ABOUT ME

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

MUSIC: My Destiny With Devo

What can I say? Especially since I wasn't kinda sorta not there.

I was thrilled when I heard Devo was coming to my town. I had been a big fan of theirs since the late 70s. They were the band that introduced me to alternative music. I saw them on “Saturday Night Live”doing “Satisfaction” and “Jocko Homo”.

They, along with other alternative bands, became an unifying force between me, my brother, and my two closest friends of the time. And I've been hooked on Devo and alternative music ever since. And their first four albums are constantly on my iPod.

Unfortunately, thrills do not a ticket buy. And with my finances being what they are, I could not afford the $50 they were asking. I know by today's standard that's a reasonable price, but if you don't the money...

But I had been to a Cracker show at the outdoor amphitheater where Devo was suppose to play. And I saw people on the bridges watching the show. Admittedly, they saw the back of Cracker's heads from a distance, but hey, they got a free show. So I knew what I was doing for Devo!

My single brother with no children, though, had no problem getting the 50 bucks for the show! The jerk! Grrrrr, he needs more responsibilities!

Anyway, a few days before the show, I heard they were the show to one of the nearby bridge, because the flooded river made the amphitheater useless. I shrugged my shoulders. Maybe I wouldn't see the back of their heads, but I would still be able to hear them fine.

Then my oldest friend, one of the two friends I listened to Devo with, put on Facebook how he was going to watch Devo free from the bridge!


I got there first, and sat with someone parked across the river with some lawn chairs. It was right at the intersection where the bridge was blocked off for the show. And people would ask from their cars what was going on. When we told them it was Devo, we got some interesting reactions! “Devo?!?!” “Oh really?” “Are we not men?”

I thought of yelling “Duty now for the future!” to some of the spud boys in the red flowerpots passing by. But considering that album came out about 30 years ago, I probably should have yelled “Duty then for now!”

Strangely enough, before the show started that played this weird combination of classic soul and old school punk. I love both of types of music, but I don't see how soul music revs someone up for a Devo concert.


Finally, my friend arrived and I joined him on the bridge. Actually, we could see the band. Not a great view, but I've had worse in a stadium like when I went to see The Who in the 70s!

So after 30 plus years, there was my oldest friend and I finally at a Devo concert. Okay, couldn't see the band real well, but hey, it was free!

And as my friend said, since we can't see them that well, we can imagine still being thin and young while they played.


How was the show? I liked it! The band started off with some of their newer stuff which doesn't really appeal to me. Only one song out of the first five or so came from the four albums I listen to!

But then the boys got into their old yellow jumpsuits, and it was a wonderful stroll down memory lane with band playing most if not all of my favorites.

My friend and I were standing at that bridge singing along. My friend actually started singing kind of loud, and I said people would probably prefer hearing Devo sing.

I was tapping my feet and bobbing my knees. Must have looked a little silly to the people crossing the bridge!

Of course, it must have looked sillier when my friend and I were pretending to scream at Devo and “woot” them. We knew they couldn't hear us from the bridge, so we didn't do it seriously. Though I did do a pretend shout of “Mark and Gerry, we love you!” Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerry Casale being the leaders of Devo.

My friend's wife was there and she was kind of laughing at us. Can't really blame her.


And the show eventually its conclusion with Booji Boy singing “Beautiful World”. And then strangely enough, it ended. No encore, just thank you.

My friend thought Devo needed The Blue Man Group's guide to rock and roll, which says there's always an encore. But Devo always did things their own way!



And as a bonus track, just because it's Devo and it's so awesome!

Thursday, July 01, 2010

TELEVISION/VIDEOS, MOVIES/VIDEOS and COMICS: Of Ducks, Rabbits, Looney Tunes, The Justice League And Gods!

This is from me, and NOT some reprinted material. - OlderMusicGeek

My daughter and I were watching How I Met Your Mother. On this episode, they were explaining to Robin how someone's view of a person can change. Ted used a picture that can look like a duck one way and a rabbit another way.

Then they compared a bad boyfriend to a rabbit and a good one to a duck. Marshall, and rightfully so in my opinion, asked why the rabbit was considered worse than the duck. This started a huge argument among the group until Marshall gave in.

Well, of course, my daughter had to take the duck side, so we, ourselves had a long argument.

Of course, I talked about how cute and cuddly rabbits are, especially compared to ducks. And how much people would rather have a pet rabbit than a pet duck!

My daughter, though, brought up Donald Duck, and how there was no rabbit in Disney.

I, of course, brought up Bugs Bunny, and talked about how he was MUCH cooler than Donald Duck, and even cooler than Daffy Duck.

My daughter tried to say Daffy could kick Bugs' ass, but I and her text buddy set her straight on that point!

Then my daughter claimed, "Well, Bugs Bunny couldn't defeat Super Duck."

Surprised, I insisted, "Are you crazy?! Bugs Bunny could defeat Superman. Bugs could defeat the whole Justice League!"

"What do you think Bugs Bunny is a god?"

"Have you seen the Warner Brothers cartoons. They all have the powers of gods. They come back from explosions and falling from great heights! Roadrunner can even run into a picture painted on a rock wall!"

Then later, we were watching Arthur and I pointed out how Arthuyr's best friend is a rabbit. Plus, one of the bullies is a rabbit. "Where's the duck on Arthur?! There isn't one!"

My daughter just shook her head! I should have been on that episode of How I Met Your Mother!

Search This Blog

My Twitter Page On Entertainment

Music That I've Enjoyed Recently

My Internet Radio Stations


This is a fairly good sampling of some of the music I listen to. It's missing a few genres I like - such as cajun. I'll work on that later. But it does contain most of my favorite artists. I tried to steer away from the better known songs to give you a better idea of what kind of music the artists play, but I was limited by the songs the website - Project Playlist - had available. But if you want to get an idea of what I listen to, just hit the play or arrow button. - OlderMusicGeek

The internet station that does the best of playing my music is Last.fm. Here's my station if you're interested.

This website, OlderMusicGeek Radio on Pandora.com, does a fairly decent job of playing what I like, although they do occasionally play stuff I don't care for, but overall they're pretty good.