The Sex Pistols are booked into Emo’s on September 12 — not Lydon’s version, not the complete original lineup, but Jones, Cook, and Matlock with Frank Carter stepping in as frontman for a 50th anniversary run through Never Mind The Bollocks. At 1,700 capacity, Emo’s is the right room: big enough to absorb the name, contained enough that nobody has to pretend this is a shed event.
About Sex Pistols
The full billing is “Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter” — a distinction worth sitting with. Steve Jones (guitar), Paul Cook (drums), and Glen Matlock (bass) are all present. John Lydon is not, and he’s filed his dissent on the record: “They’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose.” Carter steps in as frontman; however you land on the casting, the three-fifths of the original lineup onstage is a real thing.
Getting here wasn’t clean. The 2025 run was cancelled before a single North or South American show when Jones broke his wrist in September — the whole tour scrubbed before it started. His own update on the recovery: “I think it’s good enough to do the upcoming tour. Now if I can just stop my legs from buckling up, I think I’ll be in good shape.” Paul Cook, characteristically less tortured about it: “We’ve had a blast. People want to come and see us play live. If I must say so myself, we are a great live band.”
Each night of the rescheduled 21-city run features a complete performance of Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols — the 1977 debut that hit British rock like a short circuit — plus additional material from the catalog. Austin is stop two, the night after the Dallas Longhorn Ballroom opener, a venue that carries its own weight from an infamous 1978 Pistols show.
About Emo’s Austin
Emo’s at 2015 E Riverside Drive is a 1,700-capacity room in Austin that handles punk, rock, and hard rock touring acts as well as any venue in the city. For a band navigating a politically loaded reunion — three original members, a replacement vocalist, a founding frontman publicly opposing the whole enterprise — booking a club instead of an arena keeps the stakes honest. This isn’t a nostalgia sheds run. It’s a working-room show, and Emo’s is built for it.
Tickets & Show Info
Panic Shack opens. Showtime is 7:30 PM; Pre-Doors Patio Access is available from 6:30 PM (a separate add-on, not the concert ticket itself). Tickets purchased for the original 2025 postponed dates will be honored at this show. Get tickets via the link below.