Thursday, November 19, 2009

DEVO

The Grand Regency Ballroom
San Francisco, Ca
Friday, Nov 6, 2009
General Admission Floor



I am so happy I decided to go to this show. I could not make up my mind, even up to an hour before I had to leave to get to the show on time, if I should go or not. I wanted to and I knew that when I saw DEVO twenty-something years ago, the concert was one of the best I had ever seen.

The show was part of a special concert series that DEVO are currently playing in several cities across the US. They play two nights in a row in each city. The first night they play the Q. Are We Not Men? A. We are DEVO album in its entirety, and the second night they play the Freedom Of Choice album in its entirety. I wanted to see the Q.&A. album and went on Friday night.

The show was sold out when I arrived without a ticket. I quickly snatched one up and went inside. I was in a tightly packed hallway, where there were three doors to enter into the ballroom. I got lucky and enterd into the doorway near the stage. I was right in the front row but it was so crowed that I was a little overwhelmed. After a bit of conversation with some people around me, a really tall, big guy asks if I would like to be in front of him, which really meant closer to the center as we were already up front. Unfortunately, there was a big speaker right at the front of the stage, between me and the drummer Josh. I could barely see him.

DEVO played fantastic! I would close my eyes for a moment and they're playing was so close to the album. They must have practiced a lot to sound this good. Mark's guitar techie-gear was cool to see too. He's such a nerd! They played about half the album then began ripping off their yellow suits and tossing them out into the crowd. The audience went nuts!



They rocked the rest of the show in their industrial work shorts and the audience loved it! There were a lot of people in the house that might have seen them back in the day as well, but I think there were a far share that probably were not even born yet!

After the show the band had a Meet and Greet with audience members that paid a higher ticket price. I was not aware of that and was just sort of wandering around looking for a friend, when I saw Bob1 walking towards me. He walked up and started talking to me and we chatted for about ten minutes until some big, ugly bouncer dude came over and asked me for my "red dot" which of course I didn't have, so I had to say 'goodnight Bob.' HA But before I left, he was kind and signed the yellow shirt I scored and gave me a big hug!



The end of a fantastic night!