Concert Review: Public Image Ltd., This is Not the Last Tour, at Big Night Live - Boston, MA

The mood inside Big Night Live's cavernous space on October 3 was unexpected.

Public Image Ltd. can be dark, confrontational, and unsettling, but for much of the night the room seemed enraptured in joyfulness. John Lydon was unaffectedly engaged with the audience, encouraging responses, acknowledging the crowd and feeding off the energy coming back at him.

This is PiL’s first North American tour in eight years, with 44 shows across the US and Canada.

Plague Vendor opened the night with an aggressive, stripped-down garage punk, post-hardcore sound that got the crowd hyped. Their set was short, loud, and physical, setting a hard edge before PiL took the stage. The audience appreciated frontman Brandon Blain's Iggy Pop-esque kinetic theatrics. Plague Vendor and PiL were symbiotic, with Plague Vendor bringing raw energy and PiL channeling it in unexpected directions.

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Lydon is one of punk’s most distinctive figures, and seeing him live was striking. In Boston, it was clear how much he enjoyed being with his fans. The evening felt genuinely elated, with Lydon laughing at the early 7 PM start time, daring the crowd to be louder (“Boston isn't that what you're famous for”), and, of course, sarcasm calling the audience young people and saying he’s immune to insults because he’s an Irishman. He then shifts into a darker, slow-building anger (“Welcome to Hell!”) that seemed to gather in the music before finally finding release. At times, the back-and-forth between him and the audience felt unexpectedly warm. Tension, humor, frustration, and levity threaded through the performance.

The band played a set that drew on PiL's long history, with Lu Edmonds on guitar, Scott Firth on bass, and Mark Roberts on drums. Edmonds would emerge from the shadows from time to time in bursts of frenzied motion, stealing attention from Lyndon. The sound could be hypnotic one moment and punishing the next. That contrast stayed with me most. “Poptones” was dark and atmospheric, while “This Is Not a Love Song” and “Rise” drew some of the night’s biggest reactions. “Death Disco” carried heavy emotional weight, while “Open Up” (a Leftfield cover) pushed the room back toward release and movement.

The final song, a nearly 18-minute “Rise / Religion,” brought everything together in a satisfying conclusion. After more than forty years with Public Image Ltd., these songs carry a lot of history, yet in Boston they didn’t feel like history. They felt alive.

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Setlist:

Home

Know Now

World Destruction

This Is Not a Love Song

Poptones

Death Disco

Warrior

Shoom

Open Up

Encore:

Rise / Religion

Public Image Ltd. at Big Night Live felt like a conversation among Lydon, the band, and the audience, funny, awkward, joyful, and angry, with the music holding it all together.

I’ve followed PiL since high school, and finally seeing them decades later gave me a new appreciation for why their music has stayed with me. Beneath the cynicism and rejection of conformity lies a vulnerability and stubborn endurance that feel deeply human. After all these years, I understood a little better why I never stopped listening.