Devo have confirmed that their current world tour will be their last. After announcing their Celebrating 50 Years of De-Evolution farewell tour earlier this year, the Ohio-based new wave group confirmed in an interview with The Guardian that after 50 years of hitting the road, they are officially retiring from touring in 2023.
“Are you married? Imagine you had four wives and you worked together. It’s tricky being in a band,” the band’s lead singer, Mark Mothersbaugh explained the decision to step away from touring. Bassist Gerald Casale added that the band’s “fully formed” identity meant that people who want to “grab you when you’re malleable and change you… couldn’t do that to Devo because the armour was too strong…You’ve got a body of work informed by a whole manifesto and philosophy. Do you let go and move on to the next thing? You want change, otherwise, you’re stale, but you don’t want to be contrived.”
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While the band believes now is the right time to step away from touring, Castle admitted that he is in “denial. I love performing and I’ll hate to see it go. It was part of Devo’s DNA, but we did as well as we could, for as long as we could.” Mothersbaugh jokingly teased that he was “looking forward to 2073. We’ll play 100th anniversary Devo shows and then maybe retire.”
Formed in 1973 by Casale and Mothersbaugh in the wake of the 1970 Kent State shootings at their school, Devo, which took its name from the concept of “De-evolution,” later added Casale and Mothersbaugh’s brothers, Bob and Bob, and Alan Myers on drums. The group, which wore yellow hazmat suits and custom bright-red “energy dome” hats, released their first single, “Jocko Homo,” in 1977. That song later appeared on the band’s Brian Eno-produced debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! a year later. Devo went on to release several more albums over the years, includingFreedom of Choice, Total Devo, and Smooth Noodle Maps before taking a 20-year hiatus in the 1990s and ’00s. They eventually reunited, and in 2010 released their ninth album, Something for Everybody.
Earlier this year, the band announced their Celebrating 50 Years of De-Evolution farewell tour. The group recently wrapped up a string of shows in the UK and Europe. The tour is set to resume in November with a string of west coast shows that includes stops in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Deo will also perform at Darker Waves Festival in Huntington Beach.
