Rockaway B*tch: Honoring The Ramones Legacy

Rockaway B*tch, the all-female Ramones tribute band will be honoring the late Johnny Ramone on his birthday, October 8th at Mother Pugs Saloon on Staten Island, NY. Their current line-up is Patti Rothberg on lead vocals, Jennifer Eden 'Jenny' on lead guitar, Hitomi 'Tomi' Nakamura on drums, and Rockelle Cakes 'Cakey' on bass/vocals.

Patch spoke to two members of the band about their early beginnings, their upcoming shows and their future plans going forward.

"I have been trying to coordinate a show with Jeff Enrage, who books at Mother Pugs, for a while, lead guitarist Jennifer Eden stated. "Finally, we landed on October 8th. Right after we confirmed the date, we realized it was Johnny Ramones birthday and we were both very excited to dedicate the show to honoring Johnny.”

Rockaway B*tch was formed in early 2014. Jenny discusses the band's formation and how they found their perfect female 'Joey Ramone' counterpart.

"Our first official show was on May 1st, at Tammany Hall in New York City. We played two shows as a four-piece, but it didn’t work out with our original singer."

After the second show we parted ways, but we already had a third gig booked a couple of weeks later, which we didn’t want to cancel." "So, since Cakey our bassist is a great singer in her own right, we decided to do the gig with her pulling double duty on bass and vocals."

"It went so well that we said, "Ok, let’s just do this CJ Ramone style" (he tours as a three-piece). "I always knew we were limited by the fact that we had no official lead vocalist, but audiences were still having fun and we went on that way for a while." "It was very clear that if we were to bring in a fourth member we’d be very picky about who we would choose to represent Joey Ramone." "Cakey was friends with Patti and had played in bands with her before, so she asked her to come sit in on a rehearsal." "I walked in the room and was immediately taken by the obvious resemblance." "But as it turned out Patti could sing too! And not just sing, but really sing!!!"What most impressed me was that she actually sounds like a female Joey, as much as she looks like a female Joey. She has this very subtle rasp in her voice that he also had." "It kills me every time I hear it." "Not only that, but she has all of his mannerisms down." "She’s the whole package."

Patti Rothberg, recalls her experiences as lead vocalist of 'Rockaway B*tch.'

"When I very first joined Rockaway B*tch I was imitating a much throatier, more "cookie monster" voice (that I had remembered him doing live) but after studying the many great videos, I realized he actually has a much smoother more melodic voice that is quite natural for me to emulate."

"I've always been told I'm a cross between Patti Smith and Joey Ramone (quelle compliments!!?) So signs have been pointing to this band since long before I joined. I channel all aspects of Joey Ramone, vocal, stage moves, mannerisms everything! This makes it so much fun." "As for motivation, doing the Cretin Hop (jumping up and down like Joey did)I just about the most exercise this mopey goth ever gets!!? (joke, sort of)..so it's actually quite aerobic."

"The audiences appreciate our attention to being true to the Ramones."I was such a big fan. I'll never get bored of the material. In the 90s I went to see Wayne's World near where he lived..on 11th in the East Village and Joey Ramone was one of about 3 other people in the theater!" "I could hardly concentrate on the movie, I was so excited ("schwing!!") LOL!" Patti continued, "What I enjoy most about the prestigious role of playing Joey in Rockaway Bitch are my incredibly talented bandmates. Jenny, Cakey and Tomi Ramone. Each one of them is so proficient on their instrument and this material in specific, it encourages me to push the envelope and be even 'Ramonsier' than I already am..(which is pretty Ramonesy!) "The music is so good and the girls are so fun I just love holding up my Gabba Gabba sign and baseball bat with pride! Can't wait till the next show!!!"

Both Jenny and Patti have met Ramones members. Jenny met Marky Ramone and Patti met Joey Ramone.

"I briefly met Marky at a book signing, he was super cool and even gave a personal demonstration of the unique drum technique necessary to play the Ramones songs." "But the best story is when Patti met Joey Ramone in the late 80’s at the old Ritz, which is now Webster Hall." Jenny recalls. "She was about 15/16-years-old and as per usual was dressed like Joey." "Even then people would point out her resemblance to him." "Anyway, Patti was with a friend who knew Joey and she introduced the two of them. They shook hands and that was about it." "However, after the show Patti spotted Joey’s mother outside the venue and she proceeded to pass on her phone number to her to give to Joey! Patti said, “You raised a fine boy” and Mrs. Hyman replied, “I raised two fine boys”. Obviously referring to her other son Mickey. It’s a sweet story."

