Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter @ Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, 09.04.2025
The last show I went to in 2024 was a reformed (of sorts) 1970s’ punk band with a different singer from another band replacing the original singer and it turns out that my first show of 2025 is also seeing a reformed 1970s’ punk band with a different singer from another band replacing the original singer. There must be something in the air. (By the way, four month twins aren’t exactly conducive to getting out to gigs in case you were wondering why there’s been such a big gap between the last two shows I’ve seen).
I’m old enough to have seen the Sex Pistols before, but unfortunately it was in 1996 on the band’s first reformation for the Filthy Lucre tour. I saw them at Phoenix Festival, which is still probably the greatest festival lineup that I’ve ever experienced. If you were to put that same bill on today, it would still be the best festival lineup of 2025, not that there are any music festivals anymore, and that’s without David Bowie and a Keith Flint version of the Prodigy. My only memories of seeing Lydon/Matlock/Jones/Cook headline the final night of a music festival at a disused airfield in 1996 was seeing a few songs and then going to see the Cowboy Junkies instead.
But I’ve always had a complicated relationship with punk rock. Ultimately I don’t think I was ever angry or disaffected enough growing up for it to ever truly resonate. I chose the other pathway, the one that involved loving Pink Floyd. Never Mind the Bollocks? It’s an ok album, some good songs but it’s over-produced and all a bit one dimensional. The Clash? The Clash will forever be my goto response to “Who is the most overrated band?” But I loved the Damned, they are easily the best of that first wave of UK punk bands.
I’ve spent far more time reading about the Sex Pistols, and watching films and documentaries about them than I have listening to their debut album. The story of punk rock, the story of the Sex Pistols, the mythology of the Sex Pistols is something far bigger than the band’s fairly limited musical output. The idea of punk rock is everything. The impact that they had on music. Coupled with my complicated relationship with punk rock is that I’ve always much preferred what happened afterwards from all the bands that were inspired by the Sex Pistols and their peers. On the one hand, its a shame that the Sex Pistols, never got to show the world what they could do, on the other hand you just couldn’t see them ever doing anything like Public Image. For all John Lydon’s faults, he has been in two bands that changed the musical landscape, and continue to inspire, and there aren’t many people that can say that.
As it usually does, curiosity has got me here tonight. My only experience of the band was a major festival headline show and I don’t think punk works at that scale. The smaller the show the better, it needs to be close-up and in your face to be effective. I’m also curious to see how it works replacing the lead singer, arguably the face and focal point of the band. I’ve yet to see Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes but Gallows were a great band and on paper he looks like a good fit. To be fair, Gallows were also a great band after Carter left and was replaced by Wade MacNeil from Alexisonfire, showing that a seemingly integral part of a band can be successfully replaced.
What’s fascinating about watching Carter perform tonight is just how well he’s integrated himself into the band. While the three Sex Pistols appear to be happy to largely confine themselves to the back half of the stage, it’s Carter that provides the focal point and, who ultimately, makes the performance. It’s clear from what he puts into his performance just how much this band, how much playing with the three other musicians and how much being asked to sing these songs means to him. For Carter, it’s looks like it’s the role of a lifetime, the role he’s dreamed of playing for his entire life, and he revels in every single moment living that dream.
Its interesting to compare and contrast this show to last year’s Saints 73-78 shows. The Saints 73-78 show was hugely enjoyable, I don’t think I’ve heard the band sound as good live and it was a joy to watch Ed Kuepper throw himself into his guitar playing without having to multi-task that with singing. The only criticism that I had was that as a performance, it felt more like an exclusive, one-off special that you’d see at an arts festival, whereas the Sex Pistols tonight feels like a real band. Lydon might have unfairly called it karaoke, but it feels like the real thing, probably because the focus is on the frontman and he looks like he’s always occupied this position on stage in this band. As good as The Saints 73-78 were, there was am awkwardness about it,, Mark Arm stood at his microphone stand for the whole show, looking like he was an invited guest, rather than having full ownership of his position on stage. You can’t fake band chemistry and this version of the Sex Pistols, or whatever you want to call them, have a band chemistry that belies that they’ve only played a handful of shows prior to this tour.
Carter’s voice has the right amount of sneer to do justice to these songs. It’s his own voice and at no point do you ever think he’s trying to mimic Lydon’s voice. At no point does it ever feel awkward delivering someone else’s words. It belongs, it sounds like it’s the voice that’s aways delivered these words. Given how distinct Lydon’s voice is, its a real testament to what Carter has brought to the band. Carter brings enthusiasm and boundless energy that Lydon was never going to bring, even if he’d been asked. ‘Bodies’ and ‘Silly Thing’ has Carter exchanging the stage for the midst of the crowd, imploring them to form the biggest circle pit the room has. “If I’m looking at you get the fuck out of my way.,” he warns the mosh pit while in their midst. Most importantly, Carter has the attitude to pull off replacing one of punk’s greatest icons so flawlessly, giving no quarter to the crowd and band alike, but never with any malice behind his barbs. “This one’s dedicated to fucking me,” introduces ‘Satellite’, while the crowd is taunted with “Are you getting tired, are you getting fucking tired?” before the band launches into ‘No Feelings’.
As we saw last year when the Damned toured Australia, punk is all about the drumming and Paul Cook excels tonight. Steve Jones’s playing on these songs is obviously reasonably rudimentary but together with Cook and bassist Glen Matlock bring the songs to life for Carter to embellish.
For what many would consider the definitive punk rock band, there are moments that are anything but punk rock, from Matlock getting the crowd to clap along to the mini drum and bass solos in the cover of the Stooges ‘No Fun’ when Carter introduces the band for the first time (at least Steve Jones kept the Spirit of ‘76 alive by choosing not to play a guitar solo when he was introduced). From Carter imploring everyone to get their mobile phone torches shining for the cover of ‘My Way’ to the crowd sing-a-long to Anarchy in the UK’, the final song of the night, with only a drum backing while Carter records it on his mobile phone and tells us we can do better than that. 1976 punk attitude reborn as pure show business in 2025. Punk nostalgia’s not what it used to be.
Fifteen songs, all eleven from the original UK album, a couple of covers, and a couple of what I’d guess you call deep cuts. It’s all over in less than 75 minutes, but it always was going to be, wasn’t it?
Earlier in the evening, Carter had remarked, “The thing about the Pistols these days is that everybody comes and everybody leaves with a smile on their face. It’s a beautiful sight.” While I’ve long deplored any live review that ends with a “…and everyone left happy and smiling” conclusion, in this case, he’s not wrong. At the end of the night, no one left feeling that they’d been cheated.
