**1/2 The Ramones

WE'RE OUTTA HERE

(Radio-active/MCA)

Only the Ramones could get away with releasing two consecutive live albums, the third and fourth of their career, with much of the same material played exactly the same way. The bruddahs' final release (until they decide to reunite) documents a farewell show in Los Angeles in August 1996. They honored the occasion by playing the same show they'd been playing everywhere else: the oldies roll out like clockwork, the whole thing's over in a little more than an hour, and the only grand gestures are a handful of celebrity guests (Lemmy, Chris Cornell, prodigal bassist Dee Dee Ramone), plus a little vocal improv from Joey ("Beat on the brat with a baseball bat, a-whoa-oh, hooyah, yeah"). The world's only Ramones fan with no sense of humor, Eddie Vedder, joins in for the spirited finale of the Dave Clark Five's "Any Way You Want It." It's a blast, but it's way too predictable.

By the time of their break-up, the Ramones had long since stopped experimenting on disc or adding much new material to their live show. They'd become punk's surest institution instead of rock's greatest band. The CD comes packaged with a career-spanning video in which the Ramones' career comes off as a long-running crusade to save rock from over-seriousness. It worked great for a while.

-- Brett Milano