Awesome / Public Image Ltd.

• PiL's 1980 appearance on American Bandstand to promote Second Edition. The very fact that this defiantly anti-mainstream band actually got on the show to play their Avant-Garde Music is a Moment of Awesome in itself, but their anarchic antics made things even better. During the first song ("Poptones"), John Lydon begins grabbing random people out of the seated audience, inviting them to dance on stage while he capers around. By the second and final song ("Careering"), Johnny gets the entire audience to leave their seats, filling the stage with people dancing and having fun. The group abandons any pretense of lip syncing; John and guitarist Keith Levene start dancing together, while drummer Martyn Atkins plays snare-like fills on his kit. All this happens while two of PiL's most foreboding songs play over the speakers. An unforgettable performance.

---