Although the Ramones disbanded in 1996 after a 20-year run of albums and legendary live shows, the New York punk band’s influence remains strong. It was that legacy which led bassist Jason Carrion of Isabelle’s Gift to choose their music to pay tribute to in this coming Saturday night’s all-star tribute show at the Art Bar. This isn’t just any tribute act, however. Carrion has enlisted a “Who’s Who” list of local musical luminaries to play and sing together in a rotating cast that will present Ramones tunes from the familiar to the more obscure deep cuts.
“This whole thing grew out of my desire to see more of my music friends that I’d been missing the last couple years because of Covid,” Carrion says. “I had lunch with Jay Matheson (of the Jam Room and multiple local bands), and he was on board immediately, as were the people at the Art Bar.”
The calls to other musicians came next, and Carrion says almost everyone said ‘yes.’ Logistically the preparations have been tricky, with several players coming in from other cities and even other states.
“Jay let us use the Jam Room for practice, and Web Hulon of lowercase gods opened up his place for us too, so we had different combinations practicing different places with different people,” Carrion says. “Brian Vogle, who used to be in Drown Mary with me, is coming from Atlanta to play this show.”
Other participants include Carrion’s bandmates Chris Sutton and Scott Frey from Isabelle’s Gift, Patti Davis, currently of the Transonics but also from the late great punk band Six Ten Split, among others, Claude Spurlock of Gruzer, Billy Riot of Soda City Riot, members of Brandy and the Butcher, and Jeremy Martin. Carrion’s own son, who usually does hip-hop music, is involved as well.
It’s a real history of local bands,” Carrion says. “Jay started playing here in the 80’s, Chris and I came out of the 1990s along with Patti, and the Gruzer guys and Soda City Riot are more recent, down to Brandy and the Butcher.” Even the bands of more contemporary vintage include members who have been around the local music scene for years.
The camaraderie of getting together and rehearsing these songs has been the biggest benefit for everyone, he adds.
“There are no full bands participating in this as a single unit,” Carrion says. “Everyone is mixed up with people from other bands, some of whom they’ve never played music with before–that’s been the fun part.”
While everyone was mostly familiar with the songs, there were some choices made on songs and who would sing what. Not everyone can do “I Wanna Be Sedated,” after all, and there were some songs that even the musicians didn’t want to have to learn.
“Ramones songs are more complex than people realize,” says Web Hulon, who will be singing two of the set’s 18 picks. “One of my favorites got voted down because it would have been too hard to do, but it was Jason’s idea for me to sing ‘Do You Wanna Dance,’ an older song that was a cover when the Ramones did it.”
Carrion sees this as a confirmation of being into playing live music just for the sake of playing, nothing else, and he’s excited to be playing with a group of musicians who feel the same way.
“I went to see Soda City Riot for the first time a while back, since Travis Nicholson is playing with them and now also with us in Isabelle’s Gift,” He recalls. “They just brought it that night, every part of that band is great–that’s the kind of energy and level of fun we want to bring to this.”
