Show Review: 518

Took my oldest-he’s 9yrs old and his buddy to see my alltime favorite band…drove down from DC on Tues, blew off school and work Wed for their first rock’n’roll road trip! Who better to see than those cool tomcats Social Distortion. Yeah, they sounded tight, rocked hard, even at a Tues. Richmond show with a tired workaday crowd, flu going round, maybe band a tad bit road weary, but who cares – even so SD always rocks the best. Fans wish they’s play into next week. Missed Prison Bound, woulda love to hear Untitled, Angel’s wings, tons more, but c’mon their set list was great! Cause I was alone with 2 kiddies, we started in balcony (worried ’bout pit?). Thought Strangers rocked, for coycat NYdolls sound and young squeakity clean Ness/Rotten mix. Good little boys plain’ big bad boys! Course real Ness = real thing, he weren’t sq clean, besides mold broke. But balcony sound is horrid, plus can’t see over a**holes in VIP section. During SDs set, went to floor. SD crowd so cool, help kids to front. We finally made it up to front near J2B, by now my little guys are near past tired. But so good to be on the floor, SD rocking. Highlight for me was blazing version of "Sometimes I Do", pure rock’n’roll heaven, with singer from Gaslight Anthem…during this Mike sees the boys, comes over, plays lead in front of them, thrusts pick in buddy’s hand, chucks bandana at son, is gone. Wow. Encores incredible, concert over too quick. So…concert=awesome. No idea if the band reads these things, but just in case: To Mike Ness:THANK YOU. The kids didn’t realize how cool it was at the moment, kids r kids, I kept ’em up too late…but everybody around them did, me too. Your small gesture meant a lot. And they’ve been using your pick. It was a terrific show, love the new songs. Can’t wait for the new CD, for Xmas I want an SD song about being a parent…would like Mike’s take on that, hah, kids. Hope SD plays DC next time. Thanks for keeping this old sick girl/now a frigging soccer mom’s rock and roll dreams alive!