Live Photos at The Joint in Las Vegas 2008
Some of our Pistols stuff
Inland Invasion 2002 Photos (not great but at least we were there)
Inland Invasion 2002 Review
Main Website
John Lydon Website

Live Photos from The Pistols first US Tour:
Atlanta
Baton Rouge
Dallas
Memphis
San Antonio
San Fransisco

Saturday, June 7, 2008

We attended the Pistols only US gig on 6/7/2008 at “The Joint” in the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. We arrived early of course and decided out time was best spent drinking and playing video blackjack. MC had the great Rock and Roll foresight to buy us tickets for a reserved table in the balcony in excess to our floor tickets. With this knowledge of ticket inventory we even skipped the opening act and played a few more hands of blackjack after I asked the guy at the mixing board what time his schedule showed the Pistols would actually take the stage. Ten minutes before this time struck, we made our way to our luxurious balcony table only to find three people seated in our seats having a grand time. We decided to be cool and calmly let them know they were at our table. “OH we were just saving it for you” said the girl with the mouse voice flowing over a cheese grater. MC invited them to sit with us. I decided to get down on the floor and work my way up to the stage so I could try to get some close up photos with my phone. (should have brought the camera…oh well). I began the journey to the front easy enough by just weaving my way in and out through the crowd. As I reached the first 10 or so rows people began to stand their ground so I just politely asked if I could please get in front of them. Some people said no but I just told them that I couldn’t see over their tall ass heads to PLEASE just let me around. Most obliged and I ended up 3 rows from the front. The Pistols took the stage and began a reggae like rendition of “Pretty Vacant” that sounded very cool. They then progressed into the same song with their trademark wall of sound. Johnny was sneering into the crowd mugging every chance he got. At one point, I reached into my pocket and felt the stack of MusicFilter business cards I had taken along and for some reason, don’t ask me why, I decided I should throw them up on stage to Johnny. As I began to wonder why I would do something like that it was too late as I felt my arm cock back into pitch mode and then next thing I saw was the bundle of cards hitting Johnny in the left arm. The second they hit him he looked into the crowd with a look that would kill anyone it hit. Luckily he didn’t look directly at me. After 2 or 3 songs up front I grew tired of the spitting and strange pit so I turned around and began yelling, LET ME OUT! I made my way back to the balcony and found our new friends sitting with MC. I grabbed my seat and began watching from a much more comfy spot. One of our new friends, I think he was a snowboarder or some shit, began a relentless attempt to talk to me as the Pistols were playing and I ended up telling him to please SHUT THE FUCK UP…that I was here to watch the Pistols not talk to his dumb ass. He relented and got up and stood to the side of us. Later I found out the mousy girl told MC that I needed anger management classes and that she had been to a lot of punk rock shows and never seen anyone that angry. All I can figure is all those shows must of consisted of Blink 182 and such. Whatever.

Regardless of all that the Sex Pistols ruled. They never disappoint, at least when we have seen them play. The band sounded tighter than ever, Johnny’s voice was perfect all night.

Photos here. (coming soon)

It has been reported that the Pistols may have a new album of new material in the works.

Saturday, August 10, 2002
On July 31, 1996 the Sex Pistols took the stage at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver in what would be the group’s first USA performance in 18 years. Six years later on August 4, 2002 BMF posted a MTV story on his website. It was reported that “the greatest band ever” might return to the US for a show in California. Jeff called me and casually mentioned in his cool way that if the Pistols showed up in California they might just go on tour and eventually come our way. Now even though BMF has a way of being cool under any fire, I know he is very, very passionate about what he likes, so I was not about to take the chance he might miss out on seeing the Sex Pistols perform live.

On August 5, 2002 BMF had a birthday which happened to be the same day KROQ radio announced the Sex Pistols would indeed headline the 2nd annual Inland Invasion Low Dough Show in Devore, California on September 14, 2002. I knew I’d be able to give him a difficult decision. You see as much as he loves punk, he also loves riding motocross and has talked about getting a another bike for a while now. I had planned on surprising him with a downpayment for a new bike when he got back from school in a couple weeks. But I decided to give him a choice. It didn’t take him long to choose the Pistols.

Five weeks from today I get a chance to be there with my very own Johnny Rotten who has been educating me for a while now about the essence of punk rock music. He expands my world every day by introducing music to me that he loves and then explaining why. The first gift he ever gave me was Johnny Rotten’s autobiography , and then gave me PiL’s , “Cassette”, because I liked the song Rise. He made me fall in love with the music and his stories, and then he made me fall in love with him. So this is my chance to give something back that I know he will love. Happy Birthday Baby!