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In actuality, this was part of the weekend-long festival put on by PAUL GREEN’s School of Rock, which was started here in Philadelphia by Green and which now has schools nationwide. Its purpose is to teach kids how to play instruments commonly used in rock and roll, with a particular emphasis on classic rock. Occasionally, though, other, newer rock and roll subgenres win out and the kids ended up playing the songs of and occasionally playing with artists like BUTTHOLE SURFERS (who played the night before at the Electric Factory) and this show’s headliners, DEVO. Before I get to reviewing the artists that we saw, I should also mention that there were multiple stages set up and that the music had started at noon. This was an all-day event. However, since we had other obligations and didn’t particularly feel like sitting out in the over 90 degree heat and humidity for the entire day, we arrived at approximately 6 PM to find the all-metal BEE GEES tribute act TRAGEDY (not the Portland, OR crust-punk band) wrapping up their set on the main stage after walking past a group of kids (none of whom looked over the age of 14) playing a cover of THE DOORS’ “Roadhouse Blues” on one of the side stages by the merch table.
Anyway, within about 10 minutes of our arrival, THE HOLD STEADY proceeded to drunkenly rock our asses off for about 45 minutes. They played just about all of their new album Stay Positive. I like the album a lot (it may be their best yet), but at that point I’d only heard it a few times, so while I recognized the songs, it was tough to enjoy it as much as if the show had been comprised mostly of familiar material. Nevertheless, it didn’t matter much, as a very drunk CRAIG FINN was having a great time, fans were singing along and when they threw the crowd a couple of bones with “Chips Ahoy” and “Stuck Between Stations” from 2006’s Boys and Girls in America, any impatience that anyone may have had was forgiven.
After a short wait, THE SCHOOL OF ROCK ALL-STARS took the stage. This is a group comprised of the top students from Green’s schools. They concentrated primarily on classic rock and metal songs like GUNS ‘N ROSES “Sweet Child of Mine” and SLAYER’s “Angel of Death”. On the latter song, SOUND OF URCHIN (who had played the previous night’s show opening for Butthole Surfers) drummer CHRIS HARFENIST (aka TOMATO) joined the All-Stars. Towards the end of their set, they payed tribute to the headliners by playing Devo’s “Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Getting)”. When Green introduced the song, he said it was for the Devo diehards and that the headliners probably wouldn’t play it. While this was technically true, the headliners did end up playing plenty of “deep cuts” from their 1st 2 albums, thus pleasing many old fans.
However, it would be almost an hour before we got to see them. This felt like an excruciantingly long wait, to say the least. Nevertheless, when Devo finally hit the stage, all was forgiven. Like Versus’ set the night before, it took them a few songs to get going, though. Opener “That’s Good” (from 1982’s Oh No, It’s Devo!), and “Peek-A-Boo” (from the same album) were OK and “Going Under” (from 1981’s underrated New Traditionalists, their last great album) was an inspired choice so early in the set, but after they got the ubiquitous “Whip It” out of the way, then we really got the good stuff. And what good stuff it is, 30 years after its release. OK so we didn’t get “Space Junk,” “Too Much Paranoias” or the aforementioned “Sloppy”, but we did get “Uncontrollable Urge,” ”(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Mongoloid” and “Jocko Homo”, all from their classic, BRIAN ENO-produced first album Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!. Furthermore, they played a number of selections from their great 2nd album Duty Now for the Future as well. These included “Secret Agent Man,” “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA” and “Blockhead”, my favorite Devo song. We even got to hear the “Devo Corporate Anthem” (which opens Duty Now for the Future) during the 1st encore. They finished off the night with their traditional closer “Beautiful World” as sung by BOOJI BOY.
It should also be noted that it started raining mere minutes after their set ended as we were walking back to the car. When I saw them at Central Park Summerstage in New York four years ago, it started pouring the second Devo left the stage. Luckily, I took refuge in a tent. Otherwise I would’ve gotten totally drenched. This time, however, the rain was rather light.
The above photos were taken by RICH ANDERSON and are used with permission. You can see more of his photos here.
