Devo - Exploring de-evolution in downtown Akron in 1978.

It began as a quirky but sophisticated art-school gag at Kent State University 35 years ago. But Devo's influence has continued to resonate through the years, long past its commercial peak when its 1980 hit "Whip It!" became a hit and the band's series of distinctive, creative videos were MTV staples in the early '80s.

Today, the band, which created a philosophy called de-evolution which underpinned its music, pioneered creative use of synthesizers that sonically reflected its philosophy and developed a series of innovative looks and videos that amplified it visually, boasts a small legion of DEVOtees around the country who assemble annually in Northeast Ohio for a fan summit dubbed the DEVOtional. Many are a generation younger than the band members, some not even born when "Whip It!" charted.

That includes 21-year-old Bowling Green University student Alex Brunell, proprietor of Devo-dedicated Web site BoojiBoysBasment.com, and the main organizer of DEVOtional 2007: Total DEVOtional, taking place at the Beachland on Saturday, August 25.

"My dad was a fan of Devo and I was quite literally raised on Devo," he says.

"I still have cassettes I played when I was 4 or 5 years old. I went through the whole teenage adolescence thing where I didn't listen to anything my parents listened to, but my musical tastes have since refined."

The first DEVOtional in 2000 was spearheaded by fans Scott Orsi and Michael Pilmer, who ran it for the first four years. Following a break in 2004 when the band played some public shows for the first time in years that fans attended instead, Brunell took over in 2005. After planning began, Devo announced a tour that serendipitously brought it to Northeast Ohio within days of the event.

"The question arose whether there should be a DEVOtional," says Brunell. "Since we had already put so much effort into it, it worked out to our advantage because it was two days after their show in Cleveland that year. We had really good attendance that year."

Like Brunell, Pilmer and Orsi are fans who became interactively involved with the band. Pilmer, who spent his early childhood in Stow and Chardon and his later childhood in North Carolina where he lives now, discovered the band in 1980 after leaving the area. "I felt cheated that I was this close and didn't know about them," he says. Instead he became an obsessive collector, archiving the band's history. His Web site, not coincidentally, is called Devo-obsesso.com.

In the mid-'90s he became more than a fan. Home from college with the flu and bored, he was calling information for old friends in Ohio and decided to see if any Devo members still lived there. He ended up talking to Bob and Jerry Casale's father, Bob Sr., who put him in touch with his son. Soon he was doing work for the band including running their Web site, clubdevo.com, printing T-shirts, doing design and PR work and booking member Mark Mothersbaugh's art shows, one of which will open at Asterisk Gallery in Tremont the evening before the DEVOtional. It's now his full-time job.

He describes the genesis of the DEVOtionals as "all these friends who knew each other through collecting wanting to meet. We wanted to show each other rare stuff and see each other's footage. We wanted to talk about stuff you can't talk about with your other friends."

Chicagoan Scott Orsi, another originator of the event who's still involved in its planning, is also a member of the event's so-called "house band," the Spudboys, one of five musical acts who will play tribute sets to Devo with their own unique spins. (The Mutant Mountain Boys, for instance, will give their tunes bluegrass treatment.) It was he who came up with the event's name. He also designed the We're All Devo license plate frames available at the band's Web site.

He became a fan in the early '80s and like many of the other serious fans, says it was a combination of the band's music, its multi-media package and its philosophy of de-evolution - that the rigidity, mindlessness and corruption of society show that man is actually regressing rather than evolving - that attracted him and kept him involved.

"Unusual music arrangements, the use of synthesizers as a construct for the song as opposed to a textural layer, bass that could not only be heard, but would sometimes carry the melody of the song, self-deprecating humor, insightful satire, controversial and confrontational commentary on human behavior, and the ever-declining state of the human condition, two lead singers, an entire philosophy to the band's existence, a self-developed lingo, characters who co-exist in the band's contrived world, ground-breaking videos ... and of course, the unique and uniform look which changed each album," he sums up.

