The following pics were taken in and around Cleveland, Ohio on August 28th, 29th and 30th of 2009.

 If this DEVOtional weekend was any indication of how these gatherings consistently improve, then next year is sure to be an event for the ages. And I say this without exaggeration. The annual Spud-family reunion (ask anyone, and they will tell you that is indeed what it is) kicked off for many on the Thursday before the actual DEVOtional, as many DEVOtees started rolling in. Reverend Zepto and myself got together with a few of the other early arrivals and enjoyed our first of many meals at the Eat ‘n Park (the seemingly official eatery of DEVOtional). A few more greets were made later on that night, but after a 14-hour drive, I no longer had any wind in my sails. So I bid everyone good night.

Friday proved to be quite the full, rich day, starting out with a breakfast gathering at Eat ‘n Park. From there, groups of us went to wherever we needed to go to prepare for the rest of the day; the Spudboys went off to their rehearsal, KRK Ryden, Michael Pilmer and company made their way to the Asterisk Gallery to get ready for KRK’s art show, and my group (with Zepto, Tom Kierstead and Chad Grisly) made its way to Akron to visit Goodyear’s World of Rubber—a place of historical importance, especially for DEVO fans. As it turned out, it would be the last day for anyone to see the WoR, as its doors were closing for good. Truly the end of something special.

Later, Zepto and I would rendezvous with the Spudboys at the Starwood for DEV-O-ke rehearsal, and to reconnect with the many Spuds that continued to file in. Then it was off to KRK’s show, ‘No Pinheads Allowed’. As usual, a good and varied crowd showed up to check out his art, get treated to a repeating video of “The Dogway Melody,” and just generally socialize. Even more folks from the usual DEVOtional crowd showed up, and the family feel really started setting in. The evening wrapped up with a trip to Phantasy, where a bunch of us were treated to shows by Malcolm Tent, Nervous Energy, Dudical Radical, A Friend of Mabel’s and BADITUDE! It was an explosive way to end a night, to be sure…yet it was just the beginning.

Saturday arrived, and with it came the foremost reason for all these Spuds to make the trek to Cleveland—DEVOTIONAL 2009! The day started off as usual, with folks picking up where they left off last year and checking out what new Spudwazz was being made available. By the time Nervous Energy took the stage, the crowd had already gotten quite large…even more so than the crowd had been at the same time the previous year. Bottle and Fartbarf (which turned out to be a Spud-favorite) continued the series of mini-sets that entertained during the first half of the day. By the time Bob 2 (!) took the stage for a Q&A, things were getting into full swing.

Bob 2 answered fans’ questions for quite some time, covering subjects such as upcoming shows and the progress of the new album, many of the tracks from which were played at the event! Then the Mutant Mountain Boys played a set of Old Tyme Devolved Bluegrass tunes, while Bob 2 went to the kitchen to oversee the final preparations of a meal made especially for the attendees (which was fabulous, by the way)! From here the evening just seemed to fly by. A Hardcore-era set was performed by the Weird Paul Rock Band, and Poopy Necroponde’s Burgee Boys played after that. Finally, it was time for the Spudboys to rock the house!

The Spudboys hit the stage wearing coveralls and hard hats and kicked off their performance with Secret Agent Man, which was accompanied by a mutated video backdrop. They rolled out their usual DEVOtional fare, but, as always, threw in a few really cool surprises. The Spudboys always aim to please. Saturday night wrapped up with a post-DEVOtional gathering at the Eat ‘n Park, where many of us hung out until about 4 am.

Sunday was a great winding-down period which began with a huge collection of Spuds getting together for a final breakfast at the (wait for it…) Eat ‘n Park! That was followed by a Spudboys photo shoot across the street from the restaurant. It was a blast hanging out with the Spudboys outside of the DEVOtional environment, and we got lots of great pictures! After that, several of us made a trip down to Akron to hang out at Toth Wilder’s pad for a while—if anyone has ever made a cover of a DEVO tune, that man has it! The weekend finally ended with Tom Kierstead, Chad Grisly, Professor Von Marko and myself having dinner at the Texas Road House, where we sated our hunger for some meat! Final good-bye’s were said and I got to bed early, not so eagerly anticipating the long trip back home.

