POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Ramones: As Reliable as Your Favorite Home Appliance

The Ramones pounded out “Teenage Lobotomy” for the billionth time in the quartet’s near 20-year career Thursday at the Hollywood Palladium, proving as reliable as your favorite household appliance. In the world at large, nothing could seem so irrelevant, but within the Ramones’ own special universe, the band was so true to its original sound, that very irrelevance was itself irrelevant.

What counts is that in the process, the band--which ignited punk rock in America by banging out caffeinated tunes as early as 1975 and has influenced literally hundreds of bands--gave its packed-in fans exactly what they wanted: a timeless Ramones show. The mop-top band blasted out new and old songs at warp speeds that exceed those of its records, which is par for the course with a Ramones show, going from one song to the next with little break in between, making the set seem like one long Ramones medley that picked up momentum as it went.

Joey Ramone lost his voice mid-set, so changed certain lyrics into one syllable exclamations--”Sheena is a yeeeaah “ . . . “Rock, rock, rock and roll yeeeaah “--but no one seemed to mind. It wasn’t as if any crucial lyrics were lost to moshers going wild on the main floor. It wasn’t better or worse than any previous Ramones shows, but just a good time as usual. Isn’t that the point?

Opening act Frank Black (formerly Black Francis of the Pixies) fought a terrible sound system. But eventually he and his band were able to cut through the woolly mixes, exposing buzzing, tweaked surf-guitar and Black’s occasional banshee screams. He tamed the pumped-up audience, who were chomping at the bit to slam to the Ramones, and that’s a feat in itself.

* The Ramones and Frank Black will play tonight at Crawford Hall, UC Irvine. (714) 740-2000. Tickets are $21. 7 p.m.