Public Image Limited Tickets

Really good show by PIL at the Opera House on Sunday night. Great set list featuring songs from 1978's Public Image through to the recent 'What the World Needs Now....' album. The band were really tight and the sound was great. Mr. Lydon's lyrics are still biting and angry....but his on stage persona tells a different story. He seemed to be actually enjoying himself........which was nice to see. Definitely worth the reasonable cost of tickets.

John was a bit of his usual self, but with the much more thankful self he has become. It's still jarring for me to see him as a middle-aged man thanking an audience... ;-) But don't let that mislead you: he's still opinionated as ever, as showing venom for issues that are important to him. I say this as a positive - and it's great to see it displayed at full throttle. Accompanying musicians were excellent, notably bass and guitar. Seasoned, high-quality playing that was tight when it needed to be. Sound board was on point as well, adjusting when needed; for the most part, a balanced evening.

John & his crew (absolute crack band with Lu Edmonds, Bruce Smith and Scott Firth) came into town armed with a new record in tow and tried to melt us down again for 2 hours at the Opera House. Started the evening with This Is Not A Love Song and the energy only went up from there. All the new tracks sounded great live. John seemed to be really enjoying himself (even with gargling after every song) and the band is very tight and sounded incredible. Please come back soon!!!

JL in great form. Older, wiser, smarter, but the voice still works. Stage presence is still there...shades of JR poking through

There are not enough superlatives to describe an evening spent with Lydon and associates. John continues to be an unstoppable force of nature, combining a sub-sonic powerhouse of sound with tear-your-heart,liver and eyeballs out of their sockets scathing lyrics. He has never been more relevant than he is today ... a stunning indictment of the political and religious soup we find ourselves in that passes for social progress. Go Johnny Go ... I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Excellent show...lots of energy and JL was at his best.

well, johnny & his crew landed into toronto & blew the roof of the phoenix last night. they played with encore for 2 hours. the band was super tight & sounded excellent. john was on fire, venomous, biting & just all 'round he usual self. i guess the toronto crowd didnt quite get going enough for mr.lydon so he called us a few names but in the end still loved us. having never see PiL before but did see the pistols a few years ago, i really enjoyed the show and will hopefully get to see them come back soon! just make sure you bring some earplugs as at one point, all of my clothes were vibrating from the bass.....

John Lydon is a remarkable person. He has fronted two of the most influential bands of the last 40 years and made great music. For me, the old PiL (up to Flowers of Romance) is absolutely brilliant while later stuff is totally throw-away and this show mixed the two, so I was alternately glued to the band and wandering around looking for something to do. The music from 2nd Edition is really quite incredible and it's great to see it played live ... the odd thing is seeing it played by a band of hired guns rather than the originals. I don't think the Lydon of the early 80's would have even considered such an idea feasible, but he has always found ways to keep relevant. These guys are great players and it's wonderful to hear the songs, but it's all maybe a little too perfect for my tastes. All Lydon things have been about unpredictability and the Wobbe/Levene PiL was a band ready to fly apart at any moment ... not this band. They will play their set perfectly and, other than Lydon, without attitude. Lydon, on the other hand, does a heck of a job of convincing the crowd that he's still "on the leading edge" ... which is weird. He's doing the nostalgia circuit (another thing I doubt that he wants to admit), but demanding the respect of an innovator. He did manage to get a big crowd (pretty much sold out) of 50 year olds to yell "anger is an energy" over and over again ... I think a lot of them were probably actually thinking "it's past my bed time and you haven't innovated since I was 20". But he's a commanding presence. If you never seen PiL, by all means experience it. If you saw them "back in the day" you need to be warned that this show will make you think a lot ... how long after the fact can you claim to be an innovator, and how much can you demand of the fans when you're doing the nostalgia circuit?

It's hard to repeat the state of mind of both audience and artist. Public Image Limited was a reaction to what was going on in the music scene in the early 80's and was short lived (21/2 years). His (John Lydon) attempts to get audience participation was relentless last night and I felt bad for him. He must know it's all about the songs, even though I was only there to see him. The highlights were This is Not a Love Song, Rise and Public Image. The three songs that had some commercial success for PiL. All in all three great musicians and one of the all-time greatest front men who "hates all religion".

This show was incredible! Saw PiL in 1992 and was impressed then, but this show and line up of musicians was truly impressive. Lydons voice was in top form, musicianship was awesome, and song selection was truly surprising, even better that it coincided with a booked trip to L.A., well worth the trip from Vancouver.