Ramones Live 10.13.79

As a lifelong Ramones fan, I finally got to see the band live in '86 and, while it was a great show, it wasn't the same as seeing the band's best line-up - Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Marky - when they were still firing on all cylinders.

That, of course, would be right around 1979, when the band made their hardest bid for the bigtime. By then, new drummer Marky Bell had been with them for over a year and helped take them to the next level as a live act, they'd recorded and released their most pop-oriented album to date (Road To Ruin), and appeared in the film Rock & Roll High School.

Thus, their '79 tour saw the New York punk act emerge as a viable contender for mainstream success. That they ultimately fell short of full-blown mainstream acceptance would quickle lead to intensified friction within the band as Joey's desire to continue to head in a more pop-oriented direction constantly clashed with Johnny's pure punk ethos.

Toward the end of Marky's first tenure with the band, they taken to performing most songs in a style that can best be described as "Vegas fast" - imagine Elvis or Sinatra at their most Vegas, seemingly performing each song as if it were a wind sprint and, in doing so, steamrolling over most of the songs' key nuances.

This concert, though, from a '79 Evanston, IL concert, shows the Ramones in all their primer-era glory.

Enjoy!

Intro
Blitzkrieg Bop
Teenage Lobotomy
Rockaway Beach
I Don't Want You
Go Mental
Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
Rock & Roll High School
I Wanna Be Sedated
I Just Wanna Have Something To Do
She's The One
I'm Against It
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
Havana Affair
Commando
Needles And Pins

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Check back on Wednesday for Part 2 of this show!