For five years now, the people of Brisbane come together in a moving tribute to what is arguably the greatest punk band of all time, the Ramones. Okay, so the moving tribute is really just a hell of a lot of beer, a ton of crusty looking folk in leather jackets and a bunch of bands belting out Ramones songs, some well and some not so well. This year saw arguably the biggest local lineup the festival has seen since it’s inception, but did it live up to years gone by and more importantly, did it do the Ramone name justice?

Unfortunately there’s not much that a reviewer can say about Ramone-a-thon. Sure, the bands are of different styles, but seeing as they all end up playing Ramones songs there’s not an awful lot of difference. This mixed with the Ramones being played non-stop over the speakers between bands makes things a little overwhelming at times, but at least it’s a decent band in the spotlight. Could you imagine Wham-a-thon? I shudder to even think of it.

The first of the really high profile bands tonight is The Grates. The news that this band would be playing this year’s Ramone-a-thon was met with a bit of ill feeling by a lot of the Brisbane punk rock community. However, The Grates have certainly earned their spot given their recent success and their style of simplistic, fun music seem to sit with the Ramones ideal pretty well in my opinion. The band played the Ramones songs fairly well given their relatively obvious lack of knowledge of them, however it was the original material that seemed to work better for them on the night.

Next up were The Grates’ label-mates The Tremors. Out of all of the bands playing this evening, I’d say that they are probably the act that suits the bill the least. There’s something about the garage rock/soul style of the band that doesn’t quite gel with the Ramone vibe of the night. While they played well, it just didn’t seem to be a good choice of band to play the show.

Roshambo, the last Brisbane band for the evening, were next to hit the stage. Two members of the band organised this year’s festival so it was not surprising that their full Ramones set was incredibly realistic. Complete with Johnny look-a-like and, perhaps more importantly, sound a like, they did not bother with any originals (although they rarely do) and seemed pretty damn passionate about what they were playing.

Adelaide’s the Ramonettes were an obvious addition to this year’s bill; just look at the name, and the three-piece act also had the Ramones thing down pat. It kinda made me wonder what bands like this do for the rest of the year. Do they turn into different clone bands? Do they follow a string of Ramones tributes around the country? Who knows? All you really need to know was that they were good.

The Spazzys are getting awfully popular around these parts and they seem to be up here a fair bit lately. The first time I ever saw them was at last year’s Ramone-a-thon so I was excited to see them again. They played a mixture of their own material including the aptly titled I Wanna Cut My Hair Like Marky Ramone and Ramones songs that went down about as well as each other. The only criticism of the set tonight was the fact that, every now and then, the energy seemed to get lost in between the songs.

I dunno if it’s just because we don’t get enough opportunities to see them, but I think Melbourne people take Mach Pelican for granted. Tonight they affirmed in my mind that they are clearly the best pop punk band this side of the equator, delivering a live show that is deadset blistering. I don’t know why this band is not hugely popular, but at least they have their Pelican Army behind them. Things started pretty slowly with a fairly dull (read: drunk and tired) crowd, but not long after they ripped into Dance In Chicago, the bodies started going everywhere and the mood was well and truly lifted. Ramones songs were noticeably absent until their encore, but that wasn’t too much of an issue for the patrons. Mach Pelican fucking rule!

I should mention the following two things that really went wrong tonight. The beer started running out pretty quick smart, so we were all forced to drink warm Fosters and a number of people attempted stage diving, only to land flat on their faces. I don’t know which is more painful…

Bring on next year! Gabba Gabba hey!