Last Friday, Jan 27, 2012, It was a Friday night, I was eating healthy chinese takeout, basically Kung Pao chicken without the fuckin Pao! . I was at my girls house entertaining her sister who thinks she’s Kourtney Kardashian without the kid. She was bringing over her new boyfriend who is basically dumber than a box of fuckin rocks.
All I could think of is how much longer till we leave for the Social Distortion concert at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel? My girl is silly but a real fuckin trooper, she decides a week prior to go on a detox and not drink any alcohol for a month. Perfect fucking timing right? I mean we are only going to one of the most badass punk rock concerts of the year where you definitely want to drink your tits off.
So we get to the Joint at the Hard Rock and we meet up with my friends V and A. They were so cool to already have a PBR waiting for me ICE cold. Yeah it’s shitty beer, but it’s the cheapest and the best. We finish our beers walk in and the lights come on. Social Distortion was about to take the stage and the electricity of the crowd was incredible. Mike Ness comes out looking like Johnny Cash wearing all black, including a black fidora, black collared shirt, black pants, black shoes and thick white suspenders. Gone are the days where he is wearing black jeans and a wife beater. This old school punk rocker’s got the bread to buy some nice threads now after all these years!
The band looked good and they played incredibly tight. I felt really amazed to be there because this was the first concert of their 2012 tour. You may wonder why Vegas? It’s because “we wanted to” according to frontman Mike Ness. The band played all the great shit we all grew up to and rocked the foundation of the Joint. I saw a lot of old school punk rockers in support of the band. I have to say it was nice there was no pit, maybe I am getting really fucking old, or maybe I just don’t want the shit kicked out of me when I watch a rock show anymore. The band started with the song Bad Luck and ended with the encore Ring of Fire, a Johnny Cash cover. Below is the setlist just to rub it in your face, in case you weren’t there.
The setlist:
“Bad Luck”
“So Far Away”
“Story of My Life”
“Machine Gun Blues”
“Sick Boys”
“Telling Them”
“Bakersfield”
“Gimme the Sweet and Lowdown”
“Dear Lover”
“Nickels and Dimes”
“Far Behind”
“Sometimes I Do”
“Winners and Losers”
Encore:
“Alone and Forsaken” (Hank Williams cover)
“The Last Time (Rolling Stones cover)
“Drug Train”
“Reach for the Sky”
“Ring of Fire” (Johnny Cash cover)
The show was completely sold out, My girlfriend resisted temptation and drank water all night and threw water on some dudes crotch that was trying to hit on her. The energy of the crowd was amazing, everybody was having a great time and it blows me a way that after 34 years Social Distortion rocked the shit out of the Joint at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas and are better than ever!
JOHNNY FLYBACK 