Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter + Panic Shack @ Olympia▪

Tuesday night, the Sex Pistols made their way to Montreal, bringing the raw energy and rebellious spirit of UK punk to a packed Olympia. With Frank Carter at the helm alongside original members Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock, this was a night built on legendary songs, plenty of attitude, and a whole lot of fun.

Opening the night was Panic Shack, a band that immediately made an impression. Full of spunk and personality, the Welsh group delivered a 10-song set that felt both retro and completely their own. It began with Gok Wan and found room for high kicks, mock combat and the sort of guitar antics that would look ridiculous if anyone involved seemed remotely embarrassed. Guitarists Romi Lawrence and Meg Fretwell committed to the whole thing, with bassist Emily Smith not far behind.

Their song selection was excellent, and their stage presence was impossible to ignore. I particularly got a kick out of Jiu Jits You, while The Ick was another standout. By the closing Pockets, the audience had picked up the inventory of everyday essentials in its refrain. Panic Shack clearly knows how to have fun onstage, and their vibe set the tone perfectly for what was to come.

Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for.

The stage was dressed for it. Pink and yellow equipment, Marshall amps and a pink drum kit echoed Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, and the 50 Years of Punk billing made clear what was being celebrated. The crowd spanned several generations, weighted as you’d expect toward those who remember the first time around.

At 9 p.m., the Sex Pistols kicked things off with Holidays in the Sun, wasting no time reminding everyone why these songs became the soundtrack for a generation. From there, they powered through a tight 14-song set that drew heavily from that first album.

One of the highlights came at the end of New York, when Frank Carter jumped into the crowd and stayed among the fans through Pretty Vacant, calling for a circle pit while the three musicians onstage carried on without him. It was one of those spontaneous moments that made the show feel less like a museum piece celebrating punk history and more like a living, breathing punk gig.

IAnd that may have been the biggest success of the night: Frank Carter fit remarkably well into this legendary lineup. He wasn’t trying to imitate Johnny Rotten or pretend to be someone he wasn’t. There were familiar snarls and gestures, inevitably, but his approach came from his own background as a frontman, including his time in Gallows. He brought his own personality while respecting the attitude, sound and spirit that made the Sex Pistols so influential in the first place.

Carter mentioned that Bodies was his favourite Sex Pistols song, and he seemed genuinely thrilled to be sharing the stage with these punk icons. His request for a women-only pit during No Feelings changed who had space on the floor, a good use of his authority for a show carrying so much history.

At one point, he admitted he was “gobsmacked” that they had chosen him to tour with them before launching into My Way, the standard Paul Anka wrote for Frank Sinatra, which the Pistols famously made their own. Carter began it quietly before the band pushed it into distortion, an arrangement that carries its own connection to Sid Vicious.

For me, however, the performance of the night was (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone. The band absolutely tore into the song, and it was a perfect reminder that the Pistols were never simply about one particular song or moment; they knew how to take something familiar and make it their own.

God Save the Queen was another massive moment, delivered with all the attitude you’d expect, while No Fun and Problems kept the momentum going late into the set. Jones had room to stretch out during an extended No Fun, the Stooges cover, and Cook and Matlock needed no help getting through this material.

And then, for the finale, they pulled Panic Shack back onto the stage for Anarchy in the U.K. The girls from Panic Shack jumped into the action, turning the closing number into one big celebration of punk. It closed a set of roughly 75 minutes, with the audience singing back and no encore afterwards.

There was something special about seeing Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock back onstage together, with Frank Carter bringing a new energy to the front of the band. Rather than attempting to recreate the past, the performance felt like a celebration of what the Sex Pistols created, and proof that those songs still have plenty of life left in them.

For a band whose history is so firmly rooted in punk’s past, the Sex Pistols delivered a show that felt very much alive.

A great night, a great crowd, and a whole lot of punk rock attitude.