Rockaway B*tch received the golden opportunity to perform all-Ramones tunes at Queens Museum during the "Hey Ho Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk" Exhibit.

Jenny tells us, "The Ramones were being honored and we were honored to be a part of honoring them! haha."

"It was an absolute thrill for us to perform at such a momentous event." "It really was a dream come true to be a part of that day and to get to perform for not only all the awesome Ramones fans in attendance, but for Mickey Leigh (Joey’s brother) and Monte Melnick (Ramones tour manager) who incidentally gave us a reallynice compliment by telling the audience that we were doing agreat job. I’m still so humbled by his words." "It was the best blessing we could ever hope to receive. "The whole day was magic!"

As the manager of the band who also books the gigs, Jenny says there's nothing she doesn't love about being involved in the band.

"I love everything about being in this band, Jenny stated. "I do a lot of work that is peripheral to performing, but the shows themselves are the thrill." "There is so much adrenaline in that music." "It’s not the type of music you can “phone it in” on." "You have to be 100% present and in the moment." "I love the catalogue of songs, and I love emulating the fierce down-stroke technique that Johnny created." "And, you can’t emulate Johnny without also taking that massive power stance, which immediately makes me feel way cooler than I actually am." "I also love hanging out with the audience members afterwards." "There’s always someone in attendance who has been to 100+ Ramones shows or has a great personal encounter with them to relay."

Rockaway B*tch gets tons of offers to play at local venues in the tri-state area and their fans have much to look forward to.

"We get many offers from various venues around the tri-state area," Jenny explained. "I try to take as many as I can quite frankly." "But you do have to take a lot of things into consideration, which concern technical, financial, and territory matters." "You want to play a lot to keep fresh, but you also don’t want to over saturate the scene."

"It’s a balance.” “We are about to break new territory in the upcoming months, which is great." "The main goal is to get out there and play." "If there is an audience of Ramones fans, we want to be there to share in celebrating the Ramones and their music and contribute in continuing the legacy."

She continued, "The Ramones have left a legacy that runs so deep and in ways people probably don’t even realize, from music to fashion to attitude and beyond. But, the most important part in my humble opinion ist he introduction of the idea that Rock n’ Roll should be uncontrived and non-egocentric. They inspired countless kids to pick up an instrument, because it became clear through the Ramones that playing RnR was not and should not be an elitist endeavor." "They basically did for music what Bruce Lee did for martial arts…cut out all the crap and kept what mattered most, what was true. To me, this is the essence
of punk."

Jenny talks about Rockaway Bitch's exciting new project and upcoming shows.

"We just recorded a 6-song EP that includes: "Blitzkrieg Bop", "I Wanna Be Sedated", "Commando,""Beat On The Brat", "Judy Is A Punk" and "Rockaway Beach", which are all staples in our set." "The whole thing was recorded in one day at The Gearbox Recording Studio." "It has since been mixed and mastered and we’re extremely proud of the end product and are looking forward to sharing it with everyone."

"Coming up, we have three shows in October, Mother Pugs in Staten Island on the 8th (as mentioned above), The Wherehouse, a great bar in Newburgh, NY on the 22nd, and Otto’s Shrunken Head in NYC on the 28th." "Beyond that we are looking forward to hitting some new regions.” “We have built up a great following in this area, which is very flattering since NY Ramones fans are die-hards, but we do also have fans throughout the states and even in other countries that ask us to come to their town. So, we are going to start to venture out in the upcoming months.”

“In November, we have a pair of shows in Upstate NY with a great local band called Hurtin’ Units; on the 17th we’ll be at The Dock in Ithaca and on the 18th we’ll be at Cortland Beer Company in Cortland. Then on the 25th we’ll be at Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, NJ." "Also in the works are some dates in New England as well as Philly and Pittsburgh.” We are starting to get a lot of interest from venues out of state, so we expect to have a busy tour schedule moving into 2017."