POP MUSIC REVIEW : Devo Re-emerges in Same Old Package at the Coach House

RoboBand--better known as Devo--is trying to rebound.

And what gives Devo the chance for a comeback long after its platinum peak in the early ‘80s? The same thing that allows McDonald’s to keep selling burgers: packaging. Instead of golden arches, happy meals and a clown, Devo has android rhythms and mechanical dance steps, matching tekkie outfits and a moronic, masked mascot named Booji Boy.

Tuesday night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, Devo loyalists responded with glee to a familiar package that was lively even though it lacked the elaborate staging that marked Devo’s shows during flusher times. The band didn’t have to bother explicating its unifying concept of “de-evolution,” which holds that humankind isn’t progressing, but progressively making an ever greater mockery of itself. The fans who made up the sold-out house knew all that already.

Devo began with a surprise acoustic, folk-rock rendition of its electro-rock signature song, “Jocko Homo” (take that, Tracy Chapman). And known for boinging around the stage, Devo sat through its first few songs.

Mostly, though, it was Devo as usual: close replications of old favorites, a smattering of numbers from the pallid techno-dance comeback album, “Total Devo,” that took on more life in concert, and energetic antics led by front man Mark Mothersbaugh. Devo hit its stride late in the show with a streak of fine, crunching riff rockers that had the faithful shaking their fists, dancing on tables and pogoing into walls.

On that evidence, Devo might have a better chance for career revival by dumping the synth pop in favor of heavy metal--a branch of rock that always has confounded evolutionary expectations, anyway.