A birthday bash fit for Joey Ramone

Hey, ho, are you gonna go?

Friends, fans and family of the late Joey Ramone will gather Wednesday to celebrate what would have been the punk icon's 59th birthday. Ramone, the singer for the legendary Ramones who died in April 2001 from lymphoma, has been remembered every year since with the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash.

This year's party, at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza, is no different, bringing together cow-punk Hank Williams III and alt-rockers Morningwood, as well as old-school punks Walter Lure (from Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers), Cheetah Chrome (The Dead Boys) and many others. Tickets, $25 in advance, $30 day of, are available at livenation .com. As in years past, net proceeds go to the Joey Ramone Foundation for Lymphoma Research.

Ramone would champion groups coming up in the city's downtown scene, and that tradition continues "by featuring bands that make great music and getting together some of Joey's friends to celebrate him on what would otherwise be a sad, somber day," Ramone's brother and event organizer Mickey Leigh said in a statement.

Come for the camaraderie, stay for Sean O'Sullivan's Punk Pipers and their rendition of "I Wanna Be Sedated" on bagpipes.