2) GO TO INDEX OF CJ SHOW REPORTS.
Brothers Dan and John Roepke wrote this review of CJ Ramone's these shows:
January 11, 2014: Crossroads, Garwood, New Jersey, USA AND
January 17, 2014: Brian's Backyard BBQ, Middletown, Orange County, New York, USA.
Line-up:
CJ Ramone: vocals and bass.
Walt Stack (The Bullys etc.): guitar.
Michael Wildwood (D-Generation etc.): drums.
COPYRIGHT: DAN AND JOHN ROEPKE AND JARI-PEKKA LAITIO-RAMONE.
REVIEW, PHOTOS AND STORY BY DAN AND JOHN ROEPKE:
On January 11, 2014, CJ Ramone played a show at Crossroads in Garwood, New Jersey, USA. Garwood is located around 20 miles west of New York City. Crossroads is a restaurant/bar with a stage that hosts many different music shows. There was a $15 cover charge at the door.
After two opening bands, CJ went on at 11:15pm. After playing a few songs, CJ said that when he left his house tonight, he realized that he forgot to bring his game hat that he always wears (New York Yankees hat). He said I don't think I've played a show without a hat in years. If I mess up, I can blame it on the missing hat. When CJ played Ghost Ring (a song from his Reconquista album), he said this is a ballad that he wrote about his AK-47.
CJ mentioned that at one point he didn't tour or play music for about eight years. He spent it at home working on the family. With the song, You're The Only One (another Reconquista song), CJ used to hum this song to his daughter while he was trying to put her to sleep. CJ is heading out to California in a couple weeks to rehearse with his studio guys. He is going to be recording a new record in March. It will be his second record in two years. His plan is to record 5 records in 5 years and then maybe he will retire to Switzerland.
Before playing I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, CJ said all the years I played with the Ramones, I never got to do any of the cool love songs, mostly because Joey wrote them about Johnny's wife. As fate would have it, I'm the last one standing, so I get to play what I want. I no longer have to worry about offending anyone.
Walt Stack from the great New York City band The Bullys, played guitar and sang backup. He also plays with the Joey Ramone All-Stars at the Joey Ramone's Birthday Bash. Walt only had five hours of rehearsal time with CJ before this show. He only had nine days to learn all of the songs for the show. Walt Stack is a great guitar player and a really cool guy. In talking to him after the show, he admitted to making a few mistakes and said that CJ will probably joke with him about it on the car ride back to New York. Michael Wildwood was also great on drums and sang backup as well. He used to play with D Generation.
Before the encore, CJ said that this is where we usually walk off the stage and go in the back and wait for you guys to make enough noise for us to come back out. He said if everybody makes enough noise right now, we will just stay right here and play the rest of our songs and everybody can go back to the bar and drink. He said on the count of four, everybody scream. Michael Wildwood said that it wasn't loud enough, so he had us scream again and this time, he said it was loud enough and they finished their songs.
CJ played for around 1 hour 15 minutes. He always puts on a great show and looked to be having a lot of fun too.
The show on January 17, 2014, was at Brian's
Backyard BBQ in Middletown,
New York. Middletown is around 75 miles north of NYC. Here are a few
different things that happened at this NY show. The cover charge for
this show was $10. CJ remembered his Yankees hat for this show and went
on stage at 10:15pm. The set up for this show in New York was kind of
weird. It was a restaurant with all tables spread out and only about a
space of 5 feet between the stage and the tables, so there was not much
room to stand by the stage. For about the first 30 minutes of the show, everybody sat down at the tables and listened to the music. Finally after 30 minutes or so, people started to stand up, move a little closer to the stage, and really got into the show. Before the people started standing up, CJ mentioned that he was not used to the arrangement of people sitting at tables during his shows. He said hopefully at the end of the night, there will at least be a couple of broken tables and chairs.
In talking to guitarist Walt Stack, he said that the place reminded him of Bob's Country Bunker from the movie The Blues Brothers, without the chicken wire.
Before playing Ghost Ring, CJ said that you know you are getting old when you stop writing love songs about girls and you start writing them about your gun collection. CJ dedicated the last song to his son who rode all the way up with him to the show. He said his son is a rapper and he doesn't care that his dad plays in a punk rock band. CJ asked how does a punk rocker's son rebel, he becomes a rapper. CJ's last words on stage were, Ramones Forever.
It wasn't a bad place to see a concert, but just a little different. Once people started standing and getting into the show more, it was cool. It was nice hearing CJ play the Ramones songs, but it was great to hear him play five songs from his new album. There was a lot of CJ merchandise for sale at the shows (shirts, record albums, CD's, photos). CJ was a good guy and hung around after the shows and took pictures with people and signed autographs.
SET LIST:
1) Blitzkrieg Bop
2) Judy Is A Punk
3) Cretin Hop
4) King Cobra (from CJ's Reconquista album).
5) Beat On The Brat
6) Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
7) Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
8) Teenage Lobotomy
9) Ghost Ring (from Reconquista)
10) Psycho Therapy
11) You're The Only One (from Reconquista)
12) Strength To Endure
13) I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
14) Glad To See You Go
15) Aloha Oe (from Reconquista)
16) What's Your Game
17) Three Angels (from Reconquista)
18) 53rd & 3rd
19) Commando
20) Listen To My Heart
21) She's The One
22) Do You Wanna Dance?
23) Pinhead
Encore:
24) Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
25) California Sun
26) I Wanna Be Sedated
27) R.A.M.O.N.E.S. For the 2nd show, they didn't play Beat On The Brat or Strength To Endure.
Text and photos by: Dan and John Roepke.
Thanks a lot gentlemen.