Social Distortion roars through Hollywood homecoming at the Palladium

Social Distortion was born in Orange County in 1978, but as its founder Mike Ness reminded the sold-out crowd inside the Hollywood Palladium on Thursday, Oct. 1, it quickly found a second home in the now-gentrified neighborhoods outside the venue.

“Social Distortion cut their teeth in Hollywood,” the singer-guitarist said halfway through the first of two nights at the Palladium. “Just underage kids hanging out in the clubs and bars and basements, underground clubs, as we watched a scene flourish.

“There were no rules,” Ness continued. “There was no Flock cameras, I’ll tell you that. And there were no ICE … either.”

As fans cheered, Social Distortion jumped into “The Way Things Were” as images of punk rock kids and handmade gig flyers flashed on the video screens behind the band.

Social Distortion has played regularly around Southern California for years, often with extended runs in Los Angeles and Orange County. But the current Born To Kill tour is different in one key way.

This time, the band has a new studio album to take on the road, “Born To Kill,” its first in 15 years. Maybe we’re imagining things, but the new songs, which fit seamlessly alongside the classics, seemed to come together for a particularly fierce performance on Thursday of 17 songs over 90 minutes.

The title track of “Born To Kill” kicked off the show, its lyrical nods to David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop underscored by the recording of Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” that brought the band to the stage. “Ring of Fire,” which Social Distortion covered on its 1990 self-titled album and has played regularly ever since, had the crowd singing along loudly for the first of many times in the night.

That set the template for the rest of the night. New songs “Tonight” and “No Way” were followed by “The Creeps” and “Mommy’s Little Monster” from Social D’s 1983 debut “Mommy’s Little Monster.”

“The Way Things Were” from the new record slipped into “Lude Boy,” one of the band’s earliest releases as part of the 1981 punk compilation “Hell Comes to Your House.”

“I’m not gonna lie,” Ness said by way of introducing the latter number. “I don’t want to be a bad example for the youngsters here tonight because at the time I wrote this, it was about the glorification of the use of drugs. But I’m here to tell you, almost 41 years later, without a drug or alcohol or anything, that that life was not all what it was cracked up to be, people.

“There was nothing but misery, and this is a song that kind of comes with a warning,” he continued in his trademark raspy drawl. “Much like a cigarette pack, it says you might get cancer with smoking.

“Here’s the deal: what you didn’t want to do is take a couple Quaaludes, take six or seven beers, and run into your arch enemy,” Ness said. “You take a great big risk, people, of getting your left ear bit off in a parking lot.”

[If that sounds like a particularly specific example of the dangers of Quaaludes, youngsters, it’s because it actually happened to Ness in a fight outside Cuckoo’s Nest in Costa Mesa in the early ’80s.]

After another pair of new songs that sound so much like classic Social D, you might not notice their recent vintage, the back run of the main set focused on fan favorites.

“Ball and Chain” had the audience singing loudly as Ness and guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham traded guitar riffs. [Like Ness and Wickersham, bassist Brent Harding, drummer David Hidalgo Jr., and touring keyboardist David Kalish were terrific on Thursday.]

After “Through These Eyes,” Ness paused to thank fans for getting out of the house on a weeknight to come to the show.

“I realize you could have stayed at home on your couch watching back-to-back episodes of ‘Judge Judy,’” he said before slipping into an introduction of the main-set closer.

“Musicians are kind of like reporters,” Ness said. “They see things, they observe things, and then they write it down on paper and bring it to you.

“We’re like the evening press,” he added, and then kicked off “Story of My Life,” with its reportage from the front lines of Mike Ness’s many journeys.

After the break, Social Distortion returned for a trio of songs in the encore, opening with “Reach For the Sky” and “Bad Luck,” two more rowdy singalongs.

“Don’t Drag Me Down,” a song Ness has said reflects his anger at racism and discrimination of all kinds, and the ignorance that allows it to persist.

“We believe that it’s immigrants that make the country,” he said by way of introducing this final number. “And I’ve got to be honest. If I lived in a [bleeped]-up country, with corruption, poverty, violence, terror, and I had a chance to sneak into a country to make a better life for my family? If I had a chance to do that, I’d [bleepin’] do it in a heartbeat.”

Earlier, the Descendents blazed through about 25 songs in 50 minutes. The band formed in Manhattan Beach at the end of the ’70s is one of the few true peers of Social Distortion still going. And their fandoms seem to overlap closely as well, the same faces singing along to both bands’ sets, and in some cases, crowd surfing during both sets, too.

Songs such as “Everything Sux” which opened Descendents set, and “I Don’t Want to Grow Up,” which followed soon after, have a bratty, fun Southern California punk attitude that contrasts nicely with Social Distortion’s more serious sound. Highlights included ” ‘Merica,” “Coolidge,” and “I’m The One.”

Before Descendents, the young Australian band the Chats played a 30-minute set of their entertaining brand of garage punk, with fans again moshing and crowd surfing throughout a run of songs that wrapped up with “Smoko” and “Pub Feed,” two of their best-known songs here thanks to the goofy fun of the music videos.