Review: Sex Pistols, The Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane

Brisbane might be home to The Saints, but it took the Sex Pistols to shake this new world city out of its midweek slumber.

Frank Carter crowd-walks. Picture: Instagram/creep_it_666

It might have spawned one of the three most influential punk bands in history, but Brisbane is yet to shake its cultural cringe, as the new frontman of one of the other two has reminded us.

Frank Carter did the honours out front of the legendary Sex Pistols on Wednesday night.

“It feels good to be back in Brisbane, it really does,” Carter said.

“I was here last year, I was telling the lads.

“Australia’s f—ing great. But Brisbane is different,” he chuckled.

“Yes, it’s different...

“Don’t f—ing let me down, yo? Don’t be like Sydney last night,” he said, to a chorus of boos (which he thought was directed at him).

On another occasion he enthused: “I knew I could f—ing count on Brisbane. Youse all just made different around here, aren’t ya?”

Serendipitously it was the third anniversary of the death of Chris Bailey, frontman of Brisbane’s The Saints, who were credited by Sir Bob Geldof along with the Sex Pistols and Ramones as changing the course of rock ’n’ roll in the ’70s.

But while Brisbane might now be an Olympic host and “new world city”, it still had to be shaken out of its midweek slumber, and reminded how to break the rules.

And break the rules the citizenry did, with open defiance of The Fortitude Music Hall’s “no moshing” and “no crowd surfing” decrees.

The capacity crowd was a cross-section of ages though predominantly Gen X or above, with a few actual punks scattered throughout, and several mohawks of various shapes, sizes and colours.

Carter - he of Gallows and Rattlesnakes fame and roughly 30 years the junior of original Pistols Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook - was appropriately energetic, dangerous and heavily tattooed, even belting out two songs from the floor, whipping the heaving crowd into a frenzy and giving bouncers nightmares.

“They need a little stirring up. Can you make some room in the middle of the dance floor?” he commanded.

“We’re gonna f—ing do something really fun. I wanna see the biggest f—ing circle pit that this floor has.

“I know you’re f—ing excited, but stop rubbing my head, I’m not a leprechaun, I know I look like one.

“Move back, you’re in my personal space. There’s not enough room for my ego down here, for f—’s sakes.”

Having created a human maelstrom Carter was held aloft by the crowd, triumphant.

It could be argued the Sex Pistols should never, ever have got back together, as they represent a moment in time and a particular angry generation.

But they’d already toured here nearly 30 years ago, and there was a sense we should enjoy them while we could, even in the absence of estranged frontman John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten), who has dismissed the current lineup as a karaoke routine. Plus we are once again living in extraordinary times.

For his part, Carter didn’t claim to be a part of the group, rather a hired hand, often pausing to pay reverence to the punk gods.

“Shall we play them one of the greatest f—ing punk rock songs of all time?” he asked the band before they launched into Pretty Vacant.

“Do you think they deserve it, do you think they’re earned it? I wanna see this f—ing floor erupt!”

There may have been no nod to the hometown heroes, but the Pistols did pay homage to American punk pioneers The Stooges with a pounding cover of No Fun, a single of theirs back in the day.

While guitarist Jones admitted at one point he was too old to go harder and faster, his younger charge Carter never let up, taunting the crowd: “Are you getting tired? Are you getting f—ing tired?”

He summonsed the audience’s phone torches for the intro of classic Pistols cover My Way, before ending the night in incendiary style with signature anthem Anarchy in the UK.

Setlist: God Save the Queen (Symphony), Holidays in the Sun, Seventeen, New York, Pretty Vacant, Bodies, Silly Thing, Liar, God Save the Queen, No Fun (Stooges Cover), Satellite, No Feelings, Problems, EMI. Encore: My Way (Claude François cover), Anarchy in the UK.