced for the Desert Daze 2019 lineup. DEVO! Fucking DEVO was on the lineup for this festival. I literally had to pinch myself and do a triple check at the poster when I first saw it announced. Of course, I had bought early bird tickets for this festival as I had been wanting to go regardless (missed it in 2018 and I really really regret that - just like I regret not going to Coachella back in 2004...err anyway...), but seeing DEVO's name on the lineup tripled my excitement, easily.
I would definitely consider DEVO a top 10 band for me (maybe even a possible top 5, who knows?) and I had only seen them once, back at Coachella in 2010. Weirdly I don't remember much from that set, and I'm not sure why (I'm totally sober, so it's not "that"), and I missed them on their next tour/stops in CA after that (2013 or 2014 I think). Anyway, of course they start playing less and less until they're basically retired, and then BAM, here they are again, appearing out of the blue to play this festival, even without Bob 2 (RIP).
I was so excited for this show that I bought myself and my girlfriend a couple of red Energy Domes off their website ($30 for those suckers though, they ain't cheap), and made some "homemade" shirts for that day. Mine saying "oh, no! it's SPUDBOY". I talk and talk about my anticipation for this set constantly for two months while the festival creeps closer. The reason I say all this is to paint the picture of just how stoked I was for this set, if that wasn't obvious already. But it's for another reason I say all this....all this energy, excitment and hype all came together to make this day (Oct. 12th, 2019, the day DEVO returned) even more special. So here's that story...
I get into the venue early that day to go check out the band Automatic who is playing the small Theatre stage at like 1:00pm or thereabouts. I'm really excited for them, but right before I get into the tent, my girlfriend says she can't find her ID. Oh shit, here we go. This can get bad real quick. We go to the lost and found, and they have nothing. I can tell she's getting very worried and stressed (rightfully so) and so she decides to go back to camp to look for it and I stay in, to go run and catch Automatic. The whole time I'm thinking how a lost ID will fuck up her weekend and put a damper on this day, even this day of all days (she's just as excited as I am for them). Anyway, I'm in the tent and see these two older guys walk by in DEVO shirts. Thinking they're just fans, I think nothing of it. A couple minutes later, they walk back to the back and I look at them again and all of a sudden realize that one of the "old guys" is Mark Mothersbaugh! Holy shit, there he is in the flesh. I hate to be "that guy", but I'm totally decked out in my homemade DEVO shirt and Energy Dome, so I run up to him and tell him "Mark, you're here!". And he replies, "so are you...".
We shake and make small talk really quick about the band coming up and how he really likes them. I ask for a picture, and we get that. And I leave him be. But of course, I feel awful for my girlfriend, who I fear just fucked up her weekend for losing an ID, and here I am meeting Mark while she's stressed back in camp. I feel so bad, I'm not sure I should even tell her what just happened. But I see Mark is hanging around to watch the band so I text here "Get over here now!".
About 5 minutes later she shows up and shows me her ID, she found it, thank God! Phew! Then I point my phone at her (I'm taping the current band, so I can't talk) and she looks at the picture and then starts flipping out. I point over my shoulder to him standing there and she smiles and cautiously approaches him. He couldn't have been nicer though. He greets her and they talk and he asks to take a picture with both of us with our homemade shirts and energy domes on, so we do. I tell him I made the shirt, and he replies: "cool, don't tell Jerry". (he too was also wearing his own bootleg DEVO shirt).
So that's my story for the day....DEVO is my obvious number 1 band for the whole weekend, and on the day they play, I just so happened to wander in early to catch the first band and got to meet Mark because of that! It really pays to check out the early bands I always tell people. My girlfriend found her ID, arrived just in time before Mark left and we both got our picture with him and got to talk. It was the best (which could have been one the worst) starts to a festival day I've ever experienced, bar none.
As for the show, they were scheduled for 90 minutes, but for about 25 minutes of that at the start, they played the "Something For Everybody" short film mockumentary, which was cool, but I much rather would have had them play more songs. The setlist was typical for what you would expect from a festival set, plus very much the same as to what they played on their last 2013/14 tour I believe. Nothing surprising or deep cuts (so many deeper cuts I would love to have heard: Spacejunk, Out of Sync, Working In A Coal Mine, etc), but it's fucking DEVO, so how can you complain. They had Jeff Friedl back on drums and he was just amazing. Definitely one of the better drummers out there at the moment. The whole band sounded great. It was like they hadn't missed a beat. These guys are such an important band, and also a great live playing and sounding band. This may as well have been their last show ever (that's the word going around on the street), and if so, I was honored to be there. But this is DEVO, they could wake up and play tomorrow. Or hell, this might be their last show on this planet, but they could play on Mars and I'd be there. And if that's the case, then Space X, you better get your shit together!
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