Andrew W.K. leads Ramones revival in Asbury Park

It's been quite a few years since Andrew W.K. last visited Asbury Park.

The New York City-based party rocker broke big back in 2001 with the "I Get Wet" album and its singles, "Party Hard" and "She is Beautiful." After that, he was all but inescapable at the Jersey Shore — he played the city as part of the Vans Warped Tour in 2002, played Convention Hall in 2002 and 2003 as part of the Skate and Surf festival, and headlined the legendary Stone Pony in 2003. In 2006, he even appeared in the Jersey Shore-set animated series "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

On Saturday night, he makes his Asbury Park return.

"I haven't been to Asbury Park in general for many years now, and I'm not happy about that," said the singer. "But I'm very excited about it because I understand there's been a lot going on there, a lot of changes, I imagine many of them for the better. Although, I will miss certain things already that I believe have been removed from the area.

"Still, there's most of all a feeling there, a good Asbury Park feeling which I cannot imagine will ever be gone, and maybe will only be enhanced by the recent rejuvenation and things like that. So I'm just really excited to get back and feel that feeling."

When W.K. comes back to the Stone Pony, he'll be handling lead vocal duties for Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg. Lead by Marky Ramone, drummer for the legendary New York City punk innovators from 1978 to 1983 and from 1987 to 1996, the band cranks out more than 30 of the Ramones' rapid-fire classics at every show.

W.K., who made his debut with Ramone's band in 2013, said taking on his role in the show was intimidating on a number of levels.

"Primarily, it's intimidating physically: will I be able to physically do this? And that was very daunting, just learning that number of songs. Of course, many of them are deceptively simple or short, although a song can even be 30 seconds long and if it's intense enough it might as well be a half hour long."

Beyond the physical challenge, W.K. said, there was also the massive legacy of the Ramones, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band that changed the course of music history with its 1976 self-titled debut album.

"What business do I have singing these songs?" asked W.K. "What business do I have even being on the periphery, on the very, very, very edge of this incredible phenomenon, the Ramones? It was very, very intimidating."

"I also thought that maybe people would be mad, that I'm not punk rock enough. Because I'm really not a punk rocker. Out of respect for true punk music, I would never say that my music is punk or that I am a punk singer or anything like that because I know actual punk singers and I respect them too much. It'd be like calling myself a basketball player. Yeah, maybe I can dribble a basketball and shoot it, but I'm not Michael Jordan."

Ultimately, W.K. said, immersing himself in the Ramones' catalog has proven to be a time of evolution.

"It taught me, as always, that a challenging experience makes you grow," he said. "And it can be very painful, similar to exercise or something. You break down part of yourself and you can feel like you're dying, but then something takes its place which is bigger and better and more expansive than what was there before. And it seems like the amount of growth is in proportion to the amount of pain. So I feel like every show I get a little bit stronger as a person."

MARKY RAMONE'S BLITZKRIEG WITH ANDREW W.K.

WITH: gods, The Easy Outs

WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday, May 9

WHERE: The Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park

TICKETS: $20 in advance, $25 at the door

INFO: 732-502-0600, http://stoneponyonline.com/