Well, as is par for the course, I said to myself that 2023’s Summer Soiree 6 was going to be the last Soiree. How could I possibly top a special show where The Dwarves did a special set celebrating the re-release of all of their albums, Zorn surfed on a coffin, Danbert Nobacon of Chumbawamba played Chumba hits and then-unreleased new tunes, Vixen 77 played what would be one of their final gigs, and The Mikey Erg band made a surprise appearance? It was impossible. The night was a total dream.

And then, in January, I said to myself, I’m not doing another Soiree, for sure… just let me see what year the Ramones were formed… and sure enough, it was 1974, exactly 50 years ago. So then I said, well, if I do do a Ramones tribute, it has to be extra special and not just some band “playing” the Ramones. I also knew that Ramones are Joe Jack Talcum of Dead Milkmen’s favorite band… and I knew that asking someone to learn, practice, and play a unique, one-time-only set is a huge ask. So, I said to myself, “I’ll ask Joe to do a full Ramones set, because this is the perfect conjuncture- Ramones 50 and they are Joe’s favorite band- AND Joe will politely say ‘no thanks’ because learning 17 new songs is A LOT of work. And then I can write it off and the Soirees will be done…“ Not because I don’t like them, but because they are a labor of love and a lot of work and a lot of stress and I don’t want to do them JUST to do them- they need to be special.

And so I asked Joe, pretty sure that Joe would say “thanks but no thanks.” And Joe got back to me in a few days. His answer- YES.

And not only yes, but a “YES” with his full band DanJoMar- Joe and Dan of Dead Milkmen with Marshall Fischer. Joe’s one caveat- “we are not going to sound like a traditional Ramones cover band.”

I had no idea what he meant. I assumed it meant the songs will be acoustic of folky, but I had no idea. Who am I to question the titan Joe Jack Talcum. So, I said, “sounds good to me!” and began planning Soiree 7: RAMONESMANIA.

Still aware that learning an entire Ramones set was a lot of work, I realized thay my only choice for a co-headliner was Mikey Erg. Mikey Erg is a Ramones-maniac, of course, AND he’s covered the Ramones. I asked him if he wanted to play the show and he was in- he wanted to play all of the Ramones’ second album, Leave Home. The caveat there was that he was unsure if he would be able to firmly commit because, between The Ergs, Laura Jane Grace, and his 7,303 other bands (he’s in Raging Nathans now) he might be on tour.. Or even in Italy. We made the deal that if he could make it, he would an if he couldn’t, then no hard feelings.

I asked the recently reunited Ramoms (four moms that play songs about being moms in a Ramones style) if they wanted to play because it was obvious. Of course they said yes.

A little closer to the event, after some lineup changes, I needed a fourth band. RAMONESMANIA had to have four bands because, 1-2-3-4, duh. I’ve booked Vixen 77 a few times before, but they had gone on hiatus with three members, Caitlin, Liz, and Sarah, having formed a new band, Pink Soap. I asked Caitlin if they wanted to play. Well, she said they did, but they only had one original song and one cover. I asked them if they could learn a Ramones song. Caitlin said they could but that was only like a nine minute set. I said that was fine with me. It’s punk rock. If you don’t like a band in nine minutes, you’re not going to like them in 90.

And RAMONESMANIS was off to the races (though I was a little worried I might get a C&D from the massive investment entity that purchased portions of the Ramones IP from Mickey Leigh or from Mickey Leigh himself). Well, luckily, that never happened. And tickets started to sell. No matter how hard I try to dissect the science of tickets sales, I can never find an identifiable pattern. For this show, which was initially announced waaaaay back in February, I sold about five tickets a week, steadily. For 24 weeks, meaning that by the day before the show, we were sold out! In fact, I often have some sort of crazy story about problems or chaos leading up to or at the show,,, but Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy must have been looking down on me because this show was the smoothest show I’ve ever thrown. No real problems, no real fights, no real issues. Everyone was working together to make it a super rad night!

