Living in Los Angeles for four years now and never attending a show at the House of Blues has to be some sick twist of fate. While scanning the L.A. Weekly a couple of months ago, I decided to put an end to this long-overdue visit to the venue by picking up a few tickets to the Lee Rocker / Social Distortion show on 12-30-07. I saw Lee Rocker about nine years ago in Portland at a small place after being turned on to him by a good friend, but I have never seen a full length Social D show. Before last night, I only had the pleasure of catching a brief part of their set at Street Scene a couple years ago. I went with few expectations knowing this was only the second night of their annual west coast tour that is primarily focused on L.A., Anaheim, San Francisco and San Diego.
We worked our way through the tight security at about 8:30pm to get inside to a packed house. I knew the show was sold out which is usually the case for Social D’s winter west coast swing, but I didn’t expect so many people to be in the venue that early for Lee Rocker’s set. Lee hit the stage promptly at 9pm and proceeded to tear through several new tracks off of this year’s Black Cat Bone including “Crazy When She Drinks,” “The Wall of Death” and the title track. I had been expecting Lee to dive into some of his earlier material off of No Cats, but he opted for a couple Stray Cats tunes, “Stray Cat Strut” and a re-worked version of “Rock This Town.” This wasn’t a real shocker considering he is Stray Cat’s bass player and a driving creative force for some of that band’s most popular material. Personally, I would have preferred to hear “Miracle in Memphis,” “Rumblin’ Base” or “Little Piece of Your Love” mixed in. A hot version of “Please Don’t Touch” would have to do which rounded out a very tight and polished set.
After Lee’s set I felt the need to crank it up a notch with a couple belts of Jagermeister with Heineken chasers. I thought the bar would be a mob scene, but it was easily accessible even with the show being a sold-out event. I was actually pretty impressed overall with HOB—the only exception being visual obstructions in the layout. The only clear shot of the stage was from the floor which was completely packed. With the buzz setting in, we picked a spot that was stage left behind the VIP section. It had a fairly clear view of everything so we could people watch and pick out what neck tattoos were our favorites while we waited for the legend from Orange County.
Mike Ness strolled on stage shortly after 10pm wearing a very countrified outfit and tossing roses out to the audience under the cool blue light. If I didn’t know better, I would have though I was watching a scene from Walk The Line. Ness picked up an acoustic guitar and did a mini set reminiscent of the 90s MTV series Unplugged, strumming through “Cold Feelings,” “Ball and Chain” and closing it out with “Reach for the Sky.” The entire band got in on the Unplugged act with Brent Harding (bass player) sporting a stand up bass and Danny McGough (keyboards) playing accordion to deliver these three re-worked crowd favorites. The next order of the evening was a straight up set of ass kicking rock that mixed old, new and covers. “King of Fools” off of 1992’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell kicked off the rock set that was followed up by “Six More Miles” and a gassed up version of the Rolling Stone’s “Under My Thumb.” On the newer side, Ness cut into “Can’t Take It with You,” which is expected to be included on their new release due sometime in 08, with a very positive backing from the crowd. To bring the house down, the final part of the set was a hot list of Social D favorites including “Down on the World Again,” “Mommy’s Little Monster,” “Sick Boys,” “Prison Bound” closing with a blistering cover of “Ring of Fire.” Pouring over my notes from the show last night made me realize that even though I didn’t have expectations for this show, Mike Ness certainly had one and that was to deliver the goods to his hardcore, loyal fan base in L.A.
More on Social Distortion here: www.socialdistortion.com
More on Lee Rocker here: www.leerocker.com
