POP MUSIC REVIEW : Devo Loyalists Tuned In for Rebound Sound

Having been left for dead in the poetically just year of 1984, RoboBand--better known as Devo--is trying to rebound.

And what gives Devo the chance to come around again long after its platinum peak in the early ‘80s? The same thing that allows McDonald’s to keep selling burgers: packaging. Instead of 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, in the first of two sold-out nights at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, Devo’s loyal following responded to the package and all the wrappings with the glee of Star Trek conventioneers replaying their favorite episodes. It was, in fact, a lively, well-presented package, even though Devo lacked the elaborate staging and lighting that marked its shows during flusher times.

Devo 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 loyalists knew all that anyway. But anyone who wants satiric pop misanthropy with some real Swiftian bite and staying power can find far better stuff on early Randy Newman albums that predate Devo’s 1978 unveiling of its “theory” by as much as a decade.

Devo began the show by trashing folk-rock with an acoustic reading of its electro-rock signature song, “Jocko Homo” (take that, Tracy Chapman). A quirky idea, but a dull joke compared to the manic original. The other surprise was that the band, known for boinging around the stage, sat through the first few songs.

But for most of the show, it was Devo as usual: close replications of such old favorites as “Whip It” and “Girl U Want,” a smattering of numbers from the group’s stale techno-dance comeback album, “Total Devo,” that took on more life in concert, and energetic antics led by front-man Mark Mothersbaugh, who frequently used the club’s long tables as a runway, especially for his zesty encore turn as the costumed, falsetto-voiced Booji Boy.

Devo hit its stride late in the show with a streak of fine, crunching riff rockers that had fans shaking their fists, climbing on tables and pogoing into walls. On the evidence of high-octane blasts through songs such as “Uncontrollable Urge” and “Gates of Steel,” 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.

Devo will return to the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, Monday, Dec. 19, at 8 p.m. Tickets: $19.50. Information: (714) 496-8930.