Music DVD Review: Ramones - It's Alive 1974 - 1996 - Page 2

By about halfway through, Joey is already out of breath for "Pinhead," which also features the show's only high tech special effect, a giant sign which says "Gabba Gabba Hey." There are a few technical glitches here, as the audio and video seem out of synch at times. But these are easily overlooked because the show itself is so amazing. Maybe the video guy just couldn't keep up with the pace.

Anyway, this DVD would be worth it for the London show alone. But there is so much more here. Did I mention we're talking four hours worth of vintage live Ramones here?

Among the most interesting footage here is a very early show from 1974 at New York's punk rock nightclub CBGB's. The band basically sound like shit here, and haven't yet perfected their act. But it is still fascinating to watch. Here you see the four of them crowded together on a stage so small they can barely fit on it. They haven't yet adopted the matching leather jackets, and Joey looks for all the world like a young Howard Stern. In between songs, they argue about whether to do "Loudmouth" or "I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement," finally deciding on the latter.

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").

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

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