1 post tagged “mike ness”
Social D has been around in one form or another since 1978. Mike Ness, the owner of the SD name and legacy is a survivor. Check the band's Wikipedia entry and you'll learn that he stopped killing himself with drugs in '85. I can't say if he's all the way sober or not. But a 44-year-old guy can't keep the touring pace that he's doing and still be wreaking himself.
They were a part of the LA punk scene although they are rarely memorialized in the punk coffee table books. Perhaps their music is too mainstream rock and roll. They never get radio airplay but then what worthwhile band does these days.
Part of my fandom comes from the fact that their last record released in 2003, "Sex, Love and Rock n Roll", is a tremendous record as good as or better than the original songs from the 80's. Part of it comes from a good band lineup. Jonny "Two Bags" Wickersham is a lot of fun to watch in his loosy, loping guitar playing. The other guys are great too. When I saw Bob Dylan for the first time last year, it was the tightness of his band that really impressed me.
But ultimately it's the ritual of the show - Mike Ness, turning the lights on the audience, "you're a handsome audience"; the same windup into The Story of My Life; and lately, his slamming of the Strokes. And then the fans, themselves singing the words to most of the songs save for "Bakersfield" which is new-ish. There are multigenerations in the audience - old guys like me; thirty-somethings seemingly trying to capture the first go-round of the band, and youngsters, yes, I said youngsters, who connect with the autrhentic disaffection from the original songs and the surrender to love in the recent songs.
I have seen 4 shows over the past 2 years. This past weekend was Baltimore at Sonar. The performance was great although I detected some exhaustion on Mike Ness' part. The sound mix was the worst I have ever heard. I am spoiled though as the first time I saw them was in the brand new Nokia Theater in NYC where the acoustics and sound were the best I have ever heard. In the Baltimore show, the moment for me was after they played "Bakersfield" which I am beginning to like a lot, there was a lull where Mike did some chatter with the audience. And then he did that head-snap thing and roared into "Nickles and Dimes." Tremendous. I will probably see more shows. I am a fan.
