DEVO and the Grammy's

Early Flyer

I watched DEVO's Live in the Land of the Rising Sun DVD over the weekend. It was a 2003 show in Japan. Fun backstage stuff where Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerry Casale are sitting with their respective Pugs in their laps. The nice thing about the DEVO aesthetic is that it translates reasonably well to post middle age. The guys may all be much wider than they used to be, but they can still execute the jerky moves. Even their outfits age well. The Energy Domes are perfect for balding heads and the plastic suits cover up the flabby bodies. I think they must have thought this through a long time ago.

The show is great by the way. It's also cool to see one of the extras on the DVD which is a 1980 live performance of Gut Feeling. If not at their peak it'd have to have been damned close.

Meanwhile, I got invited to watch the Grammy's on Sunday. In some ways things are no different than what I remember (alicia keys = whitney houston, jennifer lopez = gloria estefan, etc). I felt like hardly a music fan, not knowing half or more than half the names and bands participating. I probably most liked seeing Green Day performing, Melissa Etheredge (in her post cancer baldness?) doing a Janis Joplin tribute, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.