The party was going on too late, with people milling inside my Ypsilanti group house way past when my roommates and I wanted them there. Gentle prods of "Time to go home" and "Get the hell out" were unheeded by the bad-beer masses, so it was going to take a sonic bouncer to clear the joint.

That's when we played Devo's "U Got Me Bugged" at energy-dome-shattering volume, utilizing the CD player's repeat function for the maximum annoyance we could wring out of a song that runs 2 minutes and 49 seconds. I don't recall how many times we played "Bugged"—a modular-synth squelch-fest revealed on the then newly released Hardcore Devo: Hardcore Devo: Volume Two, 1974-1977, which collected demos and experiments from the Akron, Ohio surrealists who were still years away from the mainstream success of 1980's "Whip It."

But I do remember "Bugged" worked like a can of Raid made from waveforms, making our unwanted guests (and perhaps some wanted ones) scurry off into the night.

These early Devo recordings were one part of the subversive group's multidisciplinary approach to art, which also included futuristic clothing design, cartoonish illustrations, and experimental films. These works of video art were restored and compiled into 50 Years of De-Evolution: The Restored Films of Devo (1974–1984), which will be screened at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, March 26, at the Michigan Theater as part of the 63rd Ann Arbor Film Festival, March 25-30. The 2024 documentary Devo by Chris Smith will also be shown, at 5:30 pm on Saturday, March 29, at the Michigan Theater.

Devo co-founders Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh along with restorationist Peter Conheim will be at the 50 Years of De-Evolution screening. This won't be the first time Mothersbaugh graced the Michigan Theater stage—but it wasn't as a part of Devo, which has only played Ann Arbor twice during its 50-plus-year career: October 28, 1981, at Hill Auditorium and on July 6, 2010, at the Power Center as part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.

Mothersbaugh appeared in Ann Arbor as part of the Penny Stamps Speaker Series on September 29, 2016. It was connected to a promotional tour for the traveling exhibit and book Mark Mothersbaugh: Myopia, where he was joined at the Michigan Theater by author and curator Adam Lerner to discuss his pioneering work as a soundtrack composer, visual artist, and Devo's legacy.

While Devo has never performed at the Michigan Theater, it has participated in the Ann Arbor Film Festival: The Truth About De-evolution won an award at the 15th edition in 1977, a year before the group signed to Warner Bros. and recorded its debut album, the Brian Eno-produced classic Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

Eno helped polish the band's rough edges without undercutting its insurgent satire, and the LP helped launch the group as a cultural force. Devo continued to polish its sound and became new-wave pop stars, but if the Michigan Theater is having trouble emptying the aisles after these two screenings, I know just the song to help.

Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp. 

The 63rd Ann Arbor Film Festival runs March 25-30. Visit aafilmfest.org for tickets, showtimes, and more info. Both Devo screenings will be at the Michigan Theater: "50 Years of De-Evolution" on Wednesday, March 26, at 7:30 pm; and the "Devo" doc by Chris Smith will be shown on Saturday, March 29, at 5:30 pm.