Another night at the Electric Factory, and another amazing show. This is a place where the hits truly do keep coming again and again. The line up read as follows: Frank Turner, Lucero and finally the incomparable Social Distortion. To be completely honest, you had me at Frank Turner. Everything else was just icing on the cake.
The young man from Winchester, England took the stage promptly at 8:30 and started strong with “Poetry of the Deed.” Ladies and gentlemen if you haven’t had the opportunity, nay the privilege to see Frank work his magic on stage then you had best make plans to do so post haste. “Reasons Not to be an Idiot” is one of the most hilarious and catchy songs we’ve heard of late, but it gets better from there. When Mr. Turner goes into “Love Ire & Song,” you will want to go out and march for whatever cause or movement you dedicate yourself to. If you don’t have a cause, this song will make you want to go out and get one. The only bad thing that can be said about his whole set is that it was entirely too short. Keep an eye out for this Brit and pray he comes to your hometown soon.
Second to the stage and straight