Ramones’ Punk Brilliance Thrives on Lack of Growth

Can a performance be both perfunctory and truly great at the same time? This is the question that arises when the Ramones--a national treasure, an American institution--come to town each year to do another amazing-on-its-own-terms show that’s largely indistinguishable from the previous year. That they rarely show signs of growth somehow doesn’t diminish the historical brilliance of their conceit.

The new album from punk’s founding fathers, “Brain Drain,” is one of the lesser efforts of a 13-year recording career. Naturally, it was all but ignored during the course of a typically relentless 75-minute show Friday at the Hollywood Palladium that mostly reprised old classics, starting with a medley of (speaking of American institutions) “Teenage Lobotomy” and “Psycho Therapy.” The only recent song of any import: the suitably catchy and morbidly melancholic theme from the movie “Pet Sematary,” the only memorable thing about that inexplicably beloved motion picture.

As always, the band members looked like mimes girding themselves against a wind, as if they’d rush forward and leap off the stage if the sold-out beehive crowd’s hot air didn’t blow them back. Yet they’re also as businesslike as ever--aggressive and indifferent, they are. Ramonesmania is still as senselessly exhilarating as ever; at this late date, there remains no need to ask gabba-gabba-why.