Whip the Vote: Devo Plays for Obama Back Home in Swingin' Ohio

As he explains his exasperation with the two choices, the dilemma starts to sound shockingly like one of the last songs Devo played the night before, “Freedom of Choice.” The band began the song with its typical thunderclap drums, but this time instead of moving to the central keyboard riff, keyboardist Bob II broke into an android version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and the crowd cheered as Jerry Casale screamed “Obama ’08! Obama ’08!”

The band then dove into “Freedom of Choice.” Mark Mothersbaugh marched around the stage as he sang the lyrics, adapted from a Roman fable by Phaedrus about a dog who finds two bones. Sang Mothersbaugh, “He picked at one/He licked the other/He went in circles/He dropped dead/Freedom of choice/is what you got/Freedom of choice!”

Karen Schiely, Courtesy Of The Akron Beacon Journal

The mutants return to Akron for the first time in 30 years.

Karen Schiely, Courtesy Of The Akron Beacon Journal

Chrissie Hynde, Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh

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“I think in previous days, the individual artist campaigning for or tolerating or agreeing to perform on behalf of a candidate was probably unthinkable,” submits USC’s Del Colliano, “at least not on the level that it is done today. We all know Sinatra went back and forth with JFK, but he was also a Reagan friend, and he could go anywhere he wanted to. And it’s interesting: The only thing McCain and Obama agree on is that Sinatra makes their playlist. Was Sinatra just big enough to get away with it? Yeah, he was probably big enough to get away with it. And he probably didn’t give a damn about a lot of things that happened.”