Monday, Sept. 8, 2003 | 8:23 a.m.
The Sex Pistols stood for a lot during their two wild years together during the late 1970s.
Respect for the music scene's elder statesmen was never one of them.
Original bassist Glen Matlock was reportedly fired from the band simply for liking the Beatles. Guitarist Steve Jones professed to have never even owned a record player while growing up.
So it was surprising to hear frontman Johnny Rotten command a crowd of 1,300 to give the Pistols their due as punk-rock innovators Friday night at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.
"You do not throw (expletive) at us. You do not spit on us," Rotten, born John Lydon, told the audience as his band took the stage around 9:20 p.m. "You see, we're the real (expletive) deal. You can spit on the others; you do not spit on us. We're the Sex Pistols."
With that, the British quartet launched ferociously into "Bodies," one of 12 cuts from seminal 1977 debut album, "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols," they would include in their 60-minute show.
The song's chorus goes, "Body / I'm not an animal," but the 47-year-old Rotten certainly looked more and more animalistic as the night progressed.
Sweat pouring down his face, veins popping from his neck, the wild-eyed punk icon marched combatively around the stage, pausing only to address his fans or take an occasional swig from a whiskey bottle.
"It'd like to say a big (expletive) off to all the (expletives) who have tried to rip us off over the years," Rotten announced.
Although the Pistols have toured just once since their 1978 breakup, the band's reputation for inciting mayhem was still in evidence Friday night. Along with the usual Hard Rock security types, two uniformed police officers looked on from the right side of the floor.
As it turned out, the concert's opening act -- Boston's Dropkick Murphys -- inspired the night's only real moshing midway through their 45-minute set.
As the Pistols' longtime fans filtered into the venue, their younger counterparts bounced enthusiastically near the front, showing appreciation for one of the thousands of bands influenced by Rotten and his mates. Spiked hairdos and leather jackets abounded, as did T-shirts featuring such messages as "Punk's Not Dead" and "People Hate Me."
Dropkick did a fine job of warming up the crowd with a dizzying assault of energetic music. The 8-year-old punk collective took obvious pride in its Irish heritage, even including a kilt-wearing bagpipe player among its seven-member lineup.
Truth be told, Dropkick Murphys out-performed the legendary headliners in terms of musicality, but that shouldn't shock anyone. According to legend, Jones and drummer Paul Cook stole their first instruments when they formed the Sex Pistols in 1976, and musicianship was never the band's strong suit.
The Pistols' original live incarnation can still be heard on several widely circulated bootlegs, including the one from Dallas made in 1978, which I listened to on my way to Friday's show.
In comparison, the modern-day Sex Pistols sound amazingly tight, most likely the result of Matlock's return. Though rock history has glorified the role of the deceased Sid Vicious, the Pistols' second "bassist" was untrained even by punk standards, and provided little musically to go with his bizarre onstage antics.
As if they had never quit playing together, Jones, Cook and Matlock locked onto a steady beat for most of the night, as Rotten repeatedly scanned the faces of his fans.
"Don't you worry, I'm surveying the troops. Well (expletive) done," he said after the crowd sang along to a rousing version of "God Save the Queen."
Playing off the "I'm a lazy sod" chorus, Rotten dedicated "Seventeen" to "lazy Sid." He shook his behind at the audience during "New York" and announced his band's intentions to play Baghdad after presenting "Belsen Was a Gas" as the retitled "Baghdad Was a Gas."
Unfortunately, Rotten's energy outlasted his voice. Midway through "Holidays in the Sun," his vocals grew increasingly ragged, making it difficult to hear anything he sang in his upper register.
After finishing the set with "EMI" and an accompanying rant on record labels, Rotten made the crowd wait while he considered whether to return.
"Do you want me or not?" he asked from his spot backstage. "(Expletive) off! You're not loud enough."
Rotten was right. The applause really was too half-hearted to merit an encore.
But unlike in the old days when Rotten might have followed through with his threat, this time he opted to come back anyway to play "Anarchy in the UK" and "Problems," announcing: "(Expletive) you lot. We're back out for ourselves."
At this rate, maybe the Pistols' next tour will include a cover of "Hey Jude."
