For those of us lucky enough to witness our heroes in the flesh and in their prime, I guess we can sleep easy. As for those artists we missed for one reason or another (there was always a reason), we may be lucky enough to catch them performing late into their careers while still on their feet. And it seems that rock & roll’s expiration date has been revoked and reset time after time.
If a band or artist necessarily can’t bring back the surprise, the shock and the sense of discovery they represented decades on from their first splash, they might be smart and lucky and flush enough to bring a sense of fun, adventure and (possibly even) chaos to their later tours. DEVO is definitely smart, lucky and, judging by the 32-foot video wall erected upstage with an entire evening of engaging visual programming pouring forth, they have the resources to go back to (their) basics and show younger bands just how you kick ass with massive visual appeal tied to the narrative of their music. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
One of those bands in their prime right now was opening act Massive Hotdog Recall, featuring Al Mothersbaugh on lead vocals and lead trombone, lending a truly inspired manic display that won over the sold out house who, to a person, I would bet, did not buy a ticket to see a 10-piece horn-driven, ska/punk outfit led by a very large blue-collar maniac with oversized glasses, a big mouth and more energy than a 3-year-old high on candy corn on Halloween night.
Mothersbaugh simply does not give two fucks, and while he’s no doubt grateful that his cousins Mark and Bob of DEVO broke precedent to offer him the opening slot in Akron, he is also smart enough not to clean things up too much before inviting what was no doubt the largest crowd they’ve ever played to witness the not-so-calculated cacophony that makes this band so charming.
Racing circles around the stage like David Byrne on a quart of cold brew, Mothersbaugh admitted that he needed a breather between songs, instructing the audience to respond: “Standing By!” each time he shouted, “Stand By!,” a bit that never grew old. Their crowd-pleaser, “Kick My Ass in the Balls,” is an adrenalized surf/punk classic waiting to be discovered by the next generation, but you’re going to have to meet MHDR out on the dance floor, they are not putting on pants just to invite you out for some Midwestern Trashcan Trombone Rock.
DEVO utilized their ground-breaking visual and conceptual skills, showing why they were one of the first bands to develop their own music videos, years before MTV. By the time they spit out their breakthrough hit, Whip It in 1980, they had already broken enough ground to last a lifetime. To open the Akron show, they displayed on the oversized screen their Rod Rooter character 50 years on, now old and cynical, but still enthusiastic enough to turn the volume up on one of the true pioneers of the art form. Pioneers who got scalped, the band will insist, but the full house in Akron offered nothing but love, jumping out of their seats before they hit the stage and staying on their toes for the whole show. And that’s saying a lot for folks of the age who I’m guessing are generally horizontal on the couch by 8:30PM on a normal night.
But a normal night this was not. Led by original members Jerry Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh and brother Bob Mothersbaugh (Bob 1), the three Akron natives led the festivities on the hometown stop for their Mutate, Don’t Stagnate Tour. After the introductory video, the band launched into Don’t Shoot, I’m A Man, and rolled into the classic Peek-A-Boo, then Going Under before hitting a stride with That’s Good and the high energy Girl U Want.
Surprisingly sandwiched in the very middle of the set was their radio hit (remember radio?) Whip It, inspiring Mark to toss a dozen red energy dome helmets into the audience, to the crowd’s delight. The theme of sustainability became the overriding conceptual frame for the show during Planet Earth before another video segment/costume change featuring Earth imagery and de-evolution themes featuring cosmologist Carl Sagan. And we all sang along: “Where pleasure follows pain/People go insane/Fly around in planes/Pray that it won’t rain/Drive around in cars/Get drunk in local bars/Dream of being stars/Well I lived all my life on planet Earth.”
Uncontrollable Urge saw Mark violently ripping apart the iconic yellow suits the band had donned during the break, tossing errant costume arms and chunks around the stage while we all chanted: “Uncontrollable urge, I wanna tell you all about it/Got an uncontrollable urge, it makes me scream and shout it/Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-YEAH!”
Next was Blockhead, and just in case one wondered if political correctness had finally come for DEVO, Mongoloid seemed to satisfy even the most jaded long-time DEVO fanatic. “He was a mongoloid, mongoloid/His friends were unaware/Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid/Nobody even cared.” It turns out DEVO was ahead of the PC police from the start.
As they rounded third, and leaving no one wanting more, the band reared up to deliver Jocko Homo, and Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA, thrashing about and breaking strings before screaming into their live triumph, Gates of Steel, co-written by Akron pals Debby Smith and Sue Schmidt Horning of Chi-Pig. A final video with the DEVO anthem set the stage for the finale. When the guy in the row in front of us passed out during Freedom of Choice, we thought we were 16 again, but EMS revived him so we sang along to Gut Feeling and the cynical but still delightful Beautiful World: “It’s a beautiful world/For you/It’s not for me (It’s a beautiful world).”
Acknowledging their absence from local stages for almost two decades (since playing a benefit concert supporting the Summit County Democratic Party and Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign), Mark noted, “It’s been 18 years, and Akron is unrecognizable.”
DEVO carries the distinction of being among the top mentioned bands deserving of induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame a mere 40 miles to the North, while having received three nominations. In 2026, under the unbelievably ethereal and lavishly decorated terra cotta faux Moorish castle with the (non-working) fake sky and blinking stars of the atmospheric Akron Civic Theatre, suspended over the Ohio & Erie Canal, DEVO staked a claim and made their case for enshrinement. And let’s please do it sometime before Massive Hotdog Recall is eligible.
https://www.massivehotdogrecall.com/
Review by Thomas Mulready
One Response to “REVIEW: DEVO & Massive Hotdog Recall at Akron Civic Theatre 06.03.26 by Thomas Mulready”
Al Mothersbaugh
Thanks for the great Article, TOM! You are a real treasure!