Feb. 9, 1979 Gusto review: The Ramones at Stage One

 

A band that occupies a prominent parking place in Little Steven’s Underground Garage.

Feb. 9, 1979 

The Ramones at Harvey and Corky’s Stage One

         The Ramones, as usual, look like cartoon characters Thursday night in Harvey and Corky’s Stage One as they face another sold-out club date in what looks like a triumphant tour of the rock showcases of the nation.

         Joey Ramone, the scarecrow-like singer, wears a T-shirt from Toronto’s El Mocambo, where the group just sold out two nights and could have gone for a third. Here they simply could use a bigger place to play.

         The tickets were all gone two days in advance, making this the strongest attraction to play Stage One so far. The scene is strictly wall-to-wall punk-rockers, colorful as a carnival midway and all jammed in so tightly there’s no room to slither down to the floor to do The Worm. What’s more, it’s hot. Even before the Ramones find their way to the stage, people are sweating.

         The problem is that, professionally, the Ramones are at that awkward stage. Too big to be mere cult figures, not big enough to be full-fledged pop heroes. They have a crying need for a commercial breakthrough, but unhappily the radio programmers of North America treat them like lepers. They tug at the fringes of success while the public at large is unaware of their charms.

         Deep down, the Ramones are something of an East Coast mutation of the California surf-music bands of the ‘60s. Instead of ocean, they’ve got asphalt. Instead of sunshine, they’ve got sociopathy. Instead of looking for fun that’s dumb, they look for dumb that’s fun.

         Dumb but not fun is the choice of an opening band – Cheeks, a more-than-competent Buffalo quintet that unfortunately is mismatched with the Ramones. Cheeks plays snatches of the Who and the Kinks and their own visions of heavy metal blues, but the punk-rock crowd just hoots and grumbles. The proper opener would have been one of Buffalo’s primary New Wave outfits – the Jumpers or else Billy Piranha and the Enemies. Members of both bands are in the audience.

         The Ramones emerge shortly after midnight to a pre-taped drum roll and prolonged cheering, which lasts until they rip into the closest thing they’ve got to a hit – a happy little ditty called “Rockaway Beach.” Everyone is on their feet and stays there the entire set. The Ramones can’t be taken sitting down anyway.

         Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone anchor the setting with rough vigor as they lay down a sinewy staccato texture on bass and guitar. There are no solos. The new member, Marky, hulks over his drums with hunched shoulders. Joey twitches his mop-like black hair back from his red sunglasses as he sings a succession of two-minute-long favorites like “Lobotomy,” “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment,” “I Wanna Be Sedated” and “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker,” all of which rattle off one after another at a machine-gun pace.

         The Ramones have taken the trouble to alter their singular formula a bit. Sometimes the tempo takes a change of pace. Sometimes the three-chord structure is expanded. Sometimes reverb creeps in to give them a wall of sound. Shades of Phil Spector, who just happened to be the producer of their upcoming single, the title tune to the movie in which they’ve just appeared – “Rock and Roll High School.”

         The finale is the sort of rubber-lipped gibberish that the Blues Brothers are making a fortune on these days. There’s “Surfin’ Bird” with its funny “um-mow-mow.” There’s “Cretin Hop,” with the words all slurred and twisted. There’s the clincher, the oldie “California Sun.” Finally, Joey trots out the “Gabba Gabba Hey” sign to lead the crowd in an enthusiastic chant. They finish them off with a couple slam-bang encores.

         The Ramones are simply incredible. Without fancy gimmicks, without any more than leather jackets, torn blue jeans and a singular mission, they’ve whipped another audience into a steaming frenzy in little more than an hour. That’s all the time they need to unleash all the firepower of their music. They’re the ones who pioneered this sleazy, stripped-down style and they’re still its best practitioners.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: The Ramones backstage in April 1979 at CBGB in New York City. From left, Joey, Marky, Johnny and Dee Dee. Photo by Bob Gruen.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Lack of mainstream success was taking its toll the Ramones in 1979. That's why drummer Tommy Ramone quit the touring band a year earlier and retreated into duties as producer. In his place, they'd recruited Marc Bell from Richard Hell and the Voidoids and began recording their fourth album, "Road to Ruin," altering their usual approach in a bid to become more pop. Though it included one of their classics, "I Wanna Be Sedated," and in retrospect is regarded as one of their best efforts, it didn't crack the Billboard Top 100. Amazingly, setlist.fm has what appears to be a complete compilation of 25 songs from that night at Stage One:

Rockaway Beach

Teenage Lobotomy

Blitzkreig Bop

I Don't Want You

Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

Rock 'n Roll High School

I Wanna Be Sedated

I Just Want to Have Something to Do

Bad Brain

I'm Against It

Sheena Is a Punk Rocker

Havana Affair

Commando

Needles and Pins (Jackie DeShannon cover)

I Want You Around

Surfin' Bird (Trashmen cover)

Cretin Hop

Listen to My Heart

California Sun (Joe Jones cover)

I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You

Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World

Pinhead

(encore)

Do You Wanna Dance? (Bobby Freeman cover)

Suzy Is a Headbanger

Let's Dance (Chris Montez cover)