Social Distortion Sex, Love & Rock N' Roll Tour Ventura Theatre, Ventura, CA Aug. 22 Social Distortion has always been one of my favorite bands since I heard one of their songs when I was 16 years old. Unfortunately I am from Germany and they have not been touring Europe for a couple of years now so I had never had the chance to see them live. But since I am in Huntington Beach for some months now anyway to get our skateboard company started I persuaded Frank to drive all the way to Ventura on a beautiful Sunday morning so I could eventually see my favorite band live. When we arrived in Ventura I had to realize that I was not the only one who had traveled a long way to see them. The guys in the line behind us were from the UK and inside we met up with Bertha and her boyfriend who came all the way from Mexico for the show. Social D, if you read this: You should really think about touring outside the US. The whole world is waiting for you to come on tour! The Ventura theatre was completely sold out. Thousands of Mike Ness and Betty Page doubles were waiting for their heroes to enter the stage. But first we had the pleasure to watch the fabulous Against Me! from Gainesville, FL. How come that a lot of amazing bands such as Hot Water Music come from Gainesville?! There must be really a nice punk scene in the Sunshine State. Anyway, Against Me! did a great live show and the audience really appreciated their political lyrics and their minimalist use of sound and show effects. It was good to see a band like that there as a lot of people who listen to Social D probably never listen to bands like Against Me, Rise Against or Hot Water Music. This must have hit some people like a hammer on the head. I like that! After a long break Social Distortion finally entered the stage. And lucky me managed it to get a place in the first row so I would not miss one second of the show. This was their first show without John Maurer who got replaced by Rancid’s Matt Freeman. Freeman did not move around much during the show and I think that he was a little afraid of the reaction of the audience as John has been a part of Social D for so long and is therefor a living legend himself and it’s hard to take his place. But Matt did a good job and most of the people associate Social D only with Mike Ness anyway. Mike Ness was rocking hard and the crowd went wild. This whole show was a constant exchange of energy from both sides. The harder they rocked the louder the crowd screamed. They opened their set with songs from Between Heaven And Hell, then came a couple of songs from Mommy’s Little Monster and after that 4 or 5 new songs from the Sex, Love And Rock’N’Roll album that will be released on Sep 28. Some of the new songs are pretty slow such as Footprints On My Ceiling and Angel Wings but these songs link perfectly to When The Angels Sing on White Light, White Heat, White Trash. Social D are simply carrying on what they started with that legendary record. They also played a couple of fast songs such as Reach For The Sky that also links perfectly to the fast punk tracks on White Light, White Heat, White Trash. One of the new songs is called Don’t Take Me For Granted and was written in the memory of Dennis Danell. All in all: The new songs are KILLER! I was not sure if they were able to maintain the high level of a hit after hit record like White Heat (…) but they definitely were! I can’t wait to listen to their new record! After that set of new songs they played the absolutely fantastic Rolling Stones’ cover Under My Thumb (with piano intro). This is probably still my favorite song simply because the Stones’ version is really lame and it’s impressive what Social D did with that song. Then Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire followed and after that some of their classics such as Ball And Chain. Ness used the time between the songs to speak his mind about G.W. Bush. He hates him with a passion. Maybe Mike should think about touring with Anti-Flag one day. He also took the opportunity to get his two boys and their friend Cookie on stage. Quite hard to believe that bad ass Mike Ness finally became a nice family man… whatever…After that they left the stage and returned with an encore of two songs. The last song was Story Of My Life. The crowd sang louder than the band, which is always a good sign. I left the show with some bruises and a big smile on my face. This was definitely one of the best live shows I have ever seen and I am really glad that I was able to see them at least once in my life as it is pretty unlikely that they will ever come on tour in Germany again. Thanks to Cool Boy Frank and Kelly of the Marketing Factory!!! I tried to remember their set list but I am not 100% sure if the songs are in the right order: Cold Feelings, Making Believe, When She Begins To Rock, Born To Lose, Mommy’s Little Monster, Sick Boy, The Creeps, a lot of new songs (4-5) Don’t Take Me For Granted, Reach The Sky, Footprints On My Ceiling, Angel Wings, Under My Thumb (with piano intro), Ring Of Fire, Don’t Drag Me Down, Ball And Chain,… Encore: 2 songs, last song was Story Of My Life -Sabine Schenk Check out their site for up to date tour info: www.socialdistortion.com photos by Frank