Frank Carter made one thing very clear at the Sex Pistols’ Denver show: when he says the mosh pit is for women only, he means it.
During the band’s show at the Ogden Theatre (10/9), Carter stopped to confront a male fan who apparently entered a women-only pit. When the man appeared to argue that women could mosh whenever they wanted, Carter fired back that it was not his lived experience and eventually told him to leave.
The idea did not begin with Carter. One of its clearest ancestors arrived more than 30 years ago with Bikini Kill. In the early ’90s, Kathleen Hanna began calling “girls to the front,” asking men to make room so women could occupy the space nearest the stage. The point was both visibility and safety in a punk scene where the front of the room and the pit were overwhelmingly male.
Hanna later explained that she did not want guys moshing in front because they blocked girls from seeing women play instruments. Bikini Kill also handed out flyers asking girls and women to stand near the stage, while men were encouraged to move to the sides or back. The phrase became one of riot grrrl’s most durable ideas, though Hanna has since said she no longer uses it literally at shows because crowds and ideas about gender have changed.
That is different from saying there has ever been a universal rule that women get their own mosh pit. There hasn’t. What developed instead was an artist-created tradition: a band or singer temporarily creates a women-only or women-and-nonbinary space inside an otherwise mixed crowd, and everyone else is expected to respect it.
Carter has been doing exactly that for years. At Reading Festival in 2022, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes stopped before “Wild Flowers” so Carter could open a pit for women and non-binary fans, telling men to move to the edge and hold their male friends accountable. It became one of the most recognizable crowd rituals at Rattlesnakes shows.
He has brought the tradition with him to the Sex Pistols. Carter is currently fronting original guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock, a lineup that first came together for a run of 2024 benefit shows at London’s Bush Hall. Those dates worked well enough that the experiment turned into an ongoing touring version of the band.
The current 50 Years of Punk run has the group playing Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols along with additional material. John Lydon is not involved. Carter is not trying to recreate Johnny Rotten’s performance style, either; he spends much of the show treating the audience as part of the performance, climbing into crowds, directing pits and pushing the room into motion.
That made the Denver exchange less of an isolated stunt than an extension of how Carter has been running his shows for years. If he designates a pit for women for one song, the arrangement only works if the rest of the crowd gives them the space.
The North American leg continues tonight in Salt Lake City before heading down the West Coast and ending at the Hollywood Palladium. The Sex Pistols then return to the U.K. in December for the Anarchy in the U.K. Tour — Celebrating 50 Years of Punk.
10/10 The Union Event Center, Salt Lake City, UT
10/12 Showbox SoDo, Seattle, WA
10/14 The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
10/16 SOMA, San Diego, CA
10/17 Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ
10/18 Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA
12/4 O2 Academy Leeds, Leeds, England
12/5 O2 City Hall Newcastle, Newcastle, England
12/9 Edinburgh Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, Scotland
12/10 O2 Academy Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland
12/14 O2 Academy Birmingham, Birmingham, England
12/15 Portsmouth Guildhall, Portsmouth, England
12/16 The Prospect Building, Bristol, England
12/18 O2 Academy Brixton, London, England
12/20 Eventim Apollo, London, England