Live Ramones bootlegs usually only vary in sound quality, as the Brothers Ramone (how many writers have used that clever, lazy, and affectionate way of restating their name?) were nothing if not fairly consistent live. With "I Want You Around" lasting for a little over two and a half minutes (an epic by anyone's standards), the boys rip into 31 tunes in a little over an hour, stopping to inhale half a breath before ONE TWO THREE FOUR. "Surfin' Bird' is almost transcendent; "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" made me dance around my office in my underwear, waving to the neighbors across the driveway. Much better than the official live releases, this 1979 show just about captures the Ramones in their strict beach-blanket-bingo-in-leather ethos best (minus, at this show at least, their by-way-of-puberty Ronettes' harmonies). |