Doors were “At 7,” but like the shrewd marketing mobile I am, I pushed them back to 7:15. By that time, there was a line down the block. I went outside and started to hand out glow bracelets as is the Soiree trademark as people were let in. The “welcome music” was a selection of CBGB classics by bands that would have played with early Ramones- Blondie, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, etc. Everyone was in a really good mood as doorman Karabo checked them in and handed out more glow bracelets, special RAMONESMANIA programs, and other trinkets I bought at the dollar store. And then it was show time.

The lights dimmed and everyone went quiet. Then, the classic dialogue from the Simpsons episode with the Ramones cracked across the speaker. Smithers introduced the band and they played a sardonic version of “Happy Birthday” to Mr. Burns. At the end, CJ said, “go to hell, you old bastard.” And then massive explosions rocked the speakers. I jumped up on stage in my Punknews Blue Tuxedo (giant “P” on the back”) and led the audience in chants of “Gabba gabba hey,” “Sheena is a punk rocker,” and “Gimme gimme shock treatment!” The crowd was HYPED. Then I thanked the sponsors and introduced the bands, before wrapping up with another crowd chant, while waving a matching sign- “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!”

With the crowd yelling the final “let’s go” I jumped off the stage while explosions again rocked the speaker only for Pink Soap to snap right into their set. Their first note and first song ever? A hard charging version of the Ramones classic smasher “I can’t give you anything.” They crowd went nuts. The band was raw, ragged, and totally ripping. Next, they played a killer original that walked the line between classic punk and noisy grunge. Finally, they closed with Alanis Morrissette’s “You Outta Know” as if the song was written by Bikini Kill. The crowd was so blown away that they DEMANDED more. But, Pink Soap had literally three songs to their name. Someone yelled out, “play the Ramones song again,” and the band smashed into an extended, harder hitting version of “I can’t give you anything.” It was rad as hell. Totally set time? Maybe 11 minutes… of rad as hell punk rock.

While Pink Soap packed up, Ramoms set up on the stage while, in a nod to Joey Ramone’s influences, girl groups played on the PA- Martha and the Vandellas, Little Eva, the Supremes, and all the hits. I actually was surprised at how much the crowd was into these ‘60s classics.

Then, the Ramoms kicked into their set. Ramoms have a pretty large repertoire and switch between straight up covers and morphed tunes. Some of the funnier morphed tunes were “Going into 3rd,” “the PTA took my mommy away,” and an especially popular version in Philly- “gritty is a punk.” They also blessed through some straight up covers including “do you wanna dance” and “beat on the brat.” During “brat,” I hurled pool noodles into the audience and over 100 people went crazy smacking each other. Ramoms are a funny band, but they played it fast and loose and the crowd was totally into the G-rated take on the boys from Queens.

After the Ramoms set, a selection of Dee Dee King (Dee Dee Ramone’s rap persona) kicked across the speaker. And, I must say, while many people consider Dee Dee King to be one of the worst records ever made… I thought the 808s on the big sounded system sounded pretty darn good.

Meanwhile, the Mikey Erg band took to the stage, looking a little nervous. You see, when they arrived, Mike had just gotten back from a tour of Italy with the Ergs. He casually mentioned to me that, “oh, we haven’t rehearsed these songs… at all…” and also, “oh, this version of the Mikey Erg band- Mike, Jeff of Ergs, and Joe DeCarolis- has never actually played together before ever…” and “oh, Jeff actually hasn’t ever reality drummed before…” In fact, during the Ramoms set, I literally saw Mikey backstage watching his iPad LEARNING how to play songs he was scheduled to play in front of a hungry audience in like 25 minutes. In earlier years maybe I would have been nervous, but, now with some modicum of experience, I thought to myself, “listen, it’s a Ramones cover set. If it sucks, it will be rad. If it’s good, it will be great.” Also, Mikey and the boys are as pro as you get. So I figured, like the house bands on late night TV, they probably learn “start me up” or “It’s still rock n roll to me” like 10 minutes before they play it live.