Bruce Perry is another hands-on fan who designed the event flyers and tickets and maintains Devodude.com to display his design work. He'll come with his wife for the third time. He too discovered the band initially as a kid listening to new wave in the '80s but developed a deeper appreciation for it as he grew up.

"When I was that young, it was really all about the sound," he says. "It wouldn't be until a "reunion' with the music after a long absence that I discovered there was actual meaning to the songs. Their music was all about the truth that most people would just as soon ignore. It was about excess and laziness and corruption - not praising it but bashing it. And Devo was right! The excess and laziness and corruption is running ever so much more rampant than it was 30 years ago ... and it shows no signs of stopping. Devolution is real!"

As a designer, he says the band's creative look was a key factor for him.

"Another reason I am so much into Devo is their visual artistry," he says. "Devo is just as much about their appearance and their use of graphics and video as they are about their music. They have a uniform sense of style that separates them from everyone else. You can look at many bands on a stage and have no idea who they are. When Devo's on stage, even if they aren't playing, you know it's Devo!"

Andie Hammett's a high school art teacher in Florida who sees Devo as an outlet and a reflection of society.

"I'm faced with a multitude of issues as I teach. Kids come to me bent and broken. We are talkin' serious devastation and vacancy across the board. The good part about it is that Devo placates my classroom wall to wall. Devo offers up something to me on a daily basis I can't quite put a finger on. Devo puts me where I want to be right before entering a stressful, challenging day."

"The Devo Fam, as I call it, think and respond to complex world issues in a manner I'm so incredibly fond of," Hammett says by way of explaining her return to the DEVOtional each year. "Each and every one of them is passionate and intrinsically forward in thought. I see talent, leadership, goodness and capabilities not yet witnessed in any other group dynamic."

Kristin Edwards, who calls herself "She-vo," is coming in from Oakland, California. She says "I've been into DEVO since I was about 5 years old. My father had the record and the 8-track of Are We Not Men? and I was instantly hooked. I even brought it to kindergarten for sharing. This will be my second time at DEVOtional. There is something amazing and touching about hanging out with a group of like-minded, rabid spuds. It's instant family, people who can relate and finally understand you."

Robin Renee, a fan since the '80s, is coming from Atco, New Jersey for her third DEVOtional. "They are innovative, political, humorous, intelligent, prophetic, masters of design," she says of the band. "They created an amazing synergy of art, music, message and flat-out fun. It is great to get together with a bunch of people and just celebrate it."

Marc Friedman, who's making the trip from San Francisco for his first DEVOtional after getting enthusiastic reports from other fans, says, "I love that the music that they wrote 30 years ago still sounds innovative today. You could take an average 14 year old who had never heard of Devo, play Devo songs for them, and they would marvel at the new and exciting sound. The five minds of Devo have created what is, in my personal and subjective taste, the best music ever made. A big part of my going to the DEVOtional is that I appreciate every chance I have to interact with the men who make the music."

He'll have the chance to interact with band founder and bassist Jerry Casale, who'll come in from LA for his third DEVOtional, as well as Bob Casale Sr., an event regular, and other special guests. Casale, now a director working on getting a film script produced, says he learned of the event plans in 2000 from Pilmer and even offered some input into the initial planning.

"I appreciate the fact that these people take us seriously and care about us after we haven't put out any material in so long," he says. "They took to heart what we were trying to do and the message and wanted to keep it alive. I'm impressed and I'm thankful."

He also enjoys the fact that many of the fans are so young.

"That shows me that something we did was right. It wasn't just a shallow, trendy thing. They're picking up on what we said that was lasting."

One of the things that he says is a little more lasting than he expected - and more evident today than when the band formed - is the theory of de-evolution.

"We never thought it would get to this. It's far worse than anything we imagined. We live in a world of people with backwards baseball caps and Escalade SUVs who support Bush. Half the country thinks he's right. The fact that this is possible is devastating to any person of consciousness. He and the people that accept his consciousness, they represent the downfall of the human race. They prove de-evolution is real."

But he says the DEVOtionals give him hope. They show, he says, that "Even a few hundred people can make a difference in the end, by keeping the idea alive and telling their friends and their children."