Loco Live

It’s Alive remains the definitive Ramones live album, capturing the group at its peak in London on New Year’s Eve, 1977-78. Yet this set, Loco Live—released in 1991 with C.J. Ramone and not Dee Dee—remains true to The Ramones' legend as a killer live band. At this point, The Ramones were still scoring the occasional hit single (or having an older song rediscovered), but their live shows were all about entertaining the punk and metal kids who loved it louder, faster, and louder again. The band satisfies all comers with songs both new and old performed with a conviction that never left them. Apparently, the band members didn’t need to speak to one another; they just needed C.J. to count off the song and they’d go for it. Highlights here include a stripped-down “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio,” the later classic “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg),” “Mama’s Boy," and “Somebody Put Something in My Drink,” all played alongside the usual suspects like “Pinhead,” “Blitzkrieg Bop," and “Rockaway Beach.”