The History of the Joey Ramone Birthday Cake
And the story of the 2025 Joey Ramone Birthday Bash!
It was one of the best Joey Ramone Birthday Bash events yet—and there have been a lot of great shows over the last 25 years. Best of all, the pre-party at Adios Amigos (Dark Matter’s New York City location, at the Bowery and East First Street) also went great! Miss Debra “Raffles” Trizzini (as she is known at the JRBB shows) and I had been planning this for weeks, so were were hoping it would take off: Dark Matter had great coffee and chocolate prepared, and Joey Ramone Birthday Bashers were able to hang out before the show at a meet and greet. Performers, fans, media people and even a film crew were there, adding a special feeling to this year’s event.
The Dark Matter crew did an amazing job creating special snacks that featured “sugar sheets”of my Joey Ramone from the event’s poster on them. They were also giving away samples of their award-winning chocolate: If you like coffee and chocolate, you should check out this place. And plenty of PUNK Magazine Coffee was on hand, of course:
By the way? They created over 1,000 bags of PUNK Magazine coffee, and they are now almost sold out! So buy one NOW if you want one! This was a limited deal, this coffee won’t be around much longer. (This reminds me of The Best of PUNK Magazine book, which was available for a decent price for over ten years: People are now asking ridiculous prices for it.) darkmattercoffee.com
There are only a few of the PUNK Magazine coffee cans left:
Jesse promised to send a special link for newsletter subscribers for both the bags and the coffee cans, so if you are interested, email me at: jholmstrom@punkmagazine.com (Copy and paste it, okay? Serious inquiries only!)
Our “pre-party” event was very well attended: Some of the JRBB performers such as Luis Accorsi (Toxic Tito), Tish & Snooky, and the legendary Joe Vincent stopped by, as well as so many friends, Jennifer Beckwith (Connecticut radio DJ), video artist Grady Hearn, Tatyana Yeshiva (who talked Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz into performing during the tribute this year), Richard Belfiore and Leah Lopez, Ella Krikova (photographer), and so many others… Thanks to everyone who attended!
Now, it was on to the show: Just when the pre-party was hitting its peak, it was time for Miss Debra, our new co-host Rob Rush (Long Island WLIR radio DJ) and I to be at at the Bowery Electric for set-up and preparation.
NOTE: We didn’t know what to do with the beautiful Joey Ramone cake, so I brought it with me to the Bowery Electric. You know: God forbid anyone cut it up and eat it. It was way too beautiful for that!
THE MAIN EVENT!
While we were backstage, we spent 45 minutes trying to figure out who should announce which band, and whether we should introduce them together or separately. This was tricky since this year Miss Debra and I had so many personal friends on the bill. But we worked everything out amicably.
We always share emcee duties with Peter Aschner, who has been working on the JRBB shows with Mitchell “Bubbles” Keller since the first shows in 2001-02: Miss Debra has also been part of the show since then. I joined the team a few years later, after the original emcee Matt Pinfield left the stage. (Best wishes to the guy, we hope he can recover from his recent setback.)
Being a co-host for these events involves introducing the musicians as quickly as possible. We are always aware that people aren’t there to listen to us talk, they wanna hear music—preferably Ramones songs. No egos are involved in being an emcee, we are only dedicated to putting on the best show possible for the fans.
LABRETTA SUEDE AND THE MOTEL SIX
After The Rymans opened the show with a nice acoustic set, Labretta Suede and the Motel Six took the stage. Miss Debra used to work with Labretta at Manitoba’s as bartenders so of course she introduced them. When Debra suggested/insisted that they should perform at last September’s PUNK Magazine event at Tompkins Square Park, I saw why: This is a great live band. Labretta is one of the best stage performers I have seen in this century, and her band backs her up perfectly. The crowd went wild! Debra and I are grateful that the production crew agreed to include them in the line-up this year.
deerfrance
My dear friend deerfrance was next. When I introduced her to the crowd, I said: “You want punk rock credentials? deerfrance was the first employee at PUNK Magazine in January 1976!” And she was! She worked full-time as our secretary/receptionist for a few months (before she got worn down working for Ged, PUNK’s co-founding Publisher, who was sadly more interested in having her perform duties as a “sexretary.”) However… When I saw that Tish and Snooky and Al Maddy (who started with the Nitecaps) were part of her band, I cut her intro short to introduce them.
I had originally planned to mention her other accomplishments: deerfrance was among the first to join Roberta Bayley as a CBGB door-person: collecting money for the bands, taking care of the their guests lists, keeping creeps away from the club, dealing with oily record company executives and generally being a gracious hostess to one and all. She also sang back-up and toured with John Cale and started her own band that performed during the 1980s: Floor Kiss. (Great name, right?") Her set went over great. I think the audience appreciated the variety that the first three groups brought to the show: They were loudly appreciative.
JIRO: “BANZAI!”
Next up was JaPunk Rocker Jiro. I’ve written many times how much I enjoy JaPunk (Japanese Punk) more than other variety. (Fuck Emo!). There has always been a close connection to Japan and punk rock: The New York Dolls and The Runaways did great over there, PUNK Magazine published a lot of stuff by Japanese artists and cartoonists, and I love so many bands from there. Jiro always puts on a great show whenever they appear on the bill, but this year they seemed to up their game a bit. It seemed that people were going crazy for his band!
Being backstage, you don’t get to watch the show much. Instead we prepare for our next introductions (and this year we had to figure out how to handle the travel delays due to the New Jersey transit strike that snarled traffic all over New York City—it’s always something, folks!). So I missed the part of the show when David Erdelyi, (Tommy’s nephew) spoke along with the Tangerine Puppet who taught Joey how to play drums. But this is the kind of thing that Mickey Leigh brings to the table: His New York City JRBB is very different from the other Ramone birthday event, where big-name celebrities show up and attract large crowds. Personally I think that Ramones fans would rather see an interview with a Tangerine Puppet at Joey Ramone Place than some fading film star in Hollywood. Hey, Mickey Leigh needs our support. Otherwise the Ramones will become the personal property of a person who doesn’t understand them.
STEVE CONTE
Next up was Steve Conte, who absolutely killed it at last year’s JRBB event, and was billed as the headliner this year (but graciously went on while Mickey Leigh was fighting his way through the NJ Transit strike traffic). Steve did an amazing set, as always. The guy has an amazing rock’n’roll resume and really gets it. If you’ve never seen him live? You got to do it. Since I couldn’t find any photos of Steve from the JRBB, I posted a video of he and his band at last year’s JRBB.
THE TRIBUTES
After Steve performed we ran some short memorial tributes to:
CLEM BURKE (aka ELVIS RAMONE)
Clem Burke was not just the guy who was famously a Ramone for a weekend, as an original member of Blondie he was instrumental in getting the music noticed. He also performed at many JRBBs with before and after Joey’s passing. Truly good guy and maybe the best punk rock drummer (Sorry, but I personally think Blondie’s first albums were punk rock back in the day, before the English scene turned it into a formula).
DAVID JOHANSEN (NEW YORK DOLLS)
David was the most influential musician from the 1970s music scene bar none. After Johnny and Jerry quit the New York Dolls, he kept the band going to fulfill contractual agreements (as did Joe Strummer with the Clash). Then he had a successful solo career, a second life as Buster Poindexter, and a nice run as a film actor in many movies, like Scrooged and Car 54, Where Are You (where he plays a police officer, married to Rosie O’Donnell, who visit CBGB and have sex afterwards: Now that is great acting!).
JERRY ADAMS (pictured with Peter Aschner and Bubbles)
Jerry was a bouncer who made friends with everyone from Joey Ramona to Slash to everyone else on the scene. He often hung out with Joey, making sure he got home safe during his crazy 1980s-90s misadventures.
MIKE PETERS (THE ALARM)
Mike Peters and his band The Alarm were close friends with Joey, played the JRBB, but sadly, he died from lymphoma cancer, like Joey.
Shoutout to “Uncle” Mike Schnapp, who mixed some great music for the videos that accompanied the heartfelt, verbal tributes by Peter A., Debra T. and Rob Rush (the new guy on the block).
THE RAFFLE!
The “Raffle” that takes place every year is very important when it comes to raising money for the Joey Ramone Lymphoma Foundation. Ticket sales usually pay the basic expenses, while the raffle and other contributions raise the big bucks for lymphoma research. This year’s guitar was awesome, and as always, it was signed by everyone who performed at the event.
Before the raffle began, I showed Mickey Leigh the Joey Ramone Birthday Cake from Dark Matter. We talked over what we should do with it, Miss Debra suggested serving it to the audience, but Mickey remembered how the first Joey Ramone Birthday Bash turned into a food fight after they handed out free mini-cakes to the audience, who threw them at the stage, causing a near-riot! The Bowery Electric didn’t have proper plates and serving utensils, so we decided to include in the guitar raffle as an extra added attraction.
The cake went quickly! Then we raffled off the guitar: Success! Then… Whoops! The winner of the cake decided they couldn’t bring it back home on their plane ride, so they gave it back. And… Uh oh! No one had the next raffle ticket (or maybe they just didn’t want the cake?) I was showing it to people in the front, but since it was a fragile item I couldn’t hoist it up and show it off… Then no one had the second ticket. Nor the third… Oh man… How long was it going to take to give away the cake?
A few years ago, we spent 20 minutes trying to raffle the guitar but no one had the ticket, and since there had been that 20-minute delay during Jiro’s set, I knew we had to move this along. So I asked the audience: “Doesn’t anyone out there want this beautiful cake?”
A pretty woman in the front took it off my hands. Whew! Finally: I didn’t want to see it go to waste.
THE RATTLERS
The Rattlers are one of my favorite bands from the 1980s (along with the Raybeats and The Pirates). Their song, “On The Beach,” is one of my all-time favorite songs ever, so you can hear it here (if you have a few minutes). It’s an early Mickey Leigh performance with The Rattlers:
This song should be the theme song for the Mutant Monster Beach Party movie! I have to add that I always enjoyed hanging out with the band members: Matty Quick (drums: he cracked me up many times when he described what it was like to work with Lester Bangs); Dave U. Hall (who I often run into lately—great guy); and David Merrill (who was related to a guy who often sang the national anthem at New York Yankees games). They were a lot of fun to hang out with and played some great rock ‘n’ roll back in the day. So it was wonderful to see the band reunite for the evening.
THE JOEY RAMONE TRIBUTE SECTION
The “Tribute” part of the show is when guest musicians perform Ramones songs at the end of the show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any photos since I was attempting to introduce the performers (and was told afterwards that the microphone wasn’t working anyway? IDK.) And no one sent me any photos! So please feel free to send me photos from future events. I’m a cartoonist, not a photographer, ya know?
This year’s Tribute had some great performers: Eugene Hutz (lead singer of Gogol Bordello); Rachel Bolan (Skid Row); Andy Shernoff (The Dictators); Peter Zaremba (The Fleshtones); and Luis Accorsi (Toxic Tito). Tish & Snooky (Sic F*cks) performed backing vocals, Wes Crawford (Mutated Music) played bass, Steve Conte and Alex Kane played guitar, while Joe Vincent (Devil Dogs) played drums. Mickey Leigh always finished the night (and brings down the house).
People were so happy after the show, and this year they left the bar open! So there was an after-party of sorts. We needed it! This year’s Bash took a lot of effort from a lot of people. However, there was a bit of weirdness at the end of the night: Luis Accorsi (Toxic Tito) ended up with the Birthday Cake for some reason. As he was leaving, he asked: “What am I supposed to do with this thing?”
Thanks to Luis, Dark Matter’s beautiful cake found the right home. Since all of us are approaching the Old Folks’ Home, it was fitting that it ended up at a senior center. Thank you, Luis!
THE UNHAPPY ENDING
I am sorry I haven’t been posting newsletters lately, and that this one is so late. I got terribly sick a few days after the event. I haven’t been this sick in a very long time: almost two weeks? It has been insane. I was too weak to get on the computer until yesterday. The good news is that I’m feeling much better and will have a lot of material going forward. As everyone is starting to notice, the 50th anniversary of PUNK is beginning to take off in a big way, beginning with the CBGB Festival and Patti Smith tour dates in November. I’m even planning a few things myself. Stay tuned!
Ohhhh, John, this was one of the best nights ever!!!!! 💕 I'm glad my pictures were good enough to use haha. I have some videos of the event, I think David's interview is one of them. When I upload them I'll let you know!
Love the cake story!!! So glad it was a great night, sorry you got sick though! Sending our love!!!