CJ RAMONE AT PLAN B IN MOSCOW, RUSSIA ON OCTOBER 14, 2013
2) GO TO INDEX OF CJ SHOW REPORTS.
COPYRIGHT: NIK RAMONE AND JARI-PEKKA LAITIO-RAMONE.
CJ Ramone has played with different line-up formats in 2011-2013. Line-up in European shows in July, September and October 2013 was:
CJ Ramone: singer-bassist.
Jonny "Two Bags" Wickersham: guitar.
David Hidalgo Jr.: drums.
Jonny and David are best known as a members of Social Distortion.
See listing of CJ Ramone's shows in this location on my page.
CJ Ramone had released a bit earlier in summer 2013, new album Reconquista and this tour in September-October was part of its record release tour.
This story of day when CJ Ramone played at Plan B in Moscow, Russia is written by Nik Ramone. Also he wrote few things of show and I typed up set list of what Nik was taken photo.
REVIEW AND STORY BY NIK RAMONE:
It was long, crazy day... Me, my friend Garik (Jari-Pekka's note: Garik's real name is Igor Checkryzhov and you can see his full-back Ramones' tattoo on front cover of my book Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives and also in one photo on this page) and Vladimir (Moscow concert promoter and the man behind CJ's two shows in Russia) met at Moscow cult rock shop named Zig-Zag. We ride on a train named AeroExpress to Moscow airport Domodedovo. Met there CJ Ramone, Jonny "Two Bags" Wickersham, Dave Hidalgo Jr. and two men from road crew and we waited for our bus to the Plan B club.
Our ride was fun! Sunny weather, heavy traffic, lots of questions and answers, tons of autographs... CJ asked about all: Moscow architecture, religion, coffee ("Russians prefer vodka", I (Nik Ramone) said), parks, Muslims, weekly wages in Moscow, McDonalds and Starbucks, criminals ("In United States government are criminals", CJ said, and "In Russia too", I said), about best leader of Russia ever...
I asked about CJ's favorite metal bands when he was a teenage headbanger. CJ listed: Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, UFO, early Scorpions, Riot...
I asked about his plans next year (2014): NEW ALBUM! plus new tour where he will play some songs from Bad Chopper (Read here more about great Bad Chopper).
CJ was in a good mood and kidding alot, like he commented: "Don't you think I'm looks like an Afroamerican?"., when we discussed about Acid Eaters' front cover artwork...
At 18.00 (6PM) it was time for soundcheck, meeting with old and new friends, war stories and fun-fun... Soundcheck was delayed: not enough snare drums. CJ and the guys had time to eat and, waiting for the drum, began to tune. At 20:00 people began to come to the club. Sadly CJ Ramone and crew had only one kind of T-shirts was on merch table - all Reconquista CDs were sold-out on previous gigs in Europe!
There were a lot of friends and acquaintances - my
closer friends, ramones.ru crew (MGL2R & Durango 95), punk rock stars
Dima Spirin and Sasha Pronin
from TARAKANY! (Jari-Pekka's note: read here
of my trip with Marky Ramone and Tarakany! in 2005), Max "Fat" Kotchetkov from
NAIVE,
Sasha Rock'n'Roll
from KEROSIN. Sasha did an interview with CJ and Jonny 2 Bags for his TV show. I
finally met my friend from technical college, Pavel, 22 years later!It's show time! What can I say - best gig of 2013 and one of the best gigs of my life! Very soulful! A great mix of Ramones evergreens and tunes from Reconquista. The crowd (about 200 Ramoniacs) went crazy! Dancing, pogoing, stage diving, total insanity! The highlights of that gig were for me Endless Vacation, Commando, Three Angels and 53rd & 3rd.
After the show all the people had a chance to sign some stuff, had a photo or talk with CJ, Jonny and Dave! HAPPINESS! Later CJ & the boys went to the Red Square to take some photos, and went to railway station - at 1-10 they had a train to Saint Petersburg!
Goodbye and thank you CJ! See ya on next tour! 1-2-3-4 forever!
SET LIST (WRITTEN FROM PHOTO OF SET LIST)
1) Blitzkrieg Bop
2) Judy Is A Punk
3) Psycho Therapy
4) What We Gonna Do Now? (from CJ's Reconquista album).
5) Beat On The Brat
6) Nobody's Sweetheart (from Reconquista)
7) Teenage Lobotomy
8) Listen To My Heart
9) Strength To Endure
10) You're The Only One (from Reconquista)
11) She's The One
12) Do You Wanna Dance?
13) Endless Vacation
14) I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
15) Glad To See You Go
16) Aloha Oe (from Reconquista)
17) California Sun
18) Commando
19) Three Angels (from Reconquista)
20) Rockaway Beach
21) Cretin Hop
Encore:
22) Pinhead
23) Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
24) 53rd & 3rd
25) I Wanna Be Sedated
26) R.A.M.O.N.E.S.