Devo Say Performing Full Albums Is Like 'Primal Scream Therapy'

Posted on Dec 3rd 2009 4:00PM by Dan Reilly
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t's been well-documented that 2009 has seen tons of bands performing their best-known albums in their entirety. Always looking to be different, Devo upped the ante by doing two: Their debut disc 'Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!' and their biggest seller, 'Freedom of Choice.' The New Wave rockers booked two-night stints in cities across North America, dedicating each night to one of the albums.

"It's reminded us of a focus -- not that we terribly needed it -- but it was nice to revisit," singer Mark Mothersbaugh tells Spinner of the trend. "Now that I've done it, I can say I totally understand what that's about. These are like dream concerts for rock fans."

Revisiting the material has been eye-opening for the band, mainly in terms of how much energy it took to play the material back in their younger days. "We listen to the songs and we go 'Jesus, they really were too fast,'" bassist/vocalist Gerald Casale says. "We were really playing everything all at once, all the time. We had uptown speedy energy. We realized we could have gotten more out of the songs if we had slowed down a little played intermittently. We were the mad scientist version of the Ramones."

With so much more exposure to their early material, Casale and Mothersbaugh both agree that it's been a weird but successful experience. "It's like some sort of primal scream therapy, going back to rebirthing or something," Casale says. "It's kind of like playing these songs at the speed we played them at and relearning the parts, you kind of relive what you were like then which is different. It's in some ways much better."

Casale adds that the time was mainly marked by a sense of urgency. "We were so focused on the drive to succeed and get our art out there that I think sometimes we didn't stop to enjoy it," he says. "We always thought something was about to happen rather than realizing that we were in the middle of it and it was happening. We could have relaxed a little."

Though the tour is over, fans can relive the magic of these two albums now that they have been reissued by Warner Brothers with bonus material.