DEVO-OBSESSO EVENT REPORT
ANNUAL FAN GATHERING • CLEVELAND, O-Hi-O • AUGUST, 2008

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As usual, the DEVOtional '08 weekend offered more than
the DEVOtional event alone. What follows are reports from it all.

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Thursday, Aug. 28th - Spud Meeting @ Hotel

After the long, grueling drive from North Carolina, She-vo and I arrived in Cleveland around 4pm and checked into the hotel. We were both exhausted, because we of the constant torrential rain throughout the entire 11 hour drive, but we still managed to hang the KRK Ryden art show at Asterisk Gallery that same night. Even after the long drive and working at the gallery, we were still able to stay up late to hang out with other spuds in our hotel room. It's the one time I'm usually able to relax and catch up on things with people I only see once or twice a year.

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Friday, Aug. 29th - Art Shows @ Asterisk

Asterisk Gallery in Cleveland played a big role in last year's DEVOtional weekend, sponsoring a show of Mark Mothersbaugh's Postcard Diaries prints. This year Asterisk got involved again by sponsoring another spudly show titled "The DEVOnian Art of KRK Ryden". KRK has a long history with DEVO, illustrating their product catalogs & Brainwasher fanzine in the early/mid 1980's.

In addition to KRK's artwork, Asterisk featured the "Jocko Dome-o" show curated by Bruce Perry of DevoDude.com. The show featured a couple dozen customized Energy Domes by many devolved artists, and was set up as a charity event with proceeds going to help Rachel Bevilacqua (aka Rev. Mary Magdalen of The Church of the Subgenius). MORE INFO HERE.

After the art shows at Asterisk, I joined a few other late-night spuds and when to a bar closeby called Matinee to see the fantastic DOKTOR BITCH (Another band fronted by our pal Poopy Necroponde). It was a wonderfully heavy show, and I think even Rich Anderson of BoojiBoysBasement.com liked it. Rich said, "I don't even like heavy metal, but they were great!."

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Saturday, Aug. 30th - DEVOtional @ Beachland

Even with a DEVO concert scheduled for California on the same night as the fan gathering in Ohio, the event proved that the DEVOtional just keeps getting better every year. While a couple hundred DEVOtees mingled in Ohio at the Beachland Ballroom, DEVO were in Del Mar, CA. Jerry Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Bob Mothersbaugh gathered backstage in Del Mar and participated in a live video chat with fans in Ohio before the DEVO show that night. Fans had approximately 20 minutes to bounce questions off the band, asking about the status of the new DEVO material being recorded this year, new DEVO products in the works, and other topics.

Other happenings at this year's DEVOtional included great performances by all the bands, including Malcolm Tent, Poopy Necromonde's CLEVO, The Mutant Mountain Boys, and KRK Ryden. The showstopper was definitely the performance by The Spudboys, who did a fantastic job duplicating DEVO's 1982 live show, complete with interactive film projections used by DEVO 20+ years ago.

As usual, there were tons of goodies for spuds to scoop up at the event, including the DEVOtional '08 Tee, Beautiful Mutants art card decks by Mark Mothersbaugh, the NNBBM Devo Tribute compliation (which is wonderful!), several photo prints by Todd Melet of DEVO's July 2008 show in Brooklyn, and more.

Great to see so many comrades who traveled from many distant places to attend. Spuds came from Australia, Canada, Florida, California, North Carolina, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Kansas...just to name a few.