Devo Will Perform in First Benefit Concert

Are they not (charitable) men?

The answer, says Jerry Casale, co-founder of Devo, is that the veteran new-wave band has long wanted to rock for a good cause. But somehow, from its debut in 1978 until the present, Devo never has played a benefit concert.

That will change Labor Day weekend, when Devo headlines the two-day Ocean Aid concert at Irvine Bowl in Laguna Beach. Proceeds from the Sept. 3 and 4 benefit will go to environmental groups dedicated to safeguarding Southern California’s shores and coastal waters.

“We were never asked to play a benefit when we were enjoying enough commercial success” to be a major draw, Casale said this week from the North Hollywood rehearsal studio where Devo is writing songs for its next album. By the time big rock benefits like the Amnesty International tour began to roll around, Devo was no longer the mass attraction that would put it on a benefit organizer’s A list. “We wanted very much to play and we asked to, but we weren’t a big enough fish to fry,” Casale said.

So when the organizers of Ocean Aid called last month, Devo quickly agreed to appear.

On the surface of it, an idealistic gesture such as playing an environmental benefit might seem anomalous for Devo. This is the band, after all, that posed the musical question, “Are we not men?” and answered with its own jaundiced, satiric theory of De-evolution, which held, in essence, that mankind isn’t evolving, but regressing on its way to hell in a handbasket.

“We weren’t actually celebrating it,” Casale said of Devo’s dismal view of human nature. “We were more freaked out by it. We’ve never just complained. We’ve always offered ideas and solutions in interviews and elsewhere. I’m unfortunately afraid that we were right pretty much. The world is Devo. Everything is very, very critical.”

While Devo hasn’t been a big draw nationally since the early ‘80s, the band has a strong base in Orange County, where it sold out nine performances last December and January at the Coach House--more than 3,400 tickets. Total capacity for the two Ocean Aid shows is 5,000. Besides Devo, the lineup for the benefit features San Diego techno-pop band Red Flag; Caterwaul, a self-descriptively named I.R.S. Records act from Los Angeles; and the Dr. Dream Team: a cadre of acts signed to locally based Dr. Dream Records that includes Oingo Boingo offshoot Food For Feet and three Orange County bands--Eggplant, Swamp Zombies and Imagining Yellow Suns. Tickets, priced from $18 to $22.50, go on sale July 31.

Casale said the shows may give Devo fans a preview of some of the songs that will wind up on the band’s next album. After last year’s dance-pop oriented comeback album, “Total Devo,” Casale sees the new material sounding “more like primitive early Devo. We wanted to get back to something more essential, less Baroque and ornate. I think too many machines entered Devo’s life.” Next time around, Casale said, the sound will emphasize more guitars, “and real drums.”

Ocean Pacific Sunwear Ltd., the Tustin-based company that sponsors the annual Op Pro Surfing Championship in Huntington Beach, is the prime mover and financial backer behind Ocean Aid.

“A lot of people in our office are in the water every day as surfers. We see first hand what’s happening to the ocean” said Jerry Crosby, executive vice president of Ocean Pacific and organizer of the Ocean Aid Foundation, formed to distribute funds from the benefit to area environmental groups.

Crosby’s goal is to raise $40,000 to $50,000 at this year’s benefit, with an eye toward expanding Ocean Aid’s scope in future years. The benefit will be promoted heavily next week at Op Pro, which is expected to draw more than 100,000 spectators.