Ripe for rediscovery in 2008 is Devo, the New Wave- era, futuristic fivesome from Akron, best known for the 1980 hit "Whip It," and for wearing yellow hazmat suits and red "energy dome" flowerpots on their heads.

And as headliners amid a gaggle of grown-up and kid bands on Saturday, the second of three days of the Paul Green School of Rock Festival, Devo frontmen found a ready-made audience of wise punks and music geeks young enough to be their grandchildren.

Devo has aged - leaders Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale are nearing 60. But its short, sharp, super-catchy robo-rock songs and mock sci-fi fashion moves, which amusingly explore dehumanization (and "devolution") in the modern world, has stood the test of time.

At the Festival Pier, the band - whose last studio album came out in 1990, long before many of the assembled guitar-shredders were born - dispensed with "Whip It" four songs into a spirited 80-minute set. Drummer Josh Freese pushed forward with industrial force while Mothersbaugh delivered such mordant originals as "Are We Not Men?" and "Mongoloid" with stone-faced glee.

It's no surprise Mothersbaugh has written music for kids' TV shows like Rugrats: Among other things, Devo is a children's band, albeit a dystopian one. That was underscored by "Beautiful World," with Mothersbaugh donning a rubber mask to play the "Baby Booji," an infantile superhero come to clean up a world grown "uglier than we could have imagined."

The Hold Steady shared top billing, but the beery, hyper-literate Brooklyn bar band was slightly out of place.

Craig Finn's songs mixed early Springsteen recovering-Catholic imagery and punk-derived fury: "Youth of Today and early 7 Seconds taught me some of life's most valuable lessons," he sang in "Stay Positive." The performance was impassioned, but it seemed wrong to be seeing it while the sun was shining.

At any given time, bands from one of SOR's 26 branches nationwide did Jethro Tull, or Steely Dan, or, in the case of Philadelphia's all-female Queen Diamond, Metallica. SOR All-Stars directed by benevolent dictator Green enthusiastically essayed Stevie Wonder and Guns N' Roses. Most charming moment: After faulty sound rendered inaudible Damon Smith's solo on the Beatles' "In My Life" (sung by Ashley Smith, no relation), Green called for a do-over and gave the keyboardist his spotlight.

There was original music on the side stages. Ektoblast detonated prog-metal noise. The Ergs played ragged but right power-pop. Not Waving But Drowning traded in uninvolving fiddle-fueled folk-punk. Best in show: Philadelphia's Sweatheart, featuring Thom Lessner, Rose Luardo, and rapper Amanda Blank, who trashed it up with naughty disco and synth-pop, leading perfectly into Devo.