The only real question about this DVD is what took them so long. The Ramones new live concert document It's Alive 1974 - 1996 is in a word, awesome. What you get here is four solid hours of live, loud, fast Ramones. It honestly just doesn't get much better than this.
We're not talking just songs here. We're talking entire concerts. A whole bunch of them. Of course a typical Ramones show usually lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 or so minutes, so it's easy to be able to include a whole bunch of them on two discs. The thing about those 40 minute blasts of pure, adrenaline charged energy though is that everyone involved was usually left completely spent and exhausted by the end. I'm not just talking about the band here, but the audience as well.
I oughtta know. I saw the Ramones live something like 10 times, mostly during the '70s and early '80s.
The very first time I saw these wonders of nature was in a tiny ballroom at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle. What I remember most about the show was how absolutely, painfully loud it was. In a tiny room usually reserved for things like business meetings and wedding receptions, the Ramones made a louder racket than Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and The Who combined.
The bathrooms were also located outside the ballroom, so you had to leave through a set of double doors to either enter or exit the place. Upon returning from the facilities, when you tried to go back through those double doors, the sheer volume literally drove you backward.
It was one of the most awesome things I had ever seen.
So this DVD would be worth the price of admission for the inclusion of the complete 1977 New Years Eve concert at London's Rainbow alone. That concert was originally recorded for the import only double live It's Alive album (hence the title of this double DVD).
The Ramones are absolutely at the top of their game at this concert, ripping through 14 songs at breakneck speed at a time which clocks out at about half an hour before a rabid audience of London punkers (how much you wanna bet that Johnny and Sid were there that night?). The pace is non-stop with the only thing separating the songs being Dee Dee's trademark "1-2-3-4."
Article comments
1 - JC Mosquito
Glen - sure, End of the Century is underrated, but of those later records don't forget Too Tough to Die - maybe their last real kick at the cat. After that - autopilot - as Johnny hmself once said, maybe there should be a mandatory retirement age for rock and rollers. Man, I haven't pulled out my Ramones vinyl for a good long while - maybe tonight when I have time.
2 - Glen Boyd
What happened to that other comment?
-Glen
3 - JC Mosquito
Maybe it was a case of "Here Today, Gone Tamarraaaawwwww!"
4 - Glen Boyd
Maybe, Skeet. Followed by a spirited "1-2-3-4!!" no doubt...
-Glen
P.S. By the way I liked Too Tough To Die too...I especially loved Dee Dee's song "Endless Vacation."
5 - Mat Brewster
I never caught the ramones live, but my brother did back in the mid-90s. He saw them at some bit outdoor venue in Texas opening for Pearl Jam. He said he sat way in the back but even at that space it was WAAAAAY too loud!
I still kick myself for not going.
6 - Glen Boyd
So you can understand then Mat, that if the Ramones were that loud in the back of an outdoor stadium (or even an ampitheatre) -- it was downright painful witnessing that in a room no larger than your standard corner tavern. Painful, but also exhilarating for a twenty year old rocker dude all jacked up on beer and testosterone.
Back then, it was loose women, cold beer, and punk rock for me. Ahh memories...
-Glen
7 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.
8 - Erich
Loved the enthusiasm and the review (just finished the set myself), but I have to point out there are no complete concert performances on this set. Even the Rainbow Theater show (the set's longest grouping of songs) has only half of the original live album's 28 tracks.