Sex Pistols Concert 8-10-96

What Is This?
I was asked by many about my musical influences when making stamps and asked to share some of the stories behind the concerts I have seen. I have been to 1200+ live concerts (all national touring bands/singers with albums, not local club bands or tribute/cover bands, have seen plenty of those too) and have saved every ticket stub and backstage pass (when I had one) and kept notes (like a journal) on every show I have ever seen. So from time to time I will scan in the ticket stub from a show I saw (going in no order, skipping around) and talk a little about the show and my opinion. All information property of dA--stamps/dA--bogeyman (me). This is entry#3.

The Concert:
Sex Pistols
Stabbing Westward / Gravity Kills (Two Opening Acts)
August 10, 1996
Great Woods Center For The Performing Arts, Mansfield, Massachusetts (USA)

Just So You Know:
This was the first Sex Pistols reunion tour ("Filthy Lucre Tour") since the end of the band in 1978. Original/first Sex Pistols bassist was Glen Matlock (not Sid Vicious) and he joined Johnny Rotten/Lydon, Steve Jones and Paul Cook for this reunion tour.

Personal:
I went to this show with my then girlfriend Faith who was not a big punk rock Sex Pistols fan. I know every Sex Pistols recorded song and was very excited for this show. A few friends of mine saw this show a few weeks before me at a different venue and had mixed feelings about the concert but they were not into the punk rock scene/music like I was at the time. Great Woods is a huge outdoor "shed" facility where half the crowd has seats inside and the other half are out back on the lawn (facility holds around 20,000 total and was two thirds full on this night). Faith and I had decent seats inside but when the Sex Pistols hit the stage we moved forward so I could play around in the slam dance/mosh pit in front.

The Live Concert (Openers):
Stabbing Westward was the first band to play and I was not expecting much. The keyboardist/singer wearing the Davy Crockett coonskin hat was a madman and carried this band through their half hour set. I must admit they were pretty good and I enjoyed the songs "Shame" and "What Do I Have to Do?" and even my then g/f Faith enjoyed their set. The second band to play was Gravity Kills and I had heard they were very good live - but not on this night LOL. They played for about 35-40 minutes and had problems with their microphones almost the whole time. The song "Guilty" stands out as fair but the rest of their set is not worth mentioning.

The Live Concert (Headliner):
Time for the legendary punk rockers to hit the stage and they did just that opening with "Bodies" as old school and new punks alike hit the pit and the fun began. I noticed Johnny Rotten's spiked red/blond hair right away and he was full of energy roaming the stage and singing/shouting in true punk style. Rotten spoke briefly in between most songs and there was a sorta huge slide show behind the band with different images/Sex Pistols logos that would change from song to song (sometimes more then once per song), the slide show seemed out of place and cheesy but maybe that was the point in true Sex Pistols 'screw you' style. End of set songs included "Pretty Vacant" which is my favorite all-time Sex Pistols song and they did it right. Encores included "Anarchy In The UK", "No Fun" and "Problems" and they entire Sex Pistols set was around 75-80 minutes (many concert goers, myself included, wished they had played longer). All in all I had a good time and was happy to finally see the legendary godfathers of punk live in concert.

Check out my 'Concert Memories' dA gallery for more of my concert musings da--stamps.deviantart.com/gall…