concert reviews: September 2007 Archives

I ditched work early on Friday so I could go to the fair.  The "Puyallup" Fair.  This is one of those tricky Washingtonian words they use to weed out whether or not you're a local.  It's pronounced "pew-AL-up."  Obviously, I pronounced it "pull-y'all-UP."  (I'm not really blending seamlessly, especially on trick words like that.)

It was a really nice drive south, despite only averaging about 15 miles an hour.  There were several casinos along the way, and a transmission shop telling you about how you need to "keep your tranny cool in the summer."  I arrived at the fair grounds in time to see Cowgirl Tricks by Karen Quest, the ding-dong-daddiest cowgirl I've seen in a while.  She cracked whips to break handfuls of spaghetti.  She made Devo jokes as she did it. She twirled a 50 foot lasso around herself.  She brought a bunch of people on stage and gave them all cowbells and told them when to ding them, and suddenly it was a full orchestra of "Home on the Range."

But that isn't the point.  The point is DEVO.  I was very enchanted by the fact they were playing at the fair.  There were plenty of people playing like Reba McEntire, Big & Rich (not to be confused with Rob & Big), Kenny G...all very carny-like entertainment.  But Devo?  They came out in full yellow jumpsuits and red energy domes:

If you look closely at the stage lights behind them, you'll see that they were big robots.  The bright white spotlights came out of the robots' heads.  Red LED lights came out of their tummies.  And I think their arms were spinny-style disco lights.

Then at one point, Mark Mothersbaugh started running around with his microphone, tugging at the other guys' jumpsuits.  Which were apparently made of tear-away paper because they ripped quite easily, and then they all started tearing their own jumpsuits off, revealing black tees, black shorts, and kneepads:

I loved that they played "Whip It" early and got it out of the way.  I loved that they still danced and moved all electronically.  They were obviously a little paunchier than their ultra-skinny nerd days when they looked like the white/debate/moped team on "Midnight Madness," but they were still wonderfully weird.  I loved it that Mark Mothersbaugh was still in his yellow jumpsuit, and went to each side of the stage with big red cheerleading pom-poms to lead the crowd in a chant.  And later threw super happy fun balls to the audience.

Then I rode the Gravitron, got sicky in my tummy, and went home.  And listened to Mission Giant on the way.