This article originally appeared in Broadside, the George Mason University student newspaper.

“Thank you. We’re really far from home,” Mike Ness responds as the crowd thunderously demands an encore. The band has just finished a growling set chalk full of old classics and several new tunes from their recent album “White Light, White Heat, White Trash.” Although the crowd was thoroughly excited over songs such as “Bad Luck,” “1945,” “I Was Wrong,” and the band’s latest single “When the Angels Sing,” they adamantly want more–an encore performance. So they give it to them–they being Mike and the rest of the boys from the veteran 50’s-style punk band Social Distortion.

The band has just made the last stop of their current national tour, here, in Washington, D.C., and following a week off, they plan to tour Europe for four weeks, then Canada for another three. “We’ll be back this Spring or early Summer,” Mike reassures fans who, following the band’s encore, are still begging for more.

Social Distortion, an Orange County rock & roll band formed in the late 70’s/early 80’s, is now touring to promote their recent release “White Light, White Heat, White Trash.” Until now, they had been touring with the country-fried rock & rollers the Supersuckers and Fat Wreck Chords’ Swingin’ Utters.

It’s a wonder, however, that this long-silent band is even touring at all. It took four years for Social D to release the follow-up record to their commercially successful “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell,” and some wondered what took so long.

“The band,” explains Dennis Danell (guitar player for Social D) “spent 20 months touring that album and it took much longer recording ‘White Light…’ than we expected.” In addition to that, their previous drummer, Christopher Reece, left the band and was replaced by the legendary Chuck Biscuits (from the Circle Jerks, Black Flag, D.O.A., and even Danzig.)

Singer/songwriter Mike Ness also wanted to spend a couple of years merely experiencing life itself to find inspiration for his writing. Some of the new lyrics on “White Light…” have been mistaken, by some, as Ness’ statement of faith or an announcement of his conversion to the Christian religion. Songs such as “I Was Wrong,” “When the Angels Sing,” “Crown of Thorns,” and “Down Here (W/ The Rest of Us)” speak of sin and redemption and contain many religious themes.

“It’s a spiritual thing.” Danell states. “Mike is into spirituality, not religion. He doesn’t subscribe to any religion, because he sees religion as something man-made. But his lyrics definitely deal with sin & redemption, decisions & choices, and certain options people have in life.”

Mike Ness was determined to write songs with more “soul,” because he was disgusted with today’s popular music. He has said before, “Alternative music has become so marketable that a lot of it’s become just imagery.” Ness wanted his new songs to have more substance.

“It’s lost credibility,” guitarist Danell adds, concerning just the current punk scene, “If you say you’re punk, you’re instantly cool. It’s not a lifestyle anymore. But the potential’s still in there somewhere.”

George Mason students may have caught the band at the WHFS Holiday Nutcracker Festival held at the Patriot Center last December. But if you missed Social Distortion then and you didn’t catch the show last Wednesday night at the Capitol Ballroom in D.C., you will, as Mr. Ness pointed out at the show, have another chance to catch them sometime this Spring or early Summer. Don’t miss out on seeing them. Social Distortion is a band that’s raw, honest, and more intelligent than any of the alternative fluff out there today.