>>PREVIEW
SOCIAL DISTORTION
April 20 and 21
MacEwan Hall (U of C)
When drummer Charlie Quintana auditioned to be the drummer for the Mike Ness band, he had 21 years of experience and a resumé that boasted time in the legendary Latino punk band, The Plugz, The Cruzados, Izzy Stradlin’s Ju Ju Hounds as well as tours with Bob Dylan and Joan Osborne. He landed the gig. The tour support led to playing on Ness’s second solo effort, Under the Influences, which led to Quintana taking the stool in Social Distortion. With the musical partnership verging on the 10-year mark, Quintana, Ness and company have undoubtedly found their song-writing groove.
"The only thing that nobody touches is the lyrics, that’s Mike thing," he states flatly. "He’s gotta sing ’em, so it makes sense. He’s pretty good at them, let’s put it that way, and he’s got a pretty good track record, so why fix it if it ain’t broken."
In addition to a strong lyrical history, Quintana is also grateful that Ness and earlier members made the conscious decision to dabble in multiple genres.
"I think Mike was smart enough and talented enough to free himself," he begins. "When Ball and Chain came out, people were going, ‘That’s not punk rock.’ You gotta be kidding me," Quintana says incredulously. "Listen to the lyrics, it’s a frame of mind, it doesn’t all have to be at a breakneck speed to be punk rock. It’s the content, what the song’s about and where it comes from. Mike’s songs are honest, he’s lived every one of them. That gives him an edge, I believe, to stretch out. He did that very early in his career, which was great ’cause people were like, ‘We don’t know what the hell to expect.’
"We’re able to do anything," he continues, referring to the band’s current lineup. "We’re able to do the old punk fast stuff, there’s some beautiful songs like ‘Story of My Life,’ there’s country songs like ‘99 to Life.’ Some of the stuff we’re writing now is very, very back to the roots, aggressive rock ’n’ roll. We do a lot of blues-based stuff – it never gets boring. We can pull all kinds of stuff out."
The band’s concert set lists, however, are constrained by the fans, who dictate which "classics" must be performed, or else. "Literally, one time, I was back in the bus and I was completely naked and they came up and said, ‘They’re not leaving, you gotta come back,’ I was drying myself and changing, I think we didn’t play ‘Story’ or ‘Ring of Fire’ or something. We had to get re-dressed real quick and run back out. We learned our lesson there. There’s some things we have to play. Now I go to the bus and I sit there for a while, 5 or 10 minutes before I start changing to make sure the gig is actually over. You know when you’ve got two to five to six thousand people (and) they’re not moving, there’s not much you can do. We don’t want them to destroy the stage or start breaking windows or causing a riot. We learned that one the hard way," he says chuckling.
Another lesson learned is to not rush to release records. With eight years between 2004’s Sex, Love and Rock ’n’ Roll and White Light, White Heat, White Trash, Ness and collaborators seem content to do things on their own timeline. The next offerings, however, are to come sooner rather than later.
"Mike’s kind of on a prolific roll right now," Quintana shares. "I believe that (with) the greatest hits album, the wheels are in motion to release that. It will include a song called ‘Far Behind’ as an extra new song. I think that probably the next all-new album is going to come a lot sooner. The space between (the new album) and Sex, Love and Rock ’n’ Roll is going to be a lot less than the one before. When it’s ready, it’s ready, you know?" |
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