For one
reason (finances) or another (finances) I've never made the
pilgrimage to the big smoke to see Social Distortion.
Their
star and mine have never aligned in the heavens, and very often I
thought that they would be one of those bands on my 'I really gotta
see them' list that I wouldn't.
So when
they announced their very first date in Scotland I was all over it.
Tickets
were secured and the waiting game was played.
In the
run up to it friends from all over the UK caught them playing at the
Rebellion festival and the universal opinion was that their
performance was drab, slow and misguided.
I'll
admit that it was the last thing I wanted to hear.
I'd
waited a very long time to see these guys, and a substandard show
wasn't something that I was wanting to contemplate.
On the
day itself there was a bit of a buzz, but not a lot as the ghost of
the Rebellion performance seemed to loom large and cast a depressive
dark shadow over everything.
Thankfully
it didn't manage to get past the doors of the Garage though, and
inside the venue the excitement was palpable.
Chris
Devotion and The Expectations were up first and ran through much of
the many highlights of there debut album 'Amalgamation and Capital'
to great effect.
To call
them a support band does them a real disservice.
Instead
they're a headliner looking for a larger stage and an audience.
I suspect
that they wont be waiting long.
They
certainly have the songs, musical ability and attitude to turn
peoples heads.
In parts
they're echoing the Phil Spector girl band sound as filtered through
the Ramones, but with better backing vocals than 'Da Brudders', and
at others they're kicking the shit of of a Woody Guthrie cover.
Their
whole set is on fire from start to finish.
For an
opening act they set the bar very high and I could easily imagine
Dave Hause standing in the wings asking himself how he could follow
such a performance.
Not that
Dave Hause would really have been fazed as he's been treading the
boards for a while now. He knows the score and has paid his dues over
and over.
It takes
balls to stand on a large stage alone with only an acoustic between
you and an audience.
There's
no band mates to lean on, and no one to carry you.
It's raw
and exposed, but Dave has it nailed down.
Like a
few others who are rooted in a punk background, but have moved into
acoustic blue collar rock, or country, he has an impassioned approach
to his material.
It's
people like him who are playing what could be described as 'the real
deal'.
There's
no rock by numbers aspect to it and no attempt to dilute the punk
angle on the music.
While
some are happy to push punk into a uniformed ghetto it's Dave Hause,
Cory Branan and the like who are displaying the real punk ethos of
doing what they want and disallowing anyone to limit how they express
themselves.
It works
to great effect as well.
Everything
sounds alive. The veins in his neck are popping and he pushes the
lyrics hard.
The
audience lap it up.
Especially
when he sings his Loved Ones track 'Jane' with the audience screaming
back 'alright, alright'.
It's one
of those defining moments when everything clicks into place and
everything does actually feel 'alright' with the world.
I was in
two minds about going to see the Gaslight Anthem later on in the
year, but Dave might have swayed me as I'm told he's on the bill to.
Then
there was the moment that everyone had been waiting for.
From
where I'm standing I can see Mike Ness shaking his arms out like a
boxer at the side of the stage, then he's ducking and diving a bit,
shadow boxing and throwing punches.
He's was
looking good.
Like he
had stepped from the set of Angels With Dirty Faces.
As The
Beastie Boys regale us with No Sleep til Brooklyn Social Distortion
walk onto the stage and it's all business.
I'd
previously said that if they didn't play 'I Was Wrong' I would be
immensely displeased, but it's the first song of the set and
immediately every nagging doubt that the band would fail to deliver
vanished in seconds.
They were
on fire, and so was the Glasgow crowd.
It not
long into the set before you could see Mike Ness visibly relax.
Maybe
he'd read some of the negative press about Blackpool and was just a
little concerned about another gig that was out of the bands comfort
zone that is London.
He
needn't have been.
By
bringing his A game its a legendary comeback for the band.
While
some of the Rebellion faithful claimed they had seen a band on the
ropes here was one shaking the lead from their tired legs and going
for the knock-out to silence their critics.
The may
as well opened by bellowing that tonight no prisoners will be taken.
The
effort they put into the show is returned in kind, and all around me
voices are raised as they sing along, and it looks like a mile wide
smile is tattooed on the face of virtually everyone in attendance.
It's a
best of set with a few songs thrown in from the latest album and it's
lapped up greedily.
There's
very little showbiz flash.
It's
really just nose to the grindstone rock and roll. Dirt under the
fingernails stuff.
Halfway
through the night Mike Ness is drenched in sweat and you can see it
dripping from his elbows and splashing onto the stage.
The
energy he was exerting could have powered a small town.
It's to
the bands credit that they not only made it to the end of the night
without collapsing, but returned to deliver the coupe de grace that
was Folsom Prison Blues and Ring OF Fire.
In my
head I have an image of them all sitting backstage in the aftermath
of the show and Mike asking someone to get in contact with their
manager and ask why the fuck no one told him about his Scottish fans.
I would
be surprised if the miss us out on any subsequent European tours.
