Sex Pistols Show Review

by jcrunch@fast.net

I saw the Sex Pistols, twice, on 8/8 and 8/9 in NYC. So you all know your reviewers bias, I will tell you a bit about myself. I've been listening to "punk rock" since about 1982. I have seen many a show, by many of the "classics" like the Dks, Circle Jerks, Still Little Fingers, Exploited, Ramones, etc etc etc over the past 14 years. I have also been a huge Pistols fan since day 1. I have collected many rare live recordings, both with and without Sid on audio and video. I am no Sid fan. He sucked and he made the band suck. When I learned of the reunion, I went nuts. One of my all time faves, was going to finally tour.

I purchased the "Filthy Lucre Live" disc when it came out about 2 weeks before the show. I was half enthusiastic at that point. The band sounded tight as all hell, better than on any bootleg, and live video, any show I had ever seen or heard by them on tape from the old days. Rotten, however, decided to sing on that disc like he was still in PIL. I hated PIL. They had in my opinion, maybe a 6 good songs (most on the Generic Album).

First night, 8/8- They came out. I was in awe. I was the second person behind the barrier, in front of Steve Jones. I was shitting my pants. They started rocking, and rocked fucking hard. Rotten sang like Rotten. The PiL bullshit was gone. It was like Never Mind The Bollocks. He was on, and he was in usual form. Jones hit every friggin song like it was supposed to be played. Not like Winterland, not like Dallas, not like Sweden, not like those 100 Club shoews, none of those old gigs compared. He actually sounded like the guy who played on NMTB. Glen Matlock was just there, but thats all I expected. He layed down a great bass, the bass that was always missing when Sid was too stoned and bloodied to know what the fuck he was doing. The bass is the groove to the pistols. With Cook chugging along on the drums, it lays down the perfect wall for Jones to paint on with his raw riffs and Rottens voice to pierce. The backup vocals were all cool. They kicked ass. My only comment was that Jones looked bored. He played excellent, but he wasnt full of the comments I expected.

The second nite, I knew what to expect. They kicked ass, but Jones seemed much more alive, jumping around, making comments (where's all the pussy he yells, to which Rotten replies, "Some of its on stage") The set list was exactly the same, but they did finish with No Fun tonight. Overall, it was worth the 14 year wait. As Rotten has said in the past, the Pistols always disappointed live. I think that isnt true in 1996. I hope they come around again, cause I'll be there.

All the tunes were from Bollocks and earlier, probably because Glen wrote most of them. Bodies and Holidays had Sid in the credits, but god knows he did little to contribute to them. I kept yelling for "Belsen vos a gassa" or "Great Rock `n' Roll Swindle" but it didnt happen. I know Rotten wouldn't sing any tunes he didnt sing on originally. Oh well, maybe Ronnie Biggs will come out on the second leg of the tour for "The Biggest Blow".

Ahaha, did you ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Not for a second.

Anyway, here is the setlist. I got a copy of it from the sound man.