Social Distortion

live in Indianapolis (2015)

Octopie

I’m somewhat of a late bloomer when it comes to Social D. When the video for “I Was Wrong” debuted on 120 Minutes, I’d never heard anything by them (or at least didn’t know I had.) But I loved the song, and, despite the album’s complicated reputation, I went on to love White Light, White Heat, White Trash. Since then, I’ve loved Sex, Love, & Rock ‘n Roll, liked Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes and Mike’s solo albums, and obviously realized that I’d been hearing all the singles from their first three LP’s bouncing around the radio for years. But anytime the band was anywhere near me (and to their credit, that’s been every couple years), there was no way in hell I could make it. Seeing them in Indianapolis was a culmination of almost 20 years of wanting to catch them live.

It came with two big caveats, though. One, it was in the Egyptian Room, a notorious Indianapolis venue for big-not-huge bands, that is basically a giant carpeted box, with decent sound but an obnoxiously low-sitting stage. Also, as I just picked up a discounted ticket at a Sturgill Simpson show, I didn’t realize it was a full-album anniversary show for the self-titled. While I love that whole disc, and I see the value in album anniversary shows like this one, the idea of those shows always seemed kind of awkward and unnatural to me.

But the D were up to challenge of making it a memorable experience. While “So Far Away” and “Let It Be Me” were marred by tech issues, especially Mike’s mic, the band muscled through, and the general pace of the songs got things moving. (Well, not the audience. Other than a little crowd-surfing and bouncing around, it was pretty much a “sing along intensely with a beer in your hand” kind of crowd.) They found their stride moving into the hits-packed middle of the album, generating massive crowd sing-alongs through “Story of My Life,” “Sick Boys,” “Ball and Chain,” and “It Coulda Been Me.” “It Could Been Me” in particular sounded massive. Mike’s banter was standard “let’s have a good time in the midst of our hard lives” stuff, but he still seemed pretty steadfast and charming. Props for expanding out some of the instrumental parts of the hits in a way to make them feel even bigger without getting lost in boring jams. Of course, with all the meat in the middle, it seemed like there was a severe danger of the crowd response dying out at the end. It did a bit, but their performance of “She’s a Knockout” was fierce and kept most of the crowd shouting along. “A Place in My Heart” was solid, and they turned “Drug Train” into a sprawling, epic conclusion to the album portion of the show.

The second half of the set was… odd. After “Drug Train,” the band went into a down-tempo jam as Mike said he needed to give his voice some time to rest. The remaining set, well, I don’t think it’s anything anyone would have predicted. And definitely not the greatest-hits set that often follows full-album shows. They moved into a solid rendition of “Cold Feelings” before bringing the pace way down for a cover of “Wild Horses” - a song I actually dig, but neither the band not Mike’s voice seemed up to exploring the nooks and crannies of it in a way necessary to make it interesting. (It also generated a weirdly bullshit applause from the audience, who cheered heartily for it after everyone in that damn room talked through the entire song.) They did their cover of Hank’s “Alone and Forsaken,” and “This Time Darlin,’” which fit so well with the tone being established that you would have thought it was a classic country cover. Then they promised to pick the pace up for the finale and did… “Gimme the Sweet & Lowdown” off Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes. Huh? At least the encore of “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Ring of Fire” ended the night with some gusto. Not to say the tunes proceeding them were bad. In fact, I dig the idea of seeing a surprising, non-traditional set of covers and deep cuts to get a little something different. But man, did it kill the momentum.

So if you haven’t seen Social D yet, and you’re looking for the career retrospective, this isn’t the tour to hit. As someone who mainly listens to, other than the self-titled, WLWHWT and SLaRnR, it definitely threw me for a loop. But if you want to see all those masterpieces from Social Distortion played with a surprising amount of impact, and you’re down for a slower second set that feels borderline like a solo Mike Ness show at times, you couldn’t ask for more.