Review: Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg, Snoqualmie Casino, Snoqualmie, WA 05.06.2010

Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg
May 6th at the Snoqualimie Casino Ballroom
Doors at 7pm
Show at 8pm

ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!
Clare B counts 'em in to the opening tune 'Rockaway Beach'. ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! Directly into the next song 'Lobotomy' followed by 'Psycho Therapy', 'Do You Wanna Dance' and 'I Don't Care'. Taking in all the energy I finally had time to observe the members of Marky's band.

Left: Alex Kane on the lead guitar and backup vocals. Wild hair and guitar strings coming off their pegs like Einstein's hair. Constantly running and jumping in the air. An energy he would retain throughout the entire performance.

Right: Clare B on bass. Purple, neon yellow and natural dark blonde striped mohawk. British accent and piercings galore. Exactly how I love my punk rock girls! She counted in each song and performed backup vocs. She played to the audience truly conveyed the passion she has for what she is doing.






Center front: Former Misfits singer Michale Graves has a voice so perfect for this band. Close your eyes and you don't know that you aren't actually seeing The Ramones back in 1989 at CBGB. My favorite part wasn't his voice or his constant movement. It was the fact that the man's pants were being held together with a roll of black Duck Tape.

Center back: The Ramones legendary drummer Marky Ramone. Effortlessly playing and even cracking a smile - once. He looked amazing. It was a total treat for me to be a part of this evening.

ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! brings me back to the set.. 'Sheena', 'Havana Afair', 'Commando', 'Beat on the Brat', '53rd & 3rd', 'Rock N Roll Radio', 'Blue' and 'Shock Treatment'. At some point in this portion of the show Alex broke a string and finished the tune as best he could. It was funny to see him have to get Clare's attention so she didn't count them into the next song before he could change over to his other guitar.

'Rock N Roll Highschool', 'She's the One', 'Judy', 'Poison Heart', 'Miracles', 'KKK', 'Pet Sematary', 'Chinese Rocks', 'I Wanna be Sedated', I Don't Wanna Walk' and 'Pinhead' round out the main set. The band leaves with Marky blowing a kiss. The crowd starts to chant: 'Hey Ho, Let's Go!' until the band makes it's way on stage.

Once back on stage, the band quickly gets back to it with 'Something to do', 'Cretin Hop' and 'Ramones'. Back off stage. Once again, the crowd knows there is something missing from this show. 'Hey Ho, Let's Go!' once again calling the band back to finish the show properly.

Encore #2 does not disappoint. 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain', their new single 'When We Were Angels', 'It's a Wonderful World' and finally the closer - 'Blitzkrieg Bop'.

If you take the time to count them yourself, you'll see that there are 31 of them. Yes, 31 songs in 75 minutes. When the lights went up I could hear a guy whine that it was over. His pal turned to him and said 'Dude! They played like 80 songs!'.

Back stage, the band met with nearly 30 people. Pictures were taken, autographs were happily signed on anything around. A lucky few had gotten set lists (I got half of their 2 page set list). Michale had his own stack of photos that he signed and handed out. Alex came over to Mike and said during the show he thought "Hey, your the dude from Facebook! I remembered we were punk on stage and thought I should flip you off!". He did.


Marky was sedate until we asked about his pasta sauce. Look for it to be in stores in the coming months. He's a bit overwhelmed with it's success thus far.

All in all - This is one 80's teen who has never been so glad to still be stuck in the 80's!