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I was rewatching “Another State Of Mind” last week and my how time flies. The “rockumentary” chronicling the Better Youth Organization’s 1982 (Youth Brigade, Social Distortion) North American Tour seems as if it was another world: DIY shows, no labels, desperate kids and no parental approval. The kids going to these shows weren’t stopping off at Hot Topic to pick up the latest punk wear, they were sneaking out of the house and hoping their folks hadn‘t thrown away their clothes.
To see Social Distortion and the young Mike Ness (sans tattoos) explaining why he wears eye-liner is truly a glimpse into a different world. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing.
Well, it’s almost thirty years later and Social Distortion is still hanging in there. The band has certainly seen their share of troubles with Ness spending some time in the mid 80’s as a “guest of the county” due to various drug troubles and guitar player Dennis Dannel dying from a stroke in 2000.
In that span, Mike Ness has embraced American Music to the point where he’s covered Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. With his well inked body, Ness comes across now as a real outlaw musician, in the vein of Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. Ness might be the closest thing to a punk rock Bruce Springsteen that we have.
In the early 80’s Social D were on the short list of great Punk bands with their classic debut album Mommy’s Little Monster (in 1982) as well as singles such as “1945”, “Telling Them” and “Playpen”. Over 5 years later (thanks to Ness’s well documented troubles staying clean), Ness and his bandmates came out with Prison Bound – a distinct departure away from their earlier grinding old school punk sound. Prison Bound featured what might be termed as “Modern Americana”. The music had more of a rockin’ blues and nearly a country western approach, a sound that has since defined the band.
The nineties brought success to the band as they signed with a major label and released the albums Social Distortion, Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell and White Light, White Heat, White Trash.
These albums brought a sort of mainstream success to the band. Ness’s nasal twang vocals on such tunes as “I Was Wrong”, “Ball And Chain”, “Where The Angels Sing”, “Story Of My Life” and a cover of Cash’s “Ring Of Fire” have all made their way into conventional rock radio rotations.
Social Distortion has been on tour this summer. What I saw August 3rd was a gen-u-wine punk rock legend in front of a packed house (packed to the point of oversold). Considering a good number of the folks present weren’t even born when Mommy’s Little Monster came out, it was cool to see the crowd singing along to everything. Opening with the as yet unreleased “Road Zombie”, Ness and his band were rocking relentlessly through their no frills 90 minute set. Social D hit all phases of their career, including an “oldies block” halfway thru the set of “The Creeps”, “Another State Of Mind” and “Mommy’s Little Monster”.
Generally, Social D’s songs have had a real American “down on my luck” lyrical bent, and Ness’s songs could have come out of the Depression (the first one). “Bad Luck”, “Prison Bound”, “Ball And Chain” (all played at the show) could have originally been done by Hank Williams; or for that matter the fictional Tom Joad.
There’s a dust bowl reality to Ness that is at odds with his southern California origins. Prison and drug addiction will do that to ya. Almost all of Social D’s songs come off as autobiographical. A typical lyric (from “Nickels And Dimes”):
“I’m a loaded gun that pointed at the mirror
A drugstore cowboy whose end is near, yeah baby
I’m a big time schemer with broken down dreams
I’m a derelict rebel without a cause
I ain’t the cat with the sharpest claws, no baby
Cause sometimes life just ain’t what it seems.”
Ness introduced “Ball And Chain” as being “a hard luck luck story”. Guess what Mike… they’re ALL hard luck story’s! There are rumors that Social D has selected the title for their new album and hope to have it out later this year. We’ll see about that.
Opening the show was San Francisco’s The Action Design, three nice boys (and girl) who pop punked the joint for an entertaining and engaging set. They had all the right moves and have the right package to fit very comfortably on the next Warped Tour. Their sound certainly appealed to the third generation (or fourth generation) punks at the show, as lead singer Emily Whitehurst (formerly of Tsunami Bomb) has all the right coquettish moves. Plus she can actually sing! They’re professional (not quite slick, but definitely confident in their abilities) and ready for their star turn. They have a new release “Desperation” b/w “Still Standing” that’s got a real chance to hit that Paramore demographic. Hey, they even have their own on-line TV show (http://www.theactiondesign.com/tv/). Good clean fun!
