The Sex Pistols played to about 500 people at their first American show. In attendance were fans, journalists, onlookers, and law enforcement agents. Future R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck snuck into the concert, but was kicked out after only a few songs. Many in attendance had heard stories about British punk rock but were unfamiliar with the Sex Pistols themselves. There was a rumor that the band killed hamsters onstage, among other far-fetched suggestions. A good number of people expected grubby street punks with mohawks to walk onstage. Only Sid lived up to most people's expectations, and even he was relatively well-behaved tonight.
"I thought you were all cowboys down here," said Rotten as he waited for Steve to tune up. "Well my name's John, and this is the Sex Pistols." With that, the band ripped into "God Save the Queen," introducing the Georgia crowd to British punk. "See what kind of fine, upstanding youth England is chucking out these days?," Johnny said about himself and his band. "You can all stop staring at us now. We're ugly and we know it."
"Johnny Rotten's stare was demonic, his expression sneering, and his shoulders ominously hunched," reported Tony Schwartz in Newsweek. "Sid Vicious, pasty-skinned and anemic-looking, seemed more catatonic than cantankerous, rousing himself only to blow his nose stage right. Guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook looked clean-cut enough to have played in the '50s style band that opened the show."
Overall, the first show of the tour was seen as a disappointment. Steve's guitar refused to stay in tune, and his playing was less than spectacular. Johnny sang most of lyrics during the wrong parts of the songs, and he occasionally resorted to muttering. During "Anarchy in the U.K.," he asked the audience, "Do any of you know the words?" The crowd also remained quite contolled, nothing compared to what was in store for the Pistols later in the tour. To some, the show represented exactly what punk was all about: raw and vulgar rock 'n' roll, played with plenty of volume and little musical skill. Others couldn't understand how this band spearheaded a musical revolution.
Set list: God Save the Queen, I Wanna Be Me, Seventeen, New York, Bodies, Submission, Holidays in the Sun, EMI, No Feelings, Problems, Pretty Vacant, Anarchy in the U.K.
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28 сен 2024
