I highly recommend Cheating At Solitaire by Mike Ness. This album gives you exactly what Social Distortion is built upon. Stip away the punk overtones and Social Distortion has always had country, rockabilly, blues, and even some bluegrass running right below the surface.

THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES :metal:

That picture I posted above was taken on his solo tour back in 1999. He played at Juanita's in Little Rock, AR. That night changed my entire perspective of Mike Ness. I think I mentioned this here before, but I'll say it again. I went with a friend, Neil (also in the photo). Neil was born in Memphis, and basically raised as a racist by racists. He grew up hating blacks, Mexicans, Jews, etc. A typical southern racist. And he had tattoos to prove it. (I learned all this over the course of becoming great friends with him.) Then he joined the Air Force.

His first base was Little Rock, Arkansas, not too far from home, or that way of thinking. But it was far enough. Deep down, he was a good guy, with a good heart, and the Air Force, of course, enlists people of all colors and religions, as long as they're American citizens. This seriously messed with his head, because up until then he encountered very few people outside of that close-minded culture in which he was raised. He worked as a Combat Arms Trainer, so he was outside, way at the back end of the base, pretty much his entire shift every day. He was skinny, and the extreme heat of Arkansas often got to him and he'd find himself dehydrated. One day he collapsed in his dorm room from severe dehydration—luckily with his door open.

He was found by another cop walking down the hall. His name was Santiago, clearly not the name of a white guy. Santiago—whom we both became great friends with—called an ambulance, got Neil to the hospital, and even stayed there for a few hours until Neil woke up. They had never met previously, as Santiago was new to the base. When Neil found out his life had been saved by a Mexican, that seriously messed with his head. He was taught to hate this guy, and here Santiago was, a stranger, saving Neil's life. And he would have died, too, had his door not been open. No doubt about it; he would have died.

So that was basically the first thing that got Neil questioning his entire way of thinking about life and the people in it. And he struggled with it. It tormented him. Similar incidents happened, where he would simply encounter the kindness of another, a person he was raised to hate. All that pushed him closer to enlightenment, you could say. Then a short while later, Social Distortion, his favorite punk band, released White Light, White Heat, White Trash. The song "I Was Wrong," many of you know. This song was about Mike Ness's addictions and how he always blamed everyone else for his shortcomings and mistakes. But in reality, he was wrong, not someone else. This song was basically what finally made Neil shed his skin. He knew what the song meant to Mike Ness, but he turned the words into something positive for himself and finally admitted that he was simply wrong, the way he was raised was wrong. He then went through a process of getting his racist tattoos covered up, and you'd never know they had been there. He was a new man, basically. It was a dramatic and moving thing to watch. It taught me a lot.

A few years later, Ness rolled through town on his solo tour, and we of course didn't miss it. The best thing about the show: he played "I Was Wrong." It was one of the most powerful moments in my life. The best thing about the night, however, was after the show. We waited by the tour bus, but no one came out. We were the only people waiting. A female (his tour manager, I think) came out and told us that Mike was still inside, but he's pretty private and doesn't often meet with fans. That sucked because I was hoping Neil could meet him and thank him. So I walked back toward the door with the lady, pulled her aside, and sort of gave her a quick version of what I just said above. I think she understood that it would have meant a lot for my friend to just shake this guy's hand. A few minutes she came out and let us back in the club.

Not only did Mike meet with us, but he let us stay for over an hour. We all (about ten people) sat around chatting like old friends. Neil told his story. He had a hard time getting through it all, but everyone was patient and they were moved by it. You could just tell. Mike was appreciative; he even thanked us for being in the Air Force and serving the country and all that. Eventually everyone had to go, so we got up, shook hands with everyone, and snapped that photo above (we both have it blown-up and framed). As we got to the door, I turned around, walked back, shook Mike's hand one more time and said, "I just wanted to thank you again. You have no idea what you have done for him." And Mike replied, "Hopefully the same that he did for me." I thought that was pretty kick ass!

And that's my Mike Ness story. Some people say he's a dick; but I think he's the frickin' man.

Gonna see these guys tonight. They're the opening band for Pearl Jam. Don't like PJ, only going to see Social D. Hopefully they've got something new in the works. Been too long since their last album.

Social Distortion was good, but not great. I suppose it was 'casue they were just an opening act. Don't get me wrong, they sounded great, but the "show" was pretty bland. They came out, had very little stage banter, played the songs. I was hoping to hear something new from them, but it was not the case. The set-list was more-or-less a greatest hits thing. The oldest song they did was 'Mommy's Little Monster'.

The one highlight of their set was before they played the song 'Ball & Chain', Eddie Vedder and one of PJ's guitarists came out and played with the band. Eddie & Mike each took a verse of the song. Eddie sounded his usual over-emoting, warbling self. Kinda cool I guess, but I wasn't overly impressed. I don't like Eddie Vedder.