POP MUSIC REVIEW : Social Distortion: Rusty But Powerful at the Troubadour

As one of Los Angeles’ early punk bands, Social Distortion mixed the basic swing of blues and country with punk-rock, delivering some of the best underground tunes of the early ‘80s. The Fullerton quartet stood apart from speedy hard-core bands by doing such songs as Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” with a cool patience, and separated itself from older punk bands by trading in anarchy for a good time.

Social Distortion hasn’t played live in over a year, so the band’s set on Tuesday at the sold-out Troubadour was slightly rusty. It was also inescapably strong.

Singer Mike Ness had his hair slicked back and wore overalls that exposed his multiple tattoos, and he sang to a crowd with a similar look. Despite some recent throat problems, he made it through the set by smoothing out his usual gravelly drone and dropping the volume. There weren’t as many rough edges, but his voice still dug into the music and grabbed hold.

SD’s trademarks--slippery guitar, stalking, hard-core bass lines, swaggering rock ‘n’ roll rhythms--were all intact. They played mainly old material--from “Mommy’s Little Monster” to “Born to Lose”--plus a couple of new songs from an album due out next year. The new material, though not quite mastered yet, fit in nicely with the other tunes.

Perhaps surprisingly, the group’s sound was still relevant, and its songs emerged not just as great numbers from a bygone era, but as good rock songs with built-in longevity.