MIKE NESS & SOCIAL DISTORTION: PUNK ROCK'S SONIC SURVIVORS STILL GAMBLIN' WITH SOULS SINCE '79

live at the Roxy
1998

674 Miles To Go

Aging isn't easy or graceful in rock 'n' roll.

It's an even tougher trick for punk bands since acoustic sets and blues renditions of old favorites really don't fly in the mosh pit.

Social Distortion and Mike Ness are the middle-aged exceptions who continue to rule the road that most of their compatriots have long since abandoned.

Founded while Ness and the late Dennis Dannell were in high school in Southern California, the Social Distortion formula is equal parts Ramones, The Clash, Johnny Cash and Rolling Stones.

"Throughout the years, Social Distortion has tried to defy certain stereotypes of punk music," Ness writes in the live at the Roxy liner notes, "and we've brought elements of roots rock and roll to punk.

"Punk music is class music like blues or country; it's music that exposes the soul."

There is an undeniable sonic similarity to almost all of the material, but Ness' songwriting prevents parody, self-inflicted or otherwise, from settling in.

His tales of " junkies, winos, pimps and whores" still maintain their edge. Ness' personal struggles with drug addiction make their realities even sharper.

A song such as Mommy's Little Monster rages just as relevantly three decades after its debut without a hint of manufactured nostalgia.

live at the Roxy is Social Distortion's greatest hits package in its preferred setting -  on stage in front of an audience.

It ranks in my personal Top Five favorite live albums along with the Ramones' It's Alive, the Stone's Get Your Ya-Ya's Out, Bruce Springsteen's Live 1975-85 and Warren Zevon's Stand In The Fire.

The set list leads with their biggest hit - Story of My Life - and roars to "11" from there, never once slowing down in the 17 songs spanning each of their releases to that point.

Bad Luck, Prison Bound, Mommy's Little Monster, Mass Hysteria, The Creeps, Another State Of Mind, Let It Be Me and No Pain, No Gain follow.

"You guys want to hear a happy song?" Ness asks mid-concert before ripping into Cold Feelings. "I'm sorry homey; we don't do no happy songs."

In a continued staple of their shows, Social Distortion torches through snarling covers of the Stones' Under My Thumb and Cash's Ring Of Fire that pay tribute while also burning their "SD" brand into both classics.

The other songs included are Telling Them, I Was Wrong, 1945 (written from Ness' high school history class), Don't Drag Me Down, and Ball & Chain, another Social D. mainstay made even better by being live.

"Ball & Chain is a folk prayer," Ness writes. "When you've gotten to a point so far beyond what you thought you were capable of and you can't take it anymore and you have to surrender.

"It's asking God to take me out of this hell and point me in a new way. I wrote this song in 1988, three years after I cleaned up. Everything that had happened to me, facing a prison term, nearly dying twice a week, and the unbearable loneliness were all still fresh in my mind."

Ness comments on each of the songs on live at the Roxy in its liner notes to add to its overall appeal.

There's only one missing link on the album and Ness acknowledges it with "we're very sorry that we forgot Sick Boy."

Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll
2004

Set List for May 26, 2005
Show at PromoWest Pavilion
Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll Tour

The band went on a hiatus after live at the Roxy. Ness released two solo albums in 1999, Under The Influences and Cheating At Solitaire. In 2000, Dannell died suddenly at age 38.

Eight years after 1996's White Light, White Heat, White Trash, Ness and the Dannell-less Social Distortion came back with its first album of new material - Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll - in late September 2004.

Dedicated to Dannell, Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll is seasoned punk rock for the parents who grew up with Social Distortion and an appropriate introduction for the next generation.

The Sick Boys and Sick Girls are all grown, in love and "looking nice dressed up on a Saturday night."

They're also sporting a few decades of wear and the realizations of being an adult whether they want to be or not.

"When I was young I was invincible/I found myself not thinking twice/I never thought about no future/It's just a roll of the dice," Ness reflects on Reach For The Sky.

Call it a mid-life crisis prescription taken with the multi-guitar attack that's expected from Social Distortion. It's heavy riffs against heady issues like faith, love and redemption. 

"Are you happy now with all choices you've made?/Are there times in life when you know you should have stayed?/Will you compromise and then realize the price is too much to pay?," Ness asks. "Winners and losers, which one will you be today?"

Crank through a dose of Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll and call me in the morning.

Licorice Pizza Notes: One of the "lullabies" I used to sing to my daughter was Ball & Chain. After all, she was too young to understand all that's connected to "a broken nose and a broken heart, an empty bottle of gin."

A favorite parenting moment came after elementary school one day when she said dejectedly, "Daddy, the other kids don't like the same music I do."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Today, they asked us who our favorite bands were and most of the kids said stuff like Britney Spears and Spice Girls," she replied.

"I told them I liked old school punk and Johnny Cash country and they just looked at me funny."

I couldn't have been prouder.

 live at the Roxy Song For The Soundtrack: Ball & Chain

Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll Song For The Soundtrack: Live Before You Die 

Running Data For Saturday, May 4 (Capital City Half Marathon):
13.22 Miles
2:08:46

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.95 Miles