Too Tough To Die

By John Anderson - March 21, 2007 - High-flying testimony and low-slung music alternate in this record of the 30th anniversary tribute concert to seminal punk band the Ramones -- and to guitarist Johnny Ramone, who died of prostate cancer two days after it was staged. Big energy, familiar faces and a catalog's worth of Ramones song will make it a must see for fans of the band, and for those in need of a crash course in primal rock.

Between performances by the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Dickies and Eddie Vedder, the Ramones are described as having been "intuitively infantile," with a sound that had a "deliberate teenage-ness" to it, mixed with a "strange sense of professionalism." But in this deliberately gritty-looking film, all the spoken words -- from Debbie Harry, Henry Rollins, Lisa Marie Presley, Thurston Moore and Tommy Ramone himself -- can't match the power of the music, which is the real homage to a band that started a movement, and of which only a single member survives.

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