The beehive wigs are ready, the Energy Domes are dusted, and the new-wave planets have aligned: Devo and The B-52s have announced a joint Cosmic De-Evolution Tour, taking their art-school absurdity and retro-futurist rhythms from Toronto to Houston this fall. With the addition of Lene Lovich, whose boundary-pushing, avant-garde sound emerged around the same time as The B-52s, this tour becomes a triple-header celebration of artists who transformed pop music through playful subversion.
Despite orbiting parallel worlds for decades, this marks the first proper co-headlining tour for these legends, an idea sparked after both bands appeared at the recent SNL 50 celebration. Devo is currently celebrating their own milestone with their 50 Years Of De-Evolution…Continued! tour, wrapping up in late September.
The cosmos finally aligned.
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“In 2022, I swore I’d never get on a tour bus again,” admits B-52s frontman Fred Schneider. “But we were careful to say to our fans that we would still perform in special situations that don’t require all of the awful tour travel. Our Vegas residency is going great, and when we were offered the chance to do a small run of shows with Devo, we all said this is an extraordinary opportunity we couldn’t say no to.”
The bands’ interconnected histories date back to the late ’70s New York underground, where their infectious weirdness first thrived.
“When we first came from Athens to New York City to perform, punk was in full force… and new wave was right on its tail!” says Kate Pierson. “We loved all the new wave groups, including Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie and the Ramones. We also really dug the far-out weirdness of Devo, which seemed very in tuned to our sensibilities. We remember one of our first shows, amazed that David Bowie, Brian Eno, Frank Zappa, Allen Ginsberg, Talking Heads, and Blondie all came to see us! When we opened the Mudd Club, we partied with Devo and really hit it off on the dance floor. Later, Brian Eno went on to produce Devo’s incredible first album… and now we will align again! So put on your wig hats and Devo bonnets and get ready to party! This is going to be wild.”
“The B-52’s had one of the best sounds of any of the bands out there in the late ’70s early ’80s,” adds Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. “Rock Lobster is one of my favorite songs. Devo used to sing it to Booji Boy after Devo shows. It was either fate or luck or the SNL anniversary that brought us all together to create this amazing chance to go out on tour. All I can say is Cosmic Devolution is REAL!”
The Cosmic De-Evolution Tour will kick off on Sept. 24 in Toronto and will hit cities including Los Angeles, Toronto, Austin, and Charlotte, N.C., before wrapping in Houston on 2 November
Tickets will be available starting with CITI and AMEX presales beginning June 16, with additional presales running throughout the week. The general onsale will launch Friday, June 20 at 10 a.m. local time at LiveNation.com.
Catch the Cosmic De-Evolution:
- 9/24 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
- 9/25 – Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
- 10/02 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
- 10/04 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
- 10/05 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell at Jones Beach Theater
- 10/16 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
- 10/18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
- 10/24 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
- 10/25 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
- 11/01 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater
- 11/02 – Houston, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
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