With Lene Lovich
Cosmic De-Evolution Tour
Hollywood Bowl – October 18, 2025
I bought AMEX presale tickets for this show because I knew it would be great. My husband wanted to join (and he never wants to join!), so I spent a little money and got decent seats so he wouldn’t have to schlep to the top of the Bowl. We were in section N1, so about center and row 6 on the end so there would be no one directly in front of us. We took the bus up from Culver City and it was quick and easy as usual. Julie texted me on the way to the bus to say she still had 5 more visits and was going to be late. She didn’t realize the show started at 7. I tried to send her her ticket through the Ticketmaster app but we couldn’t get it to work. So we waited for her outside the gate. I have to say the people watching was interesting. We missed almost all of Lene Lovich but managed to get into the Bowl just in time for Lucky Number. When we got to our seats, people had spread and we had to fight a little to get them to move down. Later, between bands a security guy actually came through our row and checked all the tickets because people on the other end complained that someone was in their seats so it may have been more than just people spreading.
I was expecting the B-52s up first, but it was clear from the set up that it was going to be Devo. They were GREAT! They played a nice smattering of songss starting with Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man) and working through New Traditionalists, Freedom of Choice, Are We Not Men and Duty Now For The Future. We were a little surprised they played Mongoloid. When they played Corporate Anthem, my husband asked if we needed to stand. Ha ha. They went off stage a few times for costume changes. The first time, I laughingly thought they must be going off for some oxygen because these are not young guys, but they were jumping around and really putting everything into their performances. The only disappointment was for the ladies behind us who kept loudly complaining that they didn’t do Beautiful World. Good grief!! (As it happens, when I looked up the setlist from Sunday, they closed with Beautiful World. I bet the loudmouths will be complaining about that for the rest of their lives.) The visuals were wonderful. I recently watched the new Devo documentary and learned that Gerald Casale took an early interest in directing art films which led to directing many music videos, commercials, etc. You could really see that in the images projected during the show – as much thought went into the visuals as the music.
After load-out/load-in, it was time for the B-52s. Honestly, they should have led, because Devo was just so much better than they were. They started with Cosmic Thing, transitioned into Mesopotamia and by the time they started Give Me Back My Man, it was clear their voices are shot. Fred later apologized and said he was getting over a sinus infection (after totally messing up Rock Lobster). It was still a fun show. They hit some songs off the yellow album and some off of the red album – Love Shack, of course, and Roam. And they are all such fun party songs that people were up dancing through most of it. I was a little disappointed that Kate didn’t play keys, but her voice was the best out of the three, so I’ll take it. They swapped places with Devo for the Sunday show and I think that was the right move. Better to have the B-52s get the audience pumped up and then have Devo bring it home.
One final note: I’d like to give a shout-out to the amazing ASL performer. I found myself watching her and wishing I knew ASL several times during the course of the evening. She wasn’t just translating, she PERFORMED the music.