Flashback: DEVO Concert
I don't have many photos of my youth but when I stumbled upon this one, I knew I had to share. Oh man, I did love Devo, an American rock band from Akron, Ohio (formed in 1973). Their most famous song, Whip It, went to #14 on the Billboard chart in 1980, which gave the band mainstream popularity and made us go to their concert.
A malfunction occurred with the light board during the first concert and the technicians couldn’t fix the problem so the promoter decided to cancel the second concert and reschedule it for another date.
The promoter came out at about 11:25 p.m. and the crowd knew something was up. I looked around and saw police in riot gear, which I hadn't seen earlier. When it was announced to the 3,000 people waiting in line that the concert was canceled, the audience surged forward and we were in danger of being crushed. At that point, all hell broke loose and a full scale riot erupted. When the police responded with tear gas, some guys in line with us pulled us to safety. Wild stuff.
"Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!"
4 comments:
That was more detail than when you told me the story in person. I didn't realize they were from Akron. That is only an hour away from where I grew up and where Tricia went to college. Who knew?
I was at the first show when the lights malfunctioned. I was 19 and took my 16-year-old kid sister. The first show was great but at the end, the light show stopped working and bright white lights were blinding the audience. Mark, Jerry and the boys were frustrated but they finished the show. We exited and I'm sure we probably walked right past you in line. We hung around and heard the cancellation announcement and people start to yell and throw things. We got the heck out of Dodge. Very memorable night!
Hi Ms. Haerr! I'm a reporter at the Orange County Register working on a story about the 40th anniversary of this Devo show. Came across your really cool story here while researching it and was wondering if I might be able to chat with you briefly by phone about, just to flesh out a few more details, etc. I can be emailed at plarsen at scng.com or reached by cell phone at 949 378 3898. Thanks so much! Peter
Kudos to Peter Larsen at the O.C. Register for capturing this monumental night in his excellent piece: https://www.pe.com/2020/08/11/40-years-ago-there-was-a-riot-at-a-devo-show-in-riverside-heres-what-happened-next/
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