Review and photos by Peter Coates – https://www.facebook.com/InsideEdgePhotography
CIVIC are an Australian old-school rock’n’roll punk band, formed in 2017 in Melbourne. The band currently consists of founder Jim McCullough out front, guitarist Lewis Hodgson, bassist Roland Hvlaka, and with new drummer Eli Sthapit.
Albums include Future Forecast (2021) and Taken By Force (2023), and a couple of acclaimed EPs, however I have to admit at being unfamiliar with them to date. There is a new album Chrome Dipped being released on May 30th and can be pre-ordered from anywhere now, and the band opened up with some tracks from that record, including Starting All The Dogs Off, The Fool and the title track which is the first single released, and then Poison.
Then we rolled back into their back-catalogue, with the sensational Beatles-esque riff of New Vietnam proving this is more than a straight-out punk band – with hints of The Saints and Radio Birdman more than apparent, in particular with Call The Doctor, and the frenetic vocal delivery. Selling, Sucking, Blackmail, Bribes tore the Hordern a new one, and got the front 10 rows on the mosh moving with this monster of a hardcore punk track. Then the band reverted to a more Aussie surf-punk sound with Taken By Force, before wrapping up the set with the old-school punk of Radiant Eye from Future Forecast, and another new one from Chrome Dipped in Swing of The Noose.
The band are headed off for a run of dates in the USA, Europe and the UK over the next three months, proving that punk never really died!
Website
https://www.civicivic.com
The SEX PISTOLS last graced these shores back in 1996 on the Filthy Lucre tour, and the purists may sneer at the current drop-in front man as “not Johnny Rotten”, but Frank Carter (Gallows and Rattlesnakes front man) has been pulled into the band by the other three current and original members after the falling-out with John Lydon back in 2008, and the original aim was just to do some fund-raising shows in 2024 for Bush Hall in London, being a local venue for Paul Cook and Steve Jones, and this has grown into a bunch of live shows celebrating this legendary studio release, including Glen Matlock of course as the original bassist.
It is hard to see a better frontman than Carter for this – he is clearly a different character to Lydon but has much of the same visceral energy and internal fury and scorn for everything that still stands out from the original Sex Pistols songs and video.
I was a public schoolboy punk at the time NMTB was released, and was lucky enough to see The Jam, The Buzzcocks and Siouxsie & Banshees live….but never managed to catch the Pistols live before it fell apart in Jan 1978, so there is nothing to compare this line-up to other than the old SP footage.
The lights go down and the orchestral rendition of God Save The Queen provides the intro and allows the band to enter the Hordern stage to howls of appreciation from the packed house.
Before anything kicks off, Frank delivers a solemn dedication to Clem Burke who had passed away the day before, and who Glenn and Paul in particular had been close to.
I was lucky enough to be shooting the band from the Pit for the first three songs, so they may be a bit of a blur, but Holidays in the Sun, which opened the album, had all of the energy from the record, and more, and Carter started out the way he finished, with cheeky humour mixed with vitriol and anger in equal measure. Seventeen and New York followed, noting the album was not simply being played in order, and then as we left the pit there was no mistaking the opening riff ringing out of Pretty Vacant, before bass and drums piles in, and then the sneering vocal of Carter which perhaps misses the sheer raucous snarl of J Rotten from the original version, but the intensity is hard to ignore!
Frank heads into the crowd for Bodies to start a circle pit, while the band pound out the solid 3 chord riff, and there is lots of banter with people in the crowd, and then with Silly Thing, he makes his way back through the crowd to the stage, and Steve Jones delivers a Masterclass in punk guitar thrashing.
Liar was driven by Paul Cook on the kit, and Steve’s raucous guitar tone, while Carter gets close to the Rotten sneering vocal. The crowd gives a solid effort for the final chorus. God Save the Queen kicks off, with Carter spitting and snarling the vocals, and half the place goes mental, with bodies surfing the crowd over the rail, while the other half is videoing badly on their phones.
No Fun (The Stooges cover) was an oddity in the set, and Matlock and Jones ham it up through what is oddly a quite pedestrian workout of Iggy Pop’s anthem. It does give Jones the chance to deliver just about the only proper guitar solo of the set, and we get the band introductions and the obligatory quick solos. Satellite opens with the powerchord and feedback before the riff kicks in and Cook and Matlock own the backbeat. This may be one of the most underrated SP tracks and Carter does a top job with the slightly whiny vocals.
You can’t help thinking that two nights at the Metro would have created more of an intimate and authentic punk feel, but 2000 people appear to be having fun. No Feelings is like a punch in the guts with the harsh riff, and Carter is slightly deranged as he should be, with the band providing more of the backing shouts of the title.
Carter works hard to keep the crowd vocal and active, and the band just rips into Problems which is as heavy as it should be. Jones delivers the crushing riffs of the middle eight before the final verse chorus and the extended Problem ending! E.M.I. Closes the set with some super crisp drum accents, with a final sneering Goodbye absolutely nailing it!
The SP idiosyncratic version of Claude Francois’ My Way sees Jones and Matlock sitting on the drum riser while Frank croons the early phrases to the view of 1000 phone lights, before the snarling My Way morphs into the punked up second half of the track.
Frank Carter – “Put your hands together for the greatest punk band in the world” which provides a suitable intro to Anarchy in the U.K, the opening guitars are brutal, and we get the Right…..Now and cackling laugh before Carter launches into the verse, and the mosh ramps up the frenzy level once more. Close your eyes and it could be 1977 again!
Web
https://www.sexpistolsofficial.com
FB
https://www.facebook.com/sexpistolsofficial
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/sexpistolsofficial
CIV1C FB
https://www.facebook.com/civicbandaus
YouTube