As I was too young to have witnessed Devo perform during their late-’70s/early-’80s heyday, I spent more than a bit of time looking up vintage live footage of them on YouTube. Back then they were over the top with energy — subversive, snarky, low-budget, maybe even a little innocent. What could one expect in 2010?

I walked into Indianapolis’s Vogue Theater as soon as Devo was taking the stage (there was no opening band). They leapt into “Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man),” a new song, then straight into “Peekaboo.” Behind the band was a large video screen playing videos to go with the new songs and embellishing lyrics on the older ones. Through the first few songs it seemed that the band was on cruise control. Musically, they were incredibly tight, yet a little stale — they picked it up a little on the older songs, but it wasnt until they played “Uncontrollable Urge” that they really hit their stride — which was a shame since it was the 12th of 19 songs that they played (or 18, depending on how you count “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA”).

Carrying the set from there on out, Mark Mothersbaugh was as unhinged as any of the concert footage I’d seen from 1978. Pouring with sweat, running back and forth, breaking out the pom-poms — almost all the old standbys made an appearance.

The show ended with Devo’s own Booji Boy coming out and telling a story about a chance encounter with Michael Jackson while footage of the oil leak in the Gulf rolled behind the band. The band then launched into an amazing rendition of “Beautiful World,” punctuated by Booji Boy pulling handfuls of rubber balls with smiley faces out of a front-mounted fanny pack and bouncing them into the crowd.

All in all it was a great show, yet compared to the circa-’78 footage I had seen, it left me unfulfilled as one might feel upon viewing a Hollywood remake of a classic campy horror flick. Sure, it’s enjoyable — and the die hard fans will turn out in droves — but it lacks the camp and the cheese, and that’s half the appeal. Half the budget for the tour would have sufficed. The die hards lost their shit. I, being a passing fan, had a really good time, but perhaps set my hopes up a bit high.