Cretin Family play a 50th anniversary Ramones tribute concert in Hollywood

The Ramones got their 50th anniversary tribute at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, and the band assembled for it was called Cretin Family: Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day on vocals and guitar, Rancid's Tim Armstrong on guitar and serving as the night's musical director, Travis Barker of Blink-182 on drums and CJ Ramone on bass. John Travolta hosted, in a red beret, and opened with a joke about people dying to get into the cemetery.

Cretin Family started with Rockaway Beach and worked through a 20-song set that took in Cretin Hop, Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment and a version of Do You Wanna Dance, the 1958 Bobby Freeman song the Ramones themselves covered. Billie Joe Armstrong told the crowd it was the first time he had shared a stage with Barker.

Guest vocalists rotated through. Fred Armisen, who runs his own Ramones covers band, sang Danny Says. The Linda Lindas took California Sun and I Wanna Be Sedated. Billy Idol drew the loudest response of the night with Beat on the Brat, then stayed on for Ready Steady Go, a song from his old band Generation X. Idol told the audience the room reminded him of London's Roundhouse in 1976 and said everyone sped their music up after hearing the Ramones.

Linda Ramone, Johnny Ramone's widow, runs the annual event and was the force behind the anniversary edition, which sold out. Proceeds go to cancer research at the Ellison Medical Institute. Johnny Ramone died of prostate cancer in 2005 at 55, and his cenotaph, an eight-foot guitar statue, stands near the grave of Dee Dee Ramone.

Lucia de la Garza of The Linda Lindas, who is 19, told Rolling Stone the band grew up with the Ramones at home and in the car, and learned to play I Wanna Be Sedated when she was 11 or 12. She said the invitation came through Linda Ramone, whom the band met at a 2024 album show.

The cemetery kept its usual outdoor film programme running after the music. Brian De Palma's Carrie screened on the lawn, followed by Travolta's own directorial feature, Propeller One-Way Night Coach. Whether Cretin Family becomes more than a one-night band was left open, and anything that follows will appear on the tour guide. Barker's own story is the subject of a documentary called Louder Than Fear, and Billie Joe Armstrong's band has spent the year moving into film with the comedy Nimrods.