Buckeye Randy
Senior Member
Who: The Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter
Where: The Cleveland Agora (Cleveland, OH)
When: Rocktober 1st, 2026
Being a fan of The Sex Pistols in Northeastern Ohio has been challenging! It’s almost 50 years since I first heard “Never Mind The Bullocks” and I have only one concert to show for all my years of fandom. It’s a story with a single high and several lows that carry varying degrees of disappointment.
The first scheduled show I missed was on New Year’s Day in 1978 at The Cleveland Agora. It was canceled due to The Pistols having visa issues and rescheduling the show fell through when the band broke up two weeks later. Nearly 20 years after that I did see the band on their Filthy Lucre Tour and it was amazing; winner, winner, chicken dinner.
In 2003, the band was scheduled to play with two of my favorites as openers; Dropkick Murphys and Reverend Horton Heat. I’m stoked and I had VIP tickets with my bestiest-punkiest-rockiest friend coming to town from five states away. Nooo...not again…cancelled! A tour was announced for 2025 but it was cancelled due to a broken hand by Steve Jones, are you kidding me? What’s a guy gotta do? I’m one for four and I’m not getting any younger.
It is now the end of 2026 and the band is touring the States and tickets are in hand (or on phone as the case may be) for an evening out with The Three Amigos. The Three Amigos consist of my oldest son, my son-in-law and myself. We don’t hook up as often as we would like due to families and work schedules but we make it count when we do.
There is one not so minor detail about this tour that’s worth mentioning, there’s no Johnny Rotten (John Lydon). I’m not going to rehash the animosity between band members but the bottom line is Frank Carter will be the vocalist. Frank Carter is best described as ultra-high energy and has fronted Gallows plus Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. Look, I would prefer Johnny but I’ll take Frank at this point. This show is most likely a final chapter type thing for me and I’ll take three original Pistols with just about any ole tattooed madman out front.
I tend to overthink details about concerts in the weeks and days leading up to a show. Things like road closures or where to park and the most common dilemma is what will I wear to the show. Please don’t laugh but I really do want to present myself in that certain special way. You know, a reserved yet passionate fan, knowledgeable with undercurrents of bat shit crazy. It was pretty much a no brainer for this show as I own a rarely used Sex Pistols bandana that I bought at the 1996 show. I had to fold it several different ways before I found the perfect positioning of ‘Sex Pistols’ across my head. I have the perfectly folded bandana on my head and a shirt from seeing The Dictators a couple years ago. My teenage grandkids got nothing on me, “nuthin’ ya hear”.
So, the first scheduled/cancelled show by The Pistols in Cleveland was at The Agora and here I am 48 years later inside The Agora. I’m not letting a detail like this Agora location being different than the 1978 location get in the way of irony…or maybe it’s super ironic because The Pistols have a different singer. Did I mention I overthink things?
Fun fact about the evening is that the Cleveland Browns are playing a few miles away and Steve Jones is doing the honorary coin toss before the game against the hated Pittsburgh Steelers. Soooo….we are in the Agora watching the opening band take the stage about the same time Steve is on national TV flipping a coin. Not sure when punk rock and football joined forces but it’s Cleveland so all is fair in love of rock ‘n’ roll.
Unfortunately, the three of us could not all ride together so my son and I will already be inside and my son-in-law will be arriving around showtime. My son and I take our place in line about thirty minutes before doors open. The Agora has several configurations for events but tonight it has a mosh pit below tiered areas which are general admission with no seating plus a balcony with both reserved seating and general admission. We were in the first wave to enter the venue and are on the first tier against the railing overlooking the pit. This is exactly where we wanted to be so the evening is all going as planned.
Minutes before Bad Nerves take the stage, I receive a text message from my son-in-law, ‘I’m here, where are you’. I reply, ‘First tier, stage right, white bandana, bring me a Busch Light’. Five minutes go by and Bad Nerves are now playing and my son-in-law has not found us. As Bad Nerves start their second song I can’t help but notice the activity in the pit. I then look at my son and point at the spectacle before us. We see my son-in-law in the middle of the pit moshing away while holding two cans of beer over his head. He appears beside us minutes later and hands me something I’ve never seen. An unopened can of beer that looks like it was in a car wreck with several dents and nearly folded over. I say unopened but there was foam coming out of the top where one of the impacts caused the top to break its’ seal. I regret not taking a picture of this.
