Two years later at Max's Kansas City they don't sound much better, screwing up the start to "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" right out of the gate. But by the time they make it back to CBGB's for a 1976 show right before the album Rocket To Russia came out, they've totally perfected their act right down to the matching jeans and leather. The hometown crowd eats it up of course, greeting them like they were the biggest rock stars on earth. As I've already said, the 1977 London show which closes out disc one is about as close to perfection as it gets.

A lot of Ramones fans will probably tell you that the first four albums made up through 1978 represent the Ramones creative peak, and in truth that is probably a pretty fair assessment (although I personally think the Phil Spector produced End Of The Century is underrated). Much of the second disc concentrates on the period after those four records. What you see here is the Ramones gradually playing bigger and better places, including one show where they played before a couple hundred thousand people at San Bernadino, California's first US Festival in 1982 (where Joey's mike goes dead during "Gimme Shock Treatment").

Although none of the records the band made during the '80s and '90s really matched the power of classics like Leave Home and Rocket To Russia and they started going through a lot of different members (particularly at the drum kit), the footage in this DVD shows the band remained a formidable live act right up to the end. To the members' credit, they also never changed the basic Ramones formula of loud, fast, and uncompromising punk rock played at breakneck speed.

Most of the Ramones are of course now dead, and for that reason there is also a touch of sadness involved in watching this DVD. The band's influence on the future direction of rock and roll was absolutely undeniable — just ask Green Day. Fortunately, most of them made it far enough to see themselves vindicated as the true innovators and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees they eventually became. It's just too bad that they were never able to see that influence translate into commercial success. Radio didn't figure out what to do with the Ramones until nearly twenty years after the fact.

It's Alive 1974 - 1996 is the quintessential live concert document of the Ramones. It is essential for any Ramones fan. Hell, it's essential for any true rock and roll fan period. It's just amazing how long it took somebody to finally put this stuff out. This is an easy five star DVD.

Did I mention we're talking four hours of live Ramones here?