The more things change, the more Social Distortion stays the same. At least that’s the impression the band left last night at House of Blues for the first of two sold out shows. While singer-guitarist Mike Ness might have exchanged his wifebeater for a baggy suit and fedora that made him look like some kind of tattooed gangster, he still snarls with the best of them. He sounded particularly good on “I Was Wrong,” the confessional tune that the band played at the opening of the 90-minute show. While he had to have the song’s lyrics on stage with him just in case he forgot the words, Ness had no trouble delivering the song in all its ragged glory. The same went for “So Far Away” and “Bad Luck,” the next two songs he and his three piece band ripped through.
This article appears in Oct 17-23, 2012.
