At the Commodore on Tuesday, April 17

If you log on to just about any punk-rock blog, chat room, and/or message board at any given time, you can read comments like the following: “Social Distortion fans are nothing more than aging hipsters who jerk off to The Best of Johnny Cash.” I beg to differ. There's nothing hip (or formerly hip) about Social D's devotees. In fact, the band's second back-to-back sold-out gig at the Commodore was full of nondescript, scene-free nobodies who just happen to like really good rock 'n' roll. Sure, there was a smattering of rockabilly meatheads and supersized Bettie Page wannabes. And yes, some of them were aging. But hip? Definitely not.

It's been nearly 30 years since the SoCal quartet's inception, and the only original member left is the formerly self-destructive, tattied psycho Mike Ness—who few would have expected to be the last man standing. The Orange County punk legend's gravelly voice not only grew stronger and stronger as the night went on, but his tree-trunk neck seemed to gradually expand in circumference.

Along with plenty of old-school licks (the highlight being “Sick Boys”), Ness treated us to a rootsy cover of “Maybelline”. Before he played the first chord, though, he felt it necessary to inform us that “before Keith Richards, there was Chuck Berry.” Point taken. But as a Stones fan, it's my duty to say that Richards has at least never set up a hidden camera in a restaurant shitter. Ness also did a kick-ass version of “Ring of Fire”, and yes, blogsters, we creamed our jeans. He ended the night with an extended version of the crowd-pleasing “Story of My Life”. It was a nice way to top one of most respectable punk shows of the year.

Say what you want about Black Halos frontman Billy Hopeless, but the man has staying power. He was in fine form in the opening slot, prancing around topless kicking out CFOX hits like “Some Things Never Fall” and engaging the crowd in the wonderfully garbled world according to Billy.