I, like many others, experienced the great sadness that is invariably brought on by Post-DEVOtional Depression. But the long trip home with my good friend allowed us to reflect upon the incredible time we had. And although all my Spud brothers and sisters may be separated by distance, we have created a bond with one another that makes that separation insignificant. We may not see each other often, but we all know that when we do get together again, that time will be sweeter than the last…and DEVOtional 2009 will be most difficult to surpass.

Duty Now For DEVOtional 2010!
(…and I think we’ve got our work cut out for us!)

DEVOtional 2009

The following pics were taken on the weekend of August 30th at DEVOtional 2008. The events of and surrounding this year’s festivities were, by far, the most memorable yet. On this journey to the annual Spud-family reunion, my wife and I were accompanied by my very good friend and partner Reverend Zepto (although his parents named him Chris). This was the Reverend’s first ever exposure to the world of DEVOted fans and Beautiful Mutants, and he took it like a true Spud. In fact, he was kind enough to help video-document all the stage happenings at DEVOtional.

This time around we met some new-to-DEVOtional Spuds—including Jim Borazo and Rich Anderson, among others—but hung out with many of the ‘regular’ attendees. On our first night in, Michael Pilmer hosted a small gathering in his hotel room, where we traded DEVO-related stories and laughed until the wee hours of the morning. I don’t care how tired you are from travelling, because all that fatigue and jetlag disappears when all us Spuds get together. It really is family.

Most of our first full day in Cleveland was spent getting ready for the Jocko Dome-o art show (see the Jocko Dome-o report below). Pilmer, She-vo, Rich, Jim, Tom Keirstead, Zepto and my wife were indispensable in helping me keep my sanity that day. If it hadn’t been for them the show wouldn’t have been any kind of success—they were real troopers.

Then came the day of reckoning: DEVOtional ’08! It was great coming back to the Beachland Ballroom, even if they did stop making their Trailer Park Monte Cristos (I had my mouth all set for one, too). But I did manage to make a White Castle run with Professor Von Marko and Paul Kutcher—Rev. Toth Wilder’s friend who came in all the way from Australia. There was the usual reconnecting, much very cool spudwaz and a lot of KRK Ryden artwork…and KRK himself. And I can’t stress this enough: do yourself a favor and introduce yourself to Mr. Ryden if you ever get the chance—he really is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet!

And then of course, there was the music. All the acts were awesome this year—Malcolm Tent, Poopy Necroponde’s CLEVO (with an excellent less-heavy-than-usual set) and the Mutant Mountain Boys, who look like they’re just having the best time on stage. But the Spudboys really took the cake this time around with their recreation of the legendary 3-DEVO concert from 1982, complete with (augmented) video background! It was a truly unforgettable spectacle. Then, after the Spudboys’ final salute, it was time to once again say our good-byes. Like DEVO said, “It’s time for all good things to pass away.”

But, only for another year.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the words-in-pictures report. It’s very therapeutic to put these things together in order to stave off PDDS (Post-DEVOtional Depression Syndrome as we like to call it), but I’ve just started thinking of ideas for things I want to do next year. I’ll have my usual button offerings, but maybe, just maybe, I’ll do something a little more…

Oh, and did I mention that I sang this year?

8/30 – DEVOtional ’08 – Snake Thru The Chaos

The following is a small collection of images used in promoting this year's event. Included are alternate logos and ticket designs, promo pieces and such.

DEVOtional ’08 Scrapbook

Jocko Dome-o Report

 

The following pics were taken in San Francisco on December 8th, 2007.

A birthday present from my wife (THANK YOU, JAMIE) allowed me to attend Mongoloid-a-palooza--an event celebrating ten years worth of performances by DEVO cover band Mongoloid. The party was put on by The Church of the SubGenius, so needless to say there was some good ol' rip-roarin', fire-in-the-pipe preaching from Reverend Ivan Stang, among others. Dr. Howland Owll emceed the show, which was ridiculously entertaining--Mongoloid played three sets, each as different stages in DEVO's career, plus a set as Mongolounge where they performed DEVO tunes with a layed back, loungy style.

Of course it was great reconnecting with some of my favorite Spuds--Jane, Kristin, Marc, Emerald and KRK (whom I didn't get to talk to very much, unfortunately). And I got to meet some new Spuds, Jack and Paul--hope to see you guys at the next DEVOtional. You are all part of my extended family, and I mean that! I have to thank Spudess and She-vo again for all they did to help make my stay in San Francisco comfortable and fun...you ladies are the TOPS! I miss you all and can't wait to MUTATE IN '08!

FRISC-O 2007 (Mongoloid-a-palooza)

 

The following pics were taken in Cleveland, Ohio on the weekend of August 25th at DEVOtional 2007. This year, when my wife Jamie and I arrived, we were greeted by way cool Spuds Mark, Tom and Pete (Professor Von Marko, B.T.Lizard and Pete-vo to the Spud Talk crowd). We hung out at the hotel restaurant and traded DEVO stories-among other things-until well after the joint closed. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

The next day Tom, Pete, Jamie and myself met up with Dave Laplaca at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, spending many hours there. If you haven't been, it's so worth checking out...even though they haven't inducted DEVO! After that, Jamie and I met up with Rev. Toth Wilder to help him put together the 6th volume of Not Necessarily Beautiful But Mutated, and then followed him to catch the last hour of Mark Mothersbaugh's art show at the Asterisk Gallery.

The day after that: TOTAL DEVOTIONAL! It was great reconnecting with the Spuds I've come to know over the past couple of years. Many people will say the same thing, but it really is like getting together with long lost family. On top of that, I met and got to know many more awesome people. And probably one of the bigger highlights for me was hanging out with and talking to KRK Ryden-one hell of a nice guy! I definitely can't wait to meet him again.

Of course, once it was all over, the funk set in. Very few things help with post-DEVOtional depression-you just have to ride it out. But, putting these pictures together, and looking forward to next year, has helped out a lot. So enjoy the pics, thanks to everyone who hung out/shared stories/provided cool spudwazz, and I'll see you all next year!

I might even sing...

8/25 - DEVOtional '07 - Total DEVOtional

 

The following is a small collection of images used in promoting this year's event. It includes ticket designs, logos, promo pieces and unused design elements.

DEVOtional '07 Scrapbook

 

The following pics were taken in Akron, Ohio on the weekend of September 16th at DEVOtional 2006. My wife and I joined up with Sam and Janet (an awesome Spud couple) and several other DEVOtees for another great weekend! After a bout with post-DEVOtional depression, I got my act together and composed this story-with-photos you are about to experience. I hope you enjoy, and I can't wait to see you all again in 2007!

9/16 - DEVOtional '06 - Shout It Out!

 

And for all of you people out there who dig this Spudwazz, here's a little bonus. Here you will find all the ticket designs I submitted (most with the original date for the event), flyer logos, unused design elements and even a couple of DEVOtional '06 concepts I made just weeks after DEVOtional '05.

DEVOtional '06 Scrapbook

 

 

The following pics were taken during my recent trips to Cleveland, Kent and Akron, in what had to have been one of the greatest and most devolved weekends of my life.

Thursday - 8/18: The Show

Friday - 8/19: Tribute to the Fallen (Kent State)

Saturday - 8/20: DEVOtional '05 - Time Out For Fun!

 

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me during the Spudboys' rehersal sesson, nor did I at the Beautiful Mutants opening (not that my wife and I didn't get a souvenir... we adopted one of Mark's mutants!).  There were a few pics taken by others with me and the Spudboys, and with David Kendrick.  When I get those, I'll put them on the site.

Overall, my wife and I had a hell of a vacation, and can't wait to see everyone again in '06!