Some time ago there was a venue in Canberra City Boulevard called The Terrace Bar that was next door to the much missed Electric Shadows cinema and had a particularly ragged charm to it – small, sweaty and boozy.

Lots of great local bands played there with the high watermark being the inaugural Canberra indie-fest headlined by Wollongong grunge exponents Tumbleweed in the early 1990s.

The standout memory is of a bunch of committed punk fans with tartan trousers tucked into chunky Doc Martens boots, studded leather jackets, obligatory Sex Pistols or Clash T-shirts and in some cases a multi-coloured mohawk that would've required far more grooming than the otherwise rough and ready appearance suggested.

This all happened when projecting a personal identity immersed in punk rock was about more than simply throwing on a flannel shirt and ripped jeans as the too many "grunge" fans of the time would have it.

The calling card was London somewhere around 1977 and nights at the Roxy in Covent Garden where gob-spitting, pogo dancing fans of The Buzzcocks would congregate and let rip.

That took place well before my time, but similar things happened both at the Terrace Bar and in another local context at The Transit Bar a few weeks ago when a living, breathing member of The Ramones played a high-energy set with Australian indie/punk rockers The Hard-Ons as support.

In the intervening years between The Roxy in London and The Transit in Canberra City much music has come and gone, but some things remain the same such as American retro punk rockers Rancid's 1995 album … and Out Come the Wolves on the Epitaph label. The album cover features a shot of a forlorn punk dude not out of place at the Terrace Bar - a suitably retro alternative to hardcore punk band Minor Threat's Complete Discography album cover with a shaved head providing the distinction on the latter.

This brings us to the recent CJ Ramone gig at the Transit.

It was pleasing to see a line of people waiting to enter well before the show commenced, and it was even more pleasing to see appropriate fashion adornments to warm the heart of any committed punk rock fan. This gig was, after all, an exercise in nostalgia.

Headliners CJ Ramone and band gave the audience a tasty selection of Ramones classics performed by a bona fide Ramone who didn't actually join the band until 1989 but was near enough to the action to lend the proceedings some authenticity.

Support band The Hard-Ons set the scene with a high-octane set that shifted gears between micro blasts of speed punk, melodic pop teasers and slower-paced workouts with heavy grooves punctuated by searing lead guitar breaks.

Both bands kept the punk rock ethos going by not conforming to current trends and styles.

This is what happened in London in 1977 and also at The Transit Bar in Canberra in early 2015.