COURTESY OF JASON HOMA Band members are, from left, John Maurer, Jonny Wickersham, Mike Ness and Charlie Quintana.

Distortion rules
for 25 years

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By Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.com

It's been nearly a quarter-century since Social Distortion exploded out of Orange County, Calif., to become one of the great American bands. A high-school escape and pressure valve for neo-punks Mike Ness and Dennis Danell, the band has weathered drug abuse, angry police, drummers and bass players quitting in the middle of sets, beatings, brawls and bad behavior, and what might have been a crippling blow, the death in 2000 of Danell for the oddest of reasons for a punk musician -- natural causes -- at age 38.

And yet here the band is, at age 24, recording a new album to be released next spring, touring the country instead of gigging in Los Angeles, and they'll be here in Honolulu tonight, Ness says, playing better than ever.

"It was the music that seduced me originally, sent me down a dark road," mused the guitarist who in the early '80s had conflicting heroin-addiction and anger-management issues.

"It almost killed me," he said. "But it was the music that saved me as well. It brought me back, gave me a voice. At one point, almost the only good thing I had going for me was playing the guitar."

Prior to the current line-up (Ness on guitar, Jonny "Two Bags" Wickersham on guitar, Charlie Quintana on drums and John Maurer on bass), Ness estimated he wrote "95 percent of our stuff. The sound is evolving, yeah, but we've remained true to what Social Distortion sounds like. It's just evolved. The new members are pretty established musicians, and they're writing as well and collaborating.

"That's really helped. We're not just putting out another Social Distortion record. This is the best drummer and guitar player we've ever had, both in writing and performing."

Danell's signature sound, which defined the band, was big, meaty slabs of -- yes! -- distortion, through which Ness' unerring sense of melody and passionate vocals emerged, like Excalibur from the lake.

"There's a give-and-take between us, guitar-wise, that wasn't really there before, very sort of Keith Richards/Mick Taylor. It's a lot of fun!"

THAT SENSE OF playfulness isn't exactly what Social Distortion is known for. Rather than the angry nihilism of most punk, or the sniggering elitism of alternative, Ness' songs are known for their heartfelt honesty, strong melodic drive and, most of all, for their depictions of damaged lives bravely fighting against the currents of despair. There's a grown-up sense of responsibility in them, a gleam of faraway redemption, as long as the confession is true and cleanses the soul.

Does that mean he's Catholic?

Ness laughs. "I've been asked that before! I believe in God, but not in organized religion. We have to evolve and grow."

What about his sense of melody?

"Hey, I grew up with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones before I heard the Sex Pistols. What I play is classic, blues-based rock 'n' roll, man. Kind of like the Rolling Stones with the attitude of punk mixed in. The melodies come first. I've got tapes and tapes of just humming. Then comes the craft of choosing the right subject for the melody, getting those words to fit perfectly. You've got to knuckle down to do it, to shut out the rest of the world, get those syllables right, every one.

"But that's not the main thing. How does (the song) make you feel? Does it make you think? It's great to have a catchy melody you can't get out of your head, but it's better if the song actually says something that makes people think."

Social Distortion is recording in the same studio where they started out 24 years ago, when they did their first demos while still in school. They acquired the lease to the property to have a permanent place to record. They dabbled for a while in producing other bands.

"I'm not that good around equipment," Ness apologizes. "My only asset is writing and singing and listening. I can't even advise on which knobs go up and down on the mixer board. I have a hard time getting a home stereo together! And home computers -- forget it! I can barely manage bidding on old-car stuff on eBay."

A quarter of a century for Social Distortion, and Ness is happiest now with the band than he's ever been. Does he have another quarter-century of music in him?

"Ah, if that punk Mick Jagger can do it, I can do it!," Ness hoots.

Social Distortion With local opening band Neural Void Where: World Cafe, 1130 N. Nimitz Highway When: 7 p.m. today Admission: $22.50 Call: 526-4400

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