PHOTOS + REVIEW—DEVO 2026

Devo • August 27, 2026 • The BayCare Sound, Clearwater, FL • Photos by Randy Cook — instagram.com/horns_raised

DEVO LIVE REVIEW

DEVO | August 27, 2026 | BayCare Sound, Clearwater, FL

Review by Randy Cook

Pioneers of the new wave movement that emerged in the late 1970s, DEVO performed a brilliant set at the BayCare Sound along the waterfront in downtown Clearwater, FL, on Thursday, August 27 supporting their ‘Mutate, Don’t Stagnate’ tour. With an early start time for the show and no opening act DEVO hit the stage shortly after 7 PM. They played a fantastic set of sixteen songs spanning six of their nine studio releases, with the show concluding early enough for us ‘older folks’ to still get to sleep at a decent time for a weeknight concert.

For me, the first few songs were experienced as a fan. Unlike the usual concert experience where we photographers are in the photo pit shooting the opening three songs, tonight we could not photograph the band until songs 6, 7 and 8. While those opening moments were not viewed through a camera lens, it gave me a chance to get an idea of how the band members used the stage to move around and how the lighting was arranged.

As soon as the band opened the show with ‘Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man)’, the first few songs felt like I had somehow stepped into a living movie montage assembled from decades of music, MTV, strange late-night television, pop culture and memories of growing up with one of the most visually distinctive bands ever created. Video clips and unconventional imagery played across the screens behind the band throughout the show, complementing the tightly choreographed performance and reinforcing DEVO’s distinctive visual identity.

DEVO formed in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, growing out of the creative collaboration between Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, Gerald and Bob Casale, and drummer Alan Myers. Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale had met as students at Kent State University, where their shared interests in art, music and society began to take shape. The concept of ‘de-evolution’ developed from their belief that humanity was not necessarily progressing forward, but could actually be moving backward. The 1970 Kent State shootings had a profound impact on Casale and became an important influence on the band’s social and political perspective. Blending punk, art rock, electronic music, satire and performance art, DEVO transformed those ideas into a sound and visual identity unlike anything else in popular music. More than five decades later, their concept of de-evolution may sound less absurd than it once did, making it difficult not to wonder if DEVO was onto something after all.

Onstage, the band members’ visual language is so strong that you barely have to think about what the image is supposed to say. The yellow suits. The Energy Domes. The angular poses. Their choreography and expressions are a strange combination of rock star swagger and deliberately awkward movement. The idea of de-evolution was never just a gimmick. It was social commentary wrapped in an art rock experiment, delivered