Well, as soon as the Mikey Erg Band counted of 1-2-3-4 it was a sonic boom. You would have thought that they had not only been playing together for years, but that they had been doing Leave Home for years. They slammed with energy of early Ramones all while really drawing out the melody and affectations heard on the LP. Once in a while Mikey would go full on Joey and summon that weird Joey accent. During “California Sun,” I threw a bunch of sun balloons on the audience and the crowd batted them around while MEB kicked out three chords. About halfway through the set, they started to discuss how good (or not good ro weird) each song was before ripping into the next. Interestingly, they felt that “now I wanna be a good boy” was just leftover parts of different songs bolted together. The crowd loved it. The piece de resistance was that after they played “you should never have opened that door,” they played “Babysitter,” thereby playing all the songs from every version of the album. It was a true love letter to the band and sounded phenomenal.

As DanJoMar set up, you could tell people were amped. What would the band sound like? Would it be low key? Would it be kind of quiet and tender? Meanwhile, obscure Ramones solo cuts played across the speaker, biding time- Joey covering “duke of earl,” a long lost Joey/Debbie Harry combo track, Joey and Ronnie Spector singing “bye bye baby.”

Joe and Dan and Marshall took to the stage. There was a slight pause… what would we get… and then… with no fanfare, the band kicked into a high power, high energy, super loud, super raucous version of “Durango 95,” the later day Ramones instrumental that the band used to opened their shows during their later days. It was a super clever first strike- DanJoMar was making the point that the Ramone shad gold throughout their career and sort of argued that to view the Ramones JUST as 1974-1979 was a mistake. And then… they snapped into a PERFECT version of “Blitzkrieg Bop.” The crowd lost it. Throughout their set, DanJoMar balanced the melody of earliest Ramones with the raw power of classic Rock to Russia era Ramones with the dark soul of 80s Ramones. I have no idea why Joe said that they wouldn’t sound like a “Traditional Ramones cover band.” Maybe he meant they would be way better? The band merged all of the very best elements of all Ramones era. It was truly magical.

”Do you remember rock n roll radio” started with Joe howling the title in an exploding voice. “Havana affair” was charged with super pep. A real treat was the semi-deep cut “strength to endure” which found the exact point where the soul of the Ramones and the vulnerable soul of Joe intersected. In fact, I particularly liked how Joe sang the songs as Joe Jack Talcum doing the Ramones, as opposed ot Joe as Joey doing the Ramones, if that makes sense.

During “beat on the brat,” I hurled even more pool noodles onto the audience and again the combat ensured. The band closed with “cretin hop” and then knowingly slid that into the hard charger “got a lot to say” off the Ramones final album. I dumped about 300 balloons on the audience and they went nuts. As DanJoMar wrapped up their set, people were blown away and their jaws hit the floor. In fact, they demanded more… so DanJoMar whipped out a final surprise- a super fast version of “do you wanna dance.” The night was perfect and it was magical.

On the way out people had huge smiles on their faces as Karabo and I handed out goodby goodie bags.

I have to thank all of the bands that put in so much hard work to make this show happened. Not only did it highlight just how great and important the Ramones were, but it also unironically highlighted just how strong and important and moving punk and underground music still is. Did the Ramones light the torch, or just carry it forward.

To wrap up, I have to point out how Joe and Dan and Marshall and all of the Dead Milkmen are absolute champions and are as punk rock as it gets (even though I think most, or all, lof them, don’t get caught up in the concept of what “punk is.”) About a month before my event, Dead Milkmen flew to California to play the largest punk festival in USA ever. The WEEK before my event, DEad Milkmen played Bouncing Souls’ large beach festival. I actually felt a little, perhaps, ashamed, that I saddled Joe and crew with MORE work in between these two big scale events. In fact, I’m pretty sure my event required more work from Joe and Dan than the Dead Milkmen shows since my event made them learn 18 new songs. It just goes to show how legendary that whole crew is and how lucky we are that we get to experience them and how despite the fact that they play 80,000 person events, they’ll still show up to play a one-time-only set to a 175 in a little art space. That’s as punk as it gets. Long live the Ramones. Long live DanJoMar.

DanJoMar setlist: Durango 95 / Blitzkrieg Bop / Do You remember Rnr radio / I wanna be sedated / Beat on the brat / teenage lobotomy / Sheena / Rockaway beach / strength to endure / danny says / the KKK took my baby away / Havana affair / We’re a happy family / 53rd & 3rd / Posion Heart / Cretin Hop / Got a lot to say / Do you ewanna dance (encore)

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