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| Sir Stonesalot |
So I saw the Sex Pistols last night.
Or should I say...I survived the Sex Pistols last night. There were several times when survival was in doubt...but I made it out alive.
When we walked in to the 9:30 Club I got seprearted from my buds. Undaunted I walked right up to the front of the stage, staked claim to a spot right in front of Johnny's mike stand...and waited.
"Take all your post-punk shit and stick it up your ass, we are the real deal."-John Rotten, around 9:30pm, at the 9:30 Club, Washington DC, 8/24/03
When the Pistols came on it was like there was an explosion in the crowd. I think all the "Bodies" from the explosion landed on me. I was pretty sure that I was going to die. Johnny is so close that when he leans out toward the crowd, he is quite literally "in my face". There was a line of bouncers in between us and the band...Johnny moved the bouncers out of the way. He said, "You don't need to protect them from me."
When "God Save The Queen" blasted us, I thought I was going to die again. So I did the only thing I could do...I jumped around alot. I got kicked in the head by some guy body surfing...then wha? "Belsen Was A Gas"! Steve was playing facing the audience...Johnny was slugging at a bottle of brandy, and blowing huge amounts of snot from his nose.
The encore was "Anarchy In The USA" and "Problems". I was positive that the last thing I would ever see was Johnny spitting out "I am am anti-christ". I don't even know how many times I got hit in the head with people. Then they were gone.
And I LIVED!!!!
I was physically exhausted, emotionally spent, and sopping wet.
Some thoughts:
John Lydon is one of the funniest people on the planet.
John has some kind of bottomless sinus.
Paul Cook mouths the words when he's playing.
Glenn Matlock is a very servicable bass player.
John doesn't like bouncers very much.
Steve Jones gets a massive, beefy tone out of his Les Paul guitars.
Steve Jones has gotten massive and beefy.
Even though I thought I was gonna die, I wasn't all that bothered...It would have been a great way to die.
The Sex Pistols are a great band.
I would go again tomorrow.
This was one of my top 5 rock n roll life experiences.
The Sex Pistols have a lot of holler along parts to their songs.
John sang "EMI" to ME.
Eye contact with John Lydon is unsettling.
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| Angiegirl |
 ! Great review SS, very funny!! |
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| jb |
SS-the Sex Pistols were very disrespectful to the Stones circa 77 and I always thought they got what they deserved. |
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| Martha |
I am so glad you lived to tell the tale Stonesy.....'cause we ain't gonna get to see them this time out. We must live vicariously through................. YOU!
Great review!!!!! |
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| lotsajizz |
quote:
jb wrote:
SS-the Sex Pistols were very disrespectful to the Stones circa 77 and I always thought they got what they deserved.
As someone else noted, following the release of Sides 1,2, and 4 of 'Love You Live'--a little disrespect WAS earned. Further, Mick GOT the message--witness 'Some Girls'
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| Joey |
" John Lydon is one of the funniest people on the planet.
John has some kind of bottomless sinus "
Stoney ....................
I have thought it over and you are absolutely correct ...
Fleabit Peanut Monkey does INDEED look exactly like John Lydon when Johnny is having a GOOD day .
I never really noticed this before and I thank you my Brother for pointing this out to me .
" Hit Me Ronnie "
Jacky ! |
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| parmeda |
Oh SS...I can't wait for Friday!
I've had my tickets for over a month now and they're playing at The Aragon...
Great review! Thanks  |
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| LadyJane |
Pammy...I'm so jealous!!
Didn't realize we had so many Pistols fans on the Board. 
John Lydon is a maniac. Hysterically funny.
LadyJ. |
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| parmeda |
LadyJ...I will be armed with cameras in hand! |
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| gypsy |
Thanks for that wonderful review, SS. |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
I was so close to Johnny last night that if I had had a camera I could have taken a close up of his epiglottis...or individual nose hairs.
Pammy...look, I'm really serious about this...don't try to get down front. It is REALLY dangerous. If you have seats for the Aragon, stay in them. If there are no seats, hang toward the back. They are plenty loud, you'll have no "Problem" hearing them. But please stay out of harms way...I worry you know.
I'm glad I did it ONCE. Never again. I'll be content to watch from the back row next time. |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
>jb wrote:
SS-the Sex Pistols were very disrespectful to the Stones circa 77 <
The Pistols were disrespectful of EVERYONE...including themselves. And they still are. Thank Ganesh for that. |
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| parmeda |
That crazy, huh? |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
Yeah Pammy, THAT crazy.
It's not that I think that you can't handle it, I just think you'll enjoy yourself a lot more without having to get kicked, elbowed, kneed, and forearm shivered. It can be pretty distracting to have a Doc Marten stuffed in your ear....while it's still attached to someone's foot. |
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| FPM C10 |
Here's a review I sent to a Pistols site. It's WAY too long but I'm a lousy editor of my own words, so the Unholy Trinity should feel free to take it down after awhile.
