Cretin Family, the new punk supergroup, debut at a Ramones tribute show

Cretin Family played their first show on Sunday, August 30, at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, at an event marking 50 years of the Ramones. The one off group puts Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Tim Armstrong of Rancid alongside Travis Barker of Blink-182 and CJ Ramone, who put the band together and named it after a Ramones song.

John Travolta, a chart singer himself long before any of this, introduced the show wearing a beret. It was the kind of detail that would sound invented if there were not footage of it.

The set ran from the obvious to the obscure. Blitzkrieg Bop closed the night, a song Green Day have used as walk on music for years, and Rockaway Beach, Cretin Hop and Sheena Is a Punk Rocker filled out the familiar end. Deeper in came The Crusher, from Dee Dee Ramone's solo album released under the name Dee Dee King, and R.A.M.O.N.E.S., the Motorhead song written in their honour.

The two Armstrongs, who are not related but both came out of the Bay Area scene around 924 Gilman, traded lead vocals with CJ Ramone through the night. Fred Armisen, who has spent a comedy career impersonating every decade of punk, came out for Danny Says. The Linda Lindas joined for California Sun and I Wanna Be Sedated. Jason Freese played saxophone on Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?

Billy Idol took the last three songs, singing Beat on the Brat and Blitzkrieg Bop and pulling his own Generation X song Ready Steady Go into the middle of them. CJ Ramone replaced Dee Dee, the band's founding bassist, in 1989, which makes him the only person on that stage with a direct line back to the group being honoured.

Anniversary tributes of this kind usually stay in the rock nostalgia lane, and this one mostly did, but the guest list said something about how wide the Ramones' reach ran. Barker has had a loud year of his own, from saying he almost died to a documentary trailer for Louder Than Fear.