Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 29.02.2016
Attendance: 120
It doesn’t happen all that often that the legendary sounds and marching anthems of the great, sadly departed but universally beloved American punk rockers Ramones ring out around our Šentflorjan henhouse. In October 2010, for example, Marky Ramone visited Ljubljana with his band Blitzkrieg, and a good five years later Richie Ramone took over the baton, throwing one more night devoted to reviving the spirit and legacy of Ramones. Not entirely, though. Richie slipped a few of his own tunes from his solo studio albums into the setlist.
The show at Orto bar kicked off pretty quickly after nine in the evening. Already up on stage, raising hell, were American rock hellions Dobermann, who spent a good half hour firing off some seriously piercing riff projectiles and got a dozen or so people wandering around the lower floor of Orto bar moving with their ragged version of garage-packed rock’n’roll, with plenty of punk influence on open display. The energetic trio gritted their teeth in front of an empty floor and confidently ground through their set. The guitar wasn’t all that clear in the mix, but still. Does anyone miss precision when the talk turns to punk? Only a sufficiently crazy “music professor.” These guys could use a second guitar. In the middle sections, when the guitarist jumped into solos, the sound ached with a bit of emptiness, and even though the bass tore noticeably through the guts of the songs, it couldn’t fill that gap. I could easily see these guys up on stage as the opening act for Guns N’ Roses, if it were the early nineties.
Next up was Lester Greenowski with his backing band. He’s an Italian performer from Modena who released his new, already eighth studio album, »The Italian Job«, this February, and it includes the ravenous Trail of Graffithi, among others. Lester was the central figure on stage, in a macho pose, lazily hanging off the mic stand with his singing in a way that was a bit theatrically reminiscent of Iggy Pop, except that, luckily, Lester didn’t show off his “chicken chest.” By Italian standards, Lester came across incredibly convincing in his delivery. English lyrics included. You can tell the guy spent several years on the other side of the Atlantic pond, where he shaped his musical approach. The wild bass player even evoked elements of sleaze rock with her lisp. It’s all energetic punk rock, of course, one that leans surprisingly heavily on the Ramones legacy. Lester beefed up the show with a raspy vocal, an element that slotted in perfectly with the fierce, point-blank punk rock riffs. A confident, charismatic and convincing set from a quartet that’s no stranger to hard rock either.
By the time Richie Ramone hit the stage, some 120 eager heads had gathered in the venue and started to bang along as the former Ramones drummer walked out with his three “subjects.” Richie moved back and forth between the drums and the mic during the show. When Richie stepped up to the mic as a solo singer, meaning he sang without drumming at the same time, rhythm guitarist Ben Reagan took over on drums. At those moments the band simply leaned on Alex Kane’s guitar phrases. Richie also left a few songs on vocals to guitarist Alex Kane, such as Blitkrieg Bop. Seriously professional stuff, by the way. Amid the frills, lisping and kitsch brought into their stage look by the slender, almost venomously skinny bassist Clare Misstake and the incredibly lively, energetic guitarist Alex Kane, and Ramones’ punk rock attitude never missed it, let alone needed it, what took over was above all the sheer energy of the show. Right in the great use of the stage by Alex Kane and Misstake. Especially once Richie moved over to the drums. Richie also has tremendous charisma, which is contagious and takes little effort to get the crowd eating out of his hand. Then again, with the Ramones arsenal you’re playing, you don’t need many extras anyway.
The crowd may have been small, but it soaked up the vibes from the stage with real feeling, and the band sensed it. The result was a very convincing live show and a great vibe, which pushed aside any star-ego slip-ups or fear that the band wouldn’t deliver at least the live optimum, given the otherwise poor turnout.
In short. The man delivered a satisfying, stamped-with-authority show on the Orto bar stage, though vocally he could’ve pushed out a few more decibels of noise, but still. First, years pass in silence (and the tooth of time gnaws at you, and the tooth of the glass too), and second, he surely played the songs with a pinch of restraint. The turnout was poor enough that the quartet didn’t exactly burst into motivated explosion beyond all available limits. Richie Ramone leaned confidently on the excellent work of his backing crew all night. For all their onstage wildness (thanks above all to the thoroughly unhinged–naughty Kane) they pulled it off with remarkable accuracy, and with a precision that was almost too disciplined for punk rock territory. Enough to fully satisfy the handful of people at his Ljubljana show. Where on earth were all the older punk fans that night, the ones who lived out their teenage years in the eighties?
Setlist
1. Durango 95 (Ramones)
2. I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement (Ramones)
3. Somebody Put Something in My Drink (Ramones)
4. Smash You (Ramones)
5. I Just Want to Have Something to Do (Ramones)
6. Better Than Me
7. Criminal
8. Animal Boy (Ramones)
9. Into The Fire
10. I Know Better Now (Ramones)
11. Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones)
12. Entitled
13. I Fix This
14. (You) Can’t Say Anything Nice (Ramones)
15. Forgotten Years
16. Take My Hand
17. Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World (Ramones)
18. Wart Hog (Ramones)
19. I’m Not Jesus (Ramones)
20. I Wanna Be Well (Ramones)
21. Sheena Is a Punk Rocker (Ramones)
—encore—
22. Elevator Operator (Ramones)
23. Havana Affair (Ramones)
24. Cretin Hop (Ramones)
Photo gallery
