BAD NERVES, SEX PISTOLS, ALICE COOPER ROCK OUT END OF CITYFOLK
“The greatest musical decade ever,” claimed one attendee when referring to the 1970s era of rock, during CityFolk’s final night. This past Sunday, I was most fortunate to attend my first concert featuring some of the founding members of punk rock.
Bad Nerves provided an astonishingly soul-captivating prelude, with “Can’t Be Mine”, that grabs one’s heart strings profoundly, only then drumming them back to life with a shock of musical complexity. This introductory set bolsters the dreams of an audience so enthusiastically yearning for a return to the thrill of their younger year’s rock and roll era, which was auspiciously revived.
After preparing the crowd for the reformed Sex Pistols, the memorable Bad Nerves departs the stage; and to continue the night, the audience is fronted by England’s hardcore punk rocker, Frank Carter. He, alongside Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, as well as Paul Cook, shattered the expectations of a crowd that had come looking for nostalgia, with a ferocious and unpredictable set.
The raw, abrasive guitar riffs, as well as the urgently-dispensed drumbeats replicated the same rough-edged instrumentation the crowd so eagerly craved. The reformed Sex Pistols provided an incredible performance, one that brings even the most cold-hearted fans to reminiscing tears of nostalgia.
One may claim that the coolness of the original Sex Pistols, and even any 20th-century rock band, is nearly impossible to maintain (perhaps excluding The Clash). A punk rock performance is terribly reliant on the crowd’s untapped and electrifying energy, such as one before a mosh pit starts. Unfortunately, it happens to slip from the reality of current rock, which is so clearly a product of an idea persuading the masses, rather than just the music exclusively.
It is difficult to claim rock and roll to be as revolutionary as it once was. Although the reformed Sex Pistols could still command a crowd decades after its initial shock, still, there was an unavoidable distance between the performance and the world that produced it. The pieces performed, such as ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’, are only now a piece of rock history, with a fixed significance, rather than the revolutionary visions they once were.
With that in mind, Alice Cooper, alongside the notable Anna Cara, who played the guitar like it was an extension of her own hands, then gave us a longed-for grande finale of the weekend’s CityFolk festival.
Cooper stunned the audience with his ability to stand the test of time, recreating the same musical buzz that flowed through everybody’s hearts decades ago. Through the performances of hit classics such as ‘Poison’, ‘School’s Out’, and ‘I’m Eighteen’, his captivated crowd stood still in awe while they attempted to regain themselves on a knee-weakening floor.
So as frankly as one can be, I was abundantly fed following my famished state during the final set of my first-ever festival.
