These were big shoes to fill. Frank Carter said it himself as he opened the first of his three nights performing with punk icons the Sex Pistols – but tonight, he filled them, and then some.
Wild eyed, roaring, frothing with anarchic energy, Carter promised “absolute f**king chaos” from this show, and that’s exactly what was served.
Careering through the band’s one and only album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols in its entirety, Carter, and three of the original Sex Pistols members (Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and Glen Matlock) led the thronging, sweaty crowd through a night of unadulterated punk rock mayhem at Bush Hall.
Having grown up with this as his local venue, drummer Paul Cook was the architect behind tonight’s show, following the recent revelation of a financial blackhole which put the London institution at risk of closure.
As well as raising funds to save the iconic space, tonight’s fusion of punk royalty, old and new, showcased too exactly why independent local venues must be preserved.
Booming mob-like singalongs, riotous crowd-surfing and violent mosh pits shook the walls and floors of Bush Hall on Tuesday night, and it felt nothing but natural and right for the space.
Despite the hot and humid evening, which saw the crowd and band alike dripping from the moment doors opened, Carter brought a ferocious energy to the show from start to finish. The singer has stepped in after a much-publicised falling out the band had with former frontman John Lydon.
Spending as much time in or on top of the crowd as he did on stage, Carter proclaimed he was having the “time of his life,” and it showed. Whenever he wasn’t snarling, the Rattlesnakes frontman was grinning ear-to-ear and it was utterly infectious.
Well-known for more than a decade of cathartic stage performances with Pure Love, Gallows and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, Carter embodied the aggressive spirit of Sex Pistols without ever looking like he was trying to mimic.
His screaming rendition of Bodies – Sex Pistols’ gritty album track about abortion – felt just as relevant and shocking today as it clearly did following its release in 1977, with Carter expertly bringing the band’s anthems to life nearly 50 years on.
Ahead of Tuesday’s show this reimagining of such an iconic band – even for charity – felt like a big risk. Such is the legacy of Sex Pistols and the significance they hold for so many, this could easily have felt like a desperate tribute act.
However what transpired instead was a brilliantly brutish, chaotic, and entirely joyful homage to not only the band, but also to the unquestionable value of venues that host legendary performances just like this one.
