DEV-O Live

AMG Review of DEV-O Live

Greg Prato
All Music Guide

Issued just after "Whip It" became one of the early '80s' most popular /p>

ew wave hits, 1981's DEV-O Live was issued by Warner Brothers to cash in on Devo-mania. The six-track EP was recorded live at San Francisco's Warfield Theater on August 16, 1980 -- officially released as a 16-track promo-only release, "Warner Brothers Music Show", Warner edited down the song list and decided to issue it domestically as DEV-O Live. Mixing favorites ("Whip It," "Girl U Want") with rarities ("Be Stiff"), album cuts ("Gates of Steel," "Planet Earth"), and a song reconstructed for the stage ("Freedom of Choice Theme Song"), DEV-O Live shows that the spazzy quintet was a fun live act. Although DEV-O Live went out of print shortly after its release, it turned up again on a British two-fer CD with their debut, Q: Are We Not Men, in 1994, and a much more expanded version (22 tracks) was issued through Rhino Handmade in 1999.