In August the Ramones made their first foray out to America's West Coast, playing some shows in California. Then in July the group stunned the British rock scene with their abrasive, thundering, minute-long songs at a couple of gigs in London, helping inspire the subsequent uprising that would ultimately yield the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and a million other scabrous punk bands. In April 1976 their debut album, Ramones, was released by Sire Records, a subsidiary label of Warner Brothers. (The band members were not related, but all used "Ramone" in their stage names.) During their first three years they mainly played their hometown, occasionally venturing out for one-off gigs in nearby states like New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The Ramones - vocalist Joey Ramone (1951-2001), guitarist Johnny Ramone (1948-2004), bassist Dee Dee Ramone (1951-2002), and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949-2014) - were a first-generation punk group that had formed in New York City back in 1974. But that fabled night at the Olympic is perhaps best described by The Seattle Times as "one of the more bizarre rock events of recent times here - New York's toughest punk band in the ritziest hotel in Seattle" (March 7, 1977). The Seattle show is but one stop on the band's brief first tour into the Pacific Northwest (Aberdeen and Bremerton are also on the itinerary) and each of those gigs is notable for one reason or another.
How this epic show came about is a classic tale perfectly embodying the 1970s punk-rock movement's DIY (do-it-yourself) teenage spirit. On Sunday evening, March 6, 1977, the Ramones make their rockin' Seattle debut in the Olympic Hotel's elegant Georgian Room - a most unlikely venue for any type of underground youth-culture event.
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