SEX PISTOLS AND FRANK CARTER BRING PUNK ROCK CHAOS TO SAN FRANCISCO'S WARFIELD
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY AKIRA REPLICA
The last time I saw Sex Pistols was back in 1996 during their first reunion tour, with Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) on vocals. This time around at San Francisco's Warfield Theatre, Frank Carter handles vocals, and the band is billed as the Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter. Some, including Lydon himself, have dismissed this lineup as a karaoke version of the Pistols. I don't really see it that way. The current lineup includes original members Paul Cook, Steve Jones, and Glen Matlock, who formed the band's core in 1976. Plenty of bands hit the road for cash-strapped reunion tours with barely one or two original members, so having three OGs is a major strength of this tour.
Starcrawler opened the night, and they were fantastic. I've been meaning to catch them for a while, so this was a welcome opportunity. Guitarist Henri Cash is quite a string wizard, both in his playing and in how he presents the band's brand of roll. He spent much of the set running around, shoving his guitar right up against our camera lenses while unleashing some impressive slide work and fretboard pyrotechnics. He made a glorious racket, too. Frontwoman Arrow de Wilde is equally captivating, delivering cool, confident vocals while striking poses with vintage rock 'n' roll swagger. She even treated the audience to a ceremonial stage dive into the orchestra pit. The entire band played with tremendous energy and absolutely ripped it up.
The Pistols were in fine form, with Frank Carter proving an excellent frontman and cheerleader for the crowd. From the opening chords of "Holidays in the Sun," he fired up the audience and kept that energy going throughout the set. Cook, Jones, and Matlock sounded every bit as good as I remembered from 1996, delivering the goods with the confidence you'd expect from three punk rock legends. The band tore through the entirety of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, with the crowd enthusiastically singing along to the familiar chants of "God Save the Queen" and "Anarchy in the U.K." They also threw in "Silly Thing" at the request of Starcrawler's Arrow de Wilde, who joined them onstage for a great rendition.
Photographing the Pistols was an interesting experience in itself. I started with a 24–70mm lens, figuring it would do the trick from up front. For the most part, it did. The original members rarely ventured close to the edge of the stage, but Frank Carter was another story. He prowled the stage like a panther just let out of its cage.
When Carter dove into the audience, I immediately wished I'd had my 12–24mm lens mounted instead. He was suddenly much closer than expected and remained in the pit, singing an entire song with a microphone stand surrounded by sweaty, enthusiastic moshers. With bodies constantly bumping into me, I couldn't risk changing lenses in the middle of all that chaos.
All in all, it was a great show, and the Sex Pistols will always be legends in my book. Every concert also teaches me something new about capturing live music creatively, especially when working around a venue's technical limitations, the unpred’ unpredictable movements, and whatever tools happen to be in my camera bag. This night was certainly no exception.
