Part 1: NIKE EVENT - Grant Park/Chicago, IL - Sept. 23, 2004

Grant Park is beautiful, especially with the blue skies & sunshine we were
fortunate to have in Chicago during Nike's outdoor 5 & 10k race event.

Since I hadn't had time to see other bands at previous Nike shows this year,
I made a point to see A Flock Of Seagulls' set in Chicago. We'd met them
the night before in a local pub, and they were the extremely warm &
friendly. (thanks for the drinks, Frank, Paul and Mike!). I was very
glad to hear Committed in their set, from the B-side of the Wishing 7".

DEVO took the stage around 9:30pm. Unfortunately, there was no video
screen for this event, so they were unable to play their opening film.
They still gave an amazing, energetic performance.. and it sounded great.
At one point, Jerry said, "It's time to let out your inner ape!"

The audience soaked up every minute throughout the 45 minute set.
Some had come from Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, California, Kentucky,
New York, and even as far as the UK to see the Chicago shows.

This was the last show on NIKE's Run Hit Wonder tour, and the hosted an
afterparty at the Hard Rock Hotel immediately after DEVO's set ended.
It was bizarre to see Tone Loc, DEVO, and members of A Flock Of Seagulls
all mingling in the same room, to a soundtrack of modern hip-hop/R&B.
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Part 2: RIVIERA THEATRE - Chicago, IL - Sept. 24, 2004

By 1pm, eager spuds had already started forming a line in front of the
theatre. By 5pm, the line stretched across the front and around the
corner of the venue. A block down the street, a local used record shop
featured a DEVO display of goods in their window , some of which made
their way back to the DEVO-OBSESSO archives. (rare video & photo)

This was the first *real* DEVO show in a very long time. By that, I mean
that there were no other bands on the bill - This was DEVO's audience, and DEVO's alone. The majority of recent DEVO concerts have been at festival
style events, where DEVO shared the bill with at least 5 other bands.
There was no question who the audience came to see at The Riviera.

Some notable faces in the crowd:
Chicago's own Cynthia Plaster Caster, Billy Corrigan (ex-Smashing Pumpkins), and Mancow Muller (of WKQX 101.1 FM Chicago).

DEVO's film intro flashed imagery from their classic films, and General Boy warned of the dangers of concert events. The set list was full of favorites, spanning most of DEVO's recorded career. The crowd went absolutely nuts.. singing in unison, pumping fists into the air , and throwing various items onto the stage. Some fans dressed in their best DEVOlved gear in honor
of DEVO's return to Chicago.

Another memorable moment was when Jerry said,
"Are you ready to get your fuckin' APE on?!"

The Riviera was treated to Booji Boy and his rendition of Beautiful World ,
which has been a rare occurrence on the 2004 tour. Here's a transcript of
Booji's rap-session near the end of the encore:
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Booji: "Hello. Y'know...It's been a long, long, long, long, long time since DEVO came to Chicago... and we were worried about you guys... cuz you're up here guarding the North Coast all by yourself! With all those terrorists out there runnin' around - I thought I saw a couple out on the lake today. I wasn't sure, but it looked like maybe some were tryin' to sneak in!
Y'know... I hope you're all prepared to do your part in the dangerous time we live in. Y'know.. Bob & Bob & Josh - they're fathers! They have children. Some of 'em are older... some are young. But even Bob's little 3 year old has his own semi-automatic handgun. Because he's ready! Y'know... I know if Osama Bin Laden would be around, Bob's little 3 year old would know what to do! He'd pull up his little diaper, and take his gun out of his little Rugrats backpack... and he'd load it up with Blues Clues plastic explosive bullets.. and he'd point it right at him! He'd go: <Booji plays bullet sounds on his keyboard> That's what he'd do, he'd kill him. 'Cuz that's how you do it here in America. That's how you do."

Gerald Casale: "Booji, what would he do to Al-Zarqawi?"

Booji: "Oh, I know what he'd do. First, he'd attach on his night scope,
then he'd sneak right up on him <More bullet sounds from Booji> .
Yep, that's what he'd do! Kill 'em! <More bullet sounds from Booji>
Something like that.

Gerald Casale: "Wow, that sounds really scary."

Booji: "Well, ya gotta be prepared! They're comin' at us from every direction!"

Gerald Casale: "What would he do to George W. Bush?"

Booji: "Y'know, Jerry, I think you.. you have to go to a different terrorist right now. Because that one... There's actually....I can't make a joke about that. Because there's legal ramifications involved.

Gerald Casale: "How many people from Homeland Security are here tonight?" <crowd cheers>

Booji: "Yeah? Well then, hey, then how the heck can we have this invasion right here tonight? You must've been sleepin' on the job! Well, y'know, it's tough work being an American. I think we should all take a nap right now. <Booji plays a devolved Xmas tune... and other noise> Well, y'know, we didn't make any money when we were bein' in a band. I gotta tell ya, like everybody else - you heard the story - we got ripped off. But... we're saving our money! And someday, we're gonna buy DEVO Island, and you're all invited! <crowd cheers> Well, when we get there.. we're gonna practice our anti-terrorist techniques! And when we get good enough, and when there's enough of us, we're all gonna come back, and we're gonna KILL ALL THE NORMAL PEOPLE!!"
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Tell it, Booji... Tell it!!

Some of the DEVO's came out to the streets afterwards to sign spudwazz .
We walked around the city with Cynthia and a gaggle of Devotees.
Thanks for the great time, everyone. **

From Gerald V. Casale on the '04 tour:
The Chicago Show at the Riviera was our best experience and the
crowd was truly devolved in the highest sense of the word - GVC

CHICAGO TRIBUNE SHOW REVIEW
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Michael Pilmer • Devo-Obsesso.com
Thanks to everyone who supplied photos for this report.