*************
The Sex Pistols took the stage at Washington DC's longest-running punk venue, the 9:30 Club, on Sunday night without the usual baggage of unwanted opening acts. Although I'd been up for seeing the Rev. Horton Heat and was curious about the Dropkick Murphys, I remembered the interminable drudgery of standing through Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills at Roseland in '96. So when a club employee told me there was no opening act, I was surprised but not disappointed.
Doors opened at 7:30, by which time a line of old punks, young wannabes, and curious tourists had formed a predominantly black-clad line down the block from the nondescript blue building which houses the club (the 9:30 was originally in downtown DC back in the day, I gather; it's now closer to Silver Spring in a bad section of town). Two guys half-heartedly patted down every third or fourth patron, and the line moved steadily into the club...a rotting ballroom, with scuffed parquet flooring and exposed wiring, a high ceiling and a balcony around 3/4 of the room. Surveying my surroundings it seemed that this might well be the PERFECT place to see the Pistols. Behind the stage hung a huge tapestry of heraldic symbols. The thought occurred to me that it might be some sort of obscure insult back home in Blighty, but it was just a colorful backdrop of primary colors here in the USA. I walked to the bar and got a drink and staked out a place on the floor three people back from the stage in front of Steve's amps.
For two hours a mix tape played; it seemed to be a greatest hits of the class of '77 era punk movement. Fresh-faced kids mouthed the words to "Chinese Rocks". "Sonic Reducer", "Homicide", "Complete Control" - I can't believe these songs are now nostalgia and I am disturbed by a reverie - a horrible dream where I'm in my 40s and so are the Pistols and "See No Evil" is an OLDIE, as is the next song, "Blank Generation", but wait, it's NOT a dream - it's the dismal truth!
The houselights went down about 9:30 and after a minute's delay Glen Matlock walked out, waving and smiling, followed by Paul Cook. A roadie put Steve's Les Paul over his shoulder as Johnny took center stage and said hello. He looked, oddly enough, GOOD - thinner than '96, hair less severe. The relative fitness was set off a bit by the fact that he’s missing a tooth. He was wearing a blue plaid shirt with the sleeves ripped off and baggy grey pants. He looks accusingly at the audience. "Some of you know who we are. Some of you DON'T know who we are. WE ARE THE REAL DEAL." The band launched into "Bodies" and the ballroom floor exploded; the hilarious mixture of teenagers, people in their 30s, people in their 40s, frat boys and cute girls, real punks and faux, all compressed into one another like a wrecked car being crushed into a cube. "Fuck this and fuck THAT," howled Johnny, the crowd howling along as they pushed and pulled and leapt and crashed, yet it was all play, and no one was being really hurt. "She don't want a baby 'at looks like that," Johnny snarled, pointing to himself. "I don't want a baby that looks like that!", pointing at the audience.
"Liar" followed, then "New York"...do we really need to dis the Dolls at this late date? They, like most of the Pistols' competition, are long dead. No matter, a great song. 'No Feelings" was botched a bit, and Johnny let the audience sing some of it. "You know the words," he said. Actually, the audience knew all the words to everything; the great catharsis of the show came in screaming oneself hoarse, venting rages real and invented. During "God Save The Queen", the crowd resembled a school of fish in a feeding frenzy - the dancefloor boiled with flailing bodies, and I was crushed from every side, pressed in upon myself. I could feel the blood pounding at my pulsepoints and as Johnny led us in a snarling singalong of "No future, no future, no future for you," I began to have the feeling that I could have a heart attack and die, giving the lyrics a literal as well as abstract truth. If I die, I thought, no one will notice until the crowd disperses and my body hits the floor.
However, the song ended, the crowd relaxed a few millimeters and I was able to breathe; I even caught a hint of air conditioning for a second, and my strength returned. "No Fun" followed, the only cover song of the night, and the turgid tempo gave everyone a bit of a breather; "Seventeen" brought the energy level back up as the crowd chanted "I’m a lazy sod." At some point Johnny lifted his shirt and showed us his scrawny white torso. He asked if we liked his nipples and informed us that love handles are fashionable, which I was certainly relieved to hear.
"Belsen Was A Gas" followed, and gave Johnny the soapbox to talk politics. I was a bit surprised by the lameness of the remarks. "Washington DC! Where’s George? Hiding behind his Bush?" Then he said "See you in Baghdad." Later he got REALLY worked up, asking us pointedly why there isn’t enough toilet paper in Iraq, and told us to support our allies. I have no idea what he was on about.
"Submission", "Holidays in the Sun", and "Pretty Vacant" followed, all pounded out of the same pig iron. When it comes to playing this particular brand of music, it’s hard to imagine anyone (except maybe the Stooges) doing it better, or more efficiently - the basic building blocks of relentless power chords, bludgeoning drums and bass and sarcastic, snotty, rage-filled vocals are combined again and again, and each time it works perfectly. The Pistols are smart not to record any new material, because they really couldn’t improve on what they’ve already done - there are only so many ways to combine the few elements.
Johnny then launched into a little tirade about record companies, the gist of which was: they’re dying so we should kick them to hurry along the process. "EMI" followed, of course, and after the last lyric - "goooood BYE", Johnny said "We’re going off for a smoke break. If you want more, you know what to do."
The crowd had a hard time getting itself worked up for the encore. Clapping would start, synch up into a rhythm and then peter out. We tried cheering but everyone was hoarse from singing every song. Throughout the crowd, a few loud assholes jeered. "Old farts! You’re too old to do it! Sex Pistols suck!!" yelled a square-headed frat boy next to me. I noticed he was wearing a new $35 Sex Pistols t-shirt. Another asshole yelled "Sellouts!!" and threw a dollar bill up onstage as the band returned. The thought that these guys might be getting RICH from playing this tiny club is ridiculous, but they feed off of the confrontations. Someone spit at Johnny and he singled the culprit out, promising to pound his face in.
The band stormed into "Anarchy in the UK" and really, it just doesn’t get any better or purer or more perfect than that moment. The crowd redoubled its efforts to combine itself into one big heap of arms and heads, men were passed overhead kicking and squirming, and Johnny pointed to the rafters as he howled himself hoarse. The band, in a rare display of dynamics, quieted down a bit as Johnny led us in a singalong of "I wanna be anarchy". "Do you REALLY?" he mocked, after they had cranked the song back up and brought it to a thunderous conclusion . "Then what’s stopping you?".
The final song, "Problems", was a bit anticlimactic. Johnny didn’t have a lot of voice left, so we sang it for him. The band members bowed, and Steve threw his unopened bottles of water into the crowd. I grabbed one from the floor and drank some and splashed some in my face as we slowly edged out of the building. I was with the same group of friends that went to Roseland in ’96, and I reckoned that Pistols shows were good yardsticks by which to measure our rate of decay. The Pistols have held up better than we had any reason to expect, and so have we. As I breathed the cool night air and stripped off my drenched t-shirt, I felt more alive than I have for a good while.
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| Sir Stonesalot |
Yes sah!
What he said. |
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| Hooked |
I went last night also to the 930 club and posted my thoughts on another thread on the show on RO but this review above from the Pistols site nailed it.
SS, i started in the back, was just behind the mosh pit for the last few songs and threw myself into it during Problems (the last song). i was soaked just from the few songs in/near the pit, so i can imagine how you felt. it was rough down front but awesome. just moving up 20 feet or so from the back to the pit area was like walking into another zone. and the crowd went particularly nuts during Anarchy.
Johnny Rotten's still got it--loves to toy with the crowd, mocking them, abusing them, praising himself. hard to tell if he's just a wanker or a great showman. or both. maybe that's why it all worked. |
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| stonedinaustralia |
FPM - SS - Hooked - thanks for the reports - i'd never get it together to get to a pistols web site
by co-incidnce?? - i've been browsing through savage's "england's dreaming" over the last few days - a bit of light relief after all that intense stones research for the trivia thing - FPM if you havn't read that - and i suspect you may have - you should - "you'd dig it the most" as they say in the movies
the pistols came here in '96 on the filthy lucre tour - i didn't go for a variety of reasona - saw public image in about '85 - that was cool - pigs heads on stage and the cops broke up the party!! - it was wild
i like the fact they've stuck to the original line up and no more - as much as i love the clash if they were working today you can bet they'd have a pianist of some sort and probably a horn section and possibly back up singers - just like the stones!!
as for street fighting man - well i know this is the wrong thread (and i don't care - that's the buddhist in me) but i've always enjoyed revelations 21:15 "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into a lake of fire"
"...like!! E - M - I... unlimited edition - unlimited supply"
EMI = label on which "some girls" was released - beat that trivia buffs
[Edited by stonedinaustralia] |
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| parmeda |
SS, two words..."fucking loud"
(What ELSE can I say? LOL!)
There definately was a vibe of caution in the crowd after what happened in Canada a few days before. Us Chicagoans behaved, lol...FOR A CHANGE!
I must say that everything you and FPM had mentioned was right on the money with these guys and I took your advice and took a step back from the action...I'm getting too old to be thrashed around without notice .
Man 'o man...I've seen a lot in my days, but Friday sent me over the edge a bit. I can handle "loud", it's been years since I've had my head ring the way it still is today, ...and hopefully it will be years to come when I have the pleasure to do THAT again...hopefully in my next life, lol. I don't know, maybe it was The Aragon? You either love that place or hate it...depends on who's there. |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
Ummmmmmm....did you like what you saw?
I can't figure out from your post if you dug it or not. I'm leaning towards the "she liked it" side, but I could be wrong. |
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| parmeda |
quote:
Sir Stonesalot wrote:
Ummmmmmm....did you like what you saw?
Absolutely!
But I've been too spoiled these past 10 years or so when it comes to seeing shows...I've had to humble myself when you get down in the "thick" of things, lol. Hubby thought it was "refreshing"! Then again, he enjoys it when things start getting out of hand. (He was definately in his element, lol.)
I really enjoyed it, SS.
...brought back some good memories  |
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| JaggaRichards |
quote:
jb wrote:
SS-the Sex Pistols were very disrespectful to the Stones circa 77 and I always thought they got what they deserved.
What did the Pistols think of lawyers? |
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