I had medium to high expectations for Bad Nerves due to familiarizing myself with their material in the days leading up to the show. The band consists of five members fronted by Bobby Nerves and they have released two albums. The band had good energy but their sound was not ideal with the vocals not in front of the mix. They were OK but I expected slightly more.
The Pistols took the stage stomping through a thick sounding version of “Holiday In The Sun.” The crowd was all in and my son-in-law disappeared down the steps and back into the pit and this is the last time I mention him. The set covered every track from their album except “Submission”. Also included were cover songs the band performed back in the day; “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”, “No Fun” and “My Way”.
Highlights for me were many. The tribute or should I say mockery of the New York Dolls in the song “New York”. Frank taking to the pit for “Pretty Vacant” with the circle mosh going around him. I thoroughly enjoyed “My Way” with the song divided up into separate parts as with the Sid Vicious version. The first was mellow with the band just sitting in the back and then the second was more raucous. It barely resembled the version by Sid but it really was fun. The band never left the stage before playing their final song which was predictably “Anarchy In The UK”.
Frank did not try to imitate Johnny Rotten. He was his own man singing songs he loved. I appreciate that it didn’t come off as a tribute act. The band was tight and I really do think Steve Jones is an underrated guitar hero. However…as the final notes died...I was left with a feeling of just ‘Good’ and not ‘Great’ as I had hoped. The show met the minimum requirement for a rating of ‘Well Done’!
Sooo…the morning after included a couple fun items. My son-in-law texted me and told me his activity tracker recorded three miles of jogging in the mosh pit. The other is that Mrs. Buckeye and myself went to breakfast. That is not noteworthy in itself but we went to a restaurant that was a bar in a previous life. The very bar that I ended up at 30 years ago after seeing the Sex Pistols in 1996. How ironic!
A good overall experience and final chapter for me and The Sex Pistols.
Where: The Cleveland Agora (Cleveland, OH)
When: Rocktober 1st, 2026
Being a fan of The Sex Pistols in Northeastern Ohio has been challenging! It’s almost 50 years since I first heard “Never Mind The Bullocks” and I have only one concert to show for all my years of fandom. It’s a story with a single high and several lows that carry varying degrees of disappointment.
The first scheduled show I missed was on New Year’s Day in 1978 at The Cleveland Agora. It was canceled due to The Pistols having visa issues and rescheduling the show fell through when the band broke up two weeks later. Nearly 20 years after that I did see the band on their Filthy Lucre Tour and it was amazing; winner, winner, chicken dinner.
In 2003, the band was scheduled to play with two of my favorites as openers; Dropkick Murphys and Reverend Horton Heat. I’m stoked and I had VIP tickets with my bestiest-punkiest-rockiest friend coming to town from five states away. Nooo...not again…cancelled! A tour was announced for 2025 but it was cancelled due to a broken hand by Steve Jones, are you kidding me? What’s a guy gotta do? I’m one for four and I’m not getting any younger.
It is now the end of 2026 and the band is touring the States and tickets are in hand (or on phone as the case may be) for an evening out with The Three Amigos. The Three Amigos consist of my oldest son, my son-in-law and myself. We don’t hook up as often as we would like due to families and work schedules but we make it count when we do.
There is one not so minor detail about this tour that’s worth mentioning, there’s no Johnny Rotten (John Lydon). I’m not going to rehash the animosity between band members but the bottom line is Frank Carter will be the vocalist. Frank Carter is best described as ultra-high energy and has fronted Gallows plus Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. Look, I would prefer Johnny but I’ll take Frank at this point. This show is most likely a final chapter type thing for me and I’ll take three original Pistols with just about any ole tattooed madman out front.
I tend to overthink details about concerts in the weeks and days leading up to a show. Things like road closures or where to park and the most common dilemma is what will I wear to the show. Please don’t laugh but I really do want to present myself in that certain special way. You know, a reserved yet passionate fan, knowledgeable with undercurrents of bat shit crazy. It was pretty much a no brainer for this show as I own a rarely used Sex Pistols bandana that I bought at the 1996 show. I had to fold it several different ways before I found the perfect positioning of ‘Sex Pistols’ across my head. I have the perfectly folded bandana on my head and a shirt from seeing The Dictators a couple years ago. My teenage grandkids got nothing on me, “nuthin’ ya hear”.
So, the first scheduled/cancelled show by The Pistols in Cleveland was at The Agora and here I am 48 years later inside The Agora. I’m not letting a detail like this Agora location being different than the 1978 location get in the way of irony…or maybe it’s super ironic because The Pistols have a different singer. Did I mention I overthink things?
Fun fact about the evening is that the Cleveland Browns are playing a few miles away and Steve Jones is doing the honorary coin toss before the game against the hated Pittsburgh Steelers. Soooo….we are in the Agora watching the opening band take the stage about the same time Steve is on national TV flipping a coin. Not sure when punk rock and football joined forces but it’s Cleveland so all is fair in love of rock ‘n’ roll.
Unfortunately, the three of us could not all ride together so my son and I will already be inside and my son-in-law will be arriving around showtime. My son and I take our place in line about thirty minutes before doors open. The Agora has several configurations for events but tonight it has a mosh pit below tiered areas which are general admission with no seating plus a balcony with both reserved seating and general admission. We were in the first wave to enter the venue and are on the first tier against the railing overlooking the pit. This is exactly where we wanted to be so the evening is all going as planned.
Minutes before Bad Nerves take the stage, I receive a text message from my son-in-law, ‘I’m here, where are you’. I reply, ‘First tier, stage right, white bandana, bring me a Busch Light’. Five minutes go by and Bad Nerves are now playing and my son-in-law has not found us. As Bad Nerves start their second song I can’t help but notice the activity in the pit. I then look at my son and point at the spectacle before us. We see my son-in-law in the middle of the pit moshing away while holding two cans of beer over his head. He appears beside us minutes later and hands me something I’ve never seen. An unopened can of beer that looks like it was in a car wreck with several dents and nearly folded over. I say unopened but there was foam coming out of the top where one of the impacts caused the top to break its’ seal. I regret not taking a picture of this.
I had medium to high expectations for Bad Nerves due to familiarizing myself with their material in the days leading up to the show. The band consists of five members fronted by Bobby Nerves and they have released two albums. The band had good energy but their sound was not ideal with the vocals not in front of the mix. They were OK but I expected slightly more.
The Pistols took the stage stomping through a thick sounding version of “Holiday In The Sun.” The crowd was all in and my son-in-law disappeared down the steps and back into the pit and this is the last time I mention him. The set covered every track from their album except “Submission”. Also included were cover songs the band performed back in the day; “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”, “No Fun” and “My Way”.
Highlights for me were many. The tribute or should I say mockery of the New York Dolls in the song “New York”. Frank taking to the pit for “Pretty Vacant” with the circle mosh going around him. I thoroughly enjoyed “My Way” with the song divided up into separate parts as with the Sid Vicious version. The first was mellow with the band just sitting in the back and then the second was more raucous. It barely resembled the version by Sid but it really was fun. The band never left the stage before playing their final song which was predictably “Anarchy In The UK”.
Frank did not try to imitate Johnny Rotten. He was his own man singing songs he loved. I appreciate that it didn’t come off as a tribute act. The band was tight and I really do think Steve Jones is an underrated guitar hero. However…as the final notes died...I was left with a feeling of just ‘Good’ and not ‘Great’ as I had hoped. The show met the minimum requirement for a rating of ‘Well Done’!
Sooo…the morning after included a couple fun items. My son-in-law texted me and told me his activity tracker recorded three miles of jogging in the mosh pit. The other is that Mrs. Buckeye and myself went to breakfast. That is not noteworthy in itself but we went to a restaurant that was a bar in a previous life. The very bar that I ended up at 30 years ago after seeing the Sex Pistols in 1996. How ironic!
A good overall experience and final chapter for me and The Sex Pistols.
