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Social Distortion played the Wachovia Spectrum on 10-27-2009 in Philadelphia,PA.  Pearl Jam had the great honor to bring the entire building to a close by performing four shows in one week (10-27-09, 10-28-09, 10-30-09, 10-31-09), with the run concluding on Halloween night.  Pearl Jam have been long time fans of Social Distortion and so they gave Social Distortion the opening slot on 10-27-2009 and 10-28-2009.

I was fortunate to be able to photograph 2 of the 4 last shows ever to be held at the Spectrum.  I photographed Pearl Jam and the opening bands on the nights of the 27th and the 31st.   The Spectrum in Philadelphia has long been holding historical sporting events, concerts, movie moments, and  millions of other memories for a worldwide audience.  One of my earliest  memories is one of the most popular moments for the Spectrum was when Rocky boxed to win his first title of the Rocky movie series.  And now the legend of the building ends with a historic 4 night residency by Pearl Jam and friends.

The lights went dimmed and Social Distortion took stage close to 7:30.  Mike Ness and company were ready to impress their old school punk rock on the Pearl Jam fans entering the Spectrum.  They did a great job of picking songs from their older part of their catalog as well as their newer material.  Kicking off the set was their hit “Making Believe” from the album “Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell” which starts out with Mike Ness singing and playing his guitar solo and later the band kicks into the song at full tilt.  The title track from their 1983 album “Mommy’s Little Monster” followed as the second song and then played “Sick Boys” from their self titled album released in 1990. 

I’ve been listening to Social Distortion albums for many years and to hear them play classics like “Ball And Chain”, “Bad Luck”, “Ring Of Fire” to a large venue is really cool.   Nothing beats seeing them play the smaller clubs that always sell out quickly, but at the same time this is a great opportunity for them to get their music out to some groups of people out there that might otherwise not have known them.  Pearl Jam have been fans of Mike Ness and Social Distortion for a long time so it was great to see Pearl Jam ask them to open two of these 4 historical nights.

As with any band that has been around a while, Social Distortion has made a few line up changes through the years.  I quickly noticed that the drummer looked familiar to me but it was not until later that I noticed him from seeing the band Rocket From The Crypt years ago.  I got to see Rocket From the Crypt several times in highschool and in college.   Social Distortion’s current line-up are:
Mike Ness – vocals, guitar
Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham – guitar
Brent Harding – bass
Adam “Atom” Willard – drums