Now that the group has announced plans to release its first new album in nearly two decades later this year, sci-fi new-wave legends Devo [ tickets ] brought their live production to SXSW Friday night (3/20), offering a glimpse of what's to come, as well as a good long look at the band's history.

Though the group has kept a relatively low profile in recent years, on this night Devo felt as vital and important as ever. The band's production, as you'd expect, is a visual delight, and the sense of fun still pervades. But it's the musicianship that surprises. Frontman Mark Mothersbaugh's voice is just as you remember it, and the perfect complement to the still-tight group's patented electropop sound.

A Perfect Circle's Josh Freese is Devo's current drummer, and on Friday night it felt like he was the drummer the band was always meant to have. His mechanical, impeccable beats formed the robotic backdrop that held the music together; it was totally ego-free, and as remarkable a display as I've ever seen by a drummer.

Stripped of the '80s production values on their best-known records, most of Devo's music still sounds vital and current in concert. The show opened with the new Devo song "Don't Shoot, I'm a Man," which felt right at home among the well-worn songs from the band's past. Colorful, cartoonish computer graphics were projected on a huge screen behind the five piece band throughout the song, and most of the remainder of the set.

The band members later donned their old "energy dome" hats for "Girl U Want" and "Whip It," two songs that brought the crowd to a frenzy. Other highlights included "Mongoloid" and an encore set that included "Uncontrollable Urge" and, on "Beautiful Boy," an appearance by Mothersbaugh as the masked Booji Boy.