In The Loop Magazine Hey Ho, Let’s Go, To The Hollywood Forever Cemetery Where Punk Rock Comes Home For Ramones 50th

Hey Ho, Let’s Go, To The Hollywood Forever Cemetery Where Punk Rock Comes Home For Ramones 50th

Sep 01, 2026 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews 0

By Harrison Kristoff

The original Ramones may be dead, but the music wasn’t. There was something perfectly Ramones about playing a 50th anniversary show in a cemetery. On Saturday night, Hollywood Forever Cemetery became the unlikely setting for a loud, fast and very short celebration of the band that helped invent punk rock as we know it. With Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone resting nearby, the stage was built against the cemetery’s mausoleum, the weather was damn near perfect, and the whole thing started while the sun was still up. By the time it was over, it was dark. And for 55 minutes, the dead came alive.

DJ Shepard Fairey kicked things off before Linda Ramone, Johnny’s widow, walked onto the stage with actor John Travolta, who served as the evening’s MC.

Linda has been doing these shows at the cemetery since Johnny’s passing back in 2005. It’s become a tradition as an annual official event benefiting the Ellison Medical Institute for cancer research.

Travolta introduced the festivities before handing the night over to Cretin Family, the Ramones tribute supergroup featuring Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, blink-182’s Travis Barker and C.J. Ramone, the last bassist to play live with the Ramones. “I’m sorry I’m a little late, but there’s so many people dying to get in here,” Travolta said. And after a smatter of low grumbling from the crowd, and chant from Linda Ramone, “Hey Ho, Let’s Go!”, the band came out swinging.

The idea of four musicians from four very different corners of punk and alternative rock playing Ramones songs could have easily turned into an overproduced celebrity exercise. Instead, it sounded like a bar fight.

Barker hammered away behind the kit while the Armstrongs traded vocals and C.J. anchored the whole thing with an authenticity nobody else on that stage could manufacture. “Durango 95,” “Rockaway Beach,” “Cretin Hop,” “Do You Wanna Dance?,” “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment,” “The Crusher,” “R.A.M.O.N.E.S.” and “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” came flying by at classic Ramones speed.

Then the sun began to disappear. The cemetery went dark. And the giant Ramones logo suddenly lit up the back wall of the mausoleum. That was the moment the whole thing clicked. This wasn’t just another anniversary concert. It was a punk-rock séance.

The guest appearances kept coming. Fred Armisen stepped up for “Danny Says”.

The Linda Lindas tore into “California Sun” and “I Wanna Be Sedated,” and then Billy Idol took over the stage.

Billy Idol got the biggest guest spot of the night, performing “Beat on the Brat,” “Blitzkrieg Bop” and his own 70’s punk band Generation X’s “Ready Steady Go.” Idol seemed fixated on the floor throughout much of his appearance, almost as if he were talking to someone down there or following a teleprompter. Whatever was happening below stage level, his eyes rarely seemed to leave it.

But when “Blitzkrieg Bop” hit, nobody cared. Everyone came back out. The crowd joined the band. “Hey Ho, Let’s Go!” blasted across Hollywood Forever, and for a few minutes there was no separation between the stage and the audience.

Near the end, the Ramones’ legendary Pinhead character appeared wearing the familiar red polka-dot dress and carrying the “Gabba Gabba Hey” sign—“Cretin Family” written on the other side. It was the perfect visual for a night built around a band that never really went away. Then it ended.

Fifty-five minutes. That’s it. For a celebration marking 50 years of the Ramones, it felt brutally short. The crowd wasn’t ready to go. Fans shouted for more, but there would be no encore. Instead, Hollywood Forever switched gears.

Travolta’s directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, was screened, followed by the classic Brian DePalma film Carrie which Travolta starred in. Some fans stayed for the films. Others slowly began making their way through the cemetery. An In ‘N Our Burger truck was spotted and Hollywood music royalty were no strangers to picking up a bite to eat. Hey, did Pat Smear just walk by? Nobody seemed particularly interested in leaving quickly. Fans continued to gather around Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone’s headstones and statues, surrounded by banners, photographs and pieces of the band’s history and fan memorabilia. It was quieter there. More reflective. The irony wasn’t lost on anyone.

The Ramones spent their career making songs about teenage boredom, alienation, love, drugs, horror movies and getting the hell out of wherever they were. Fifty years later, their songs were blasting against a mausoleum while their fans stood among the graves. Not bad for four guys from Queens who supposedly couldn’t play. The night was short. The songs were loud. The crowd wanted more. Which, honestly, is about as Ramones as it gets. Gabba Gabba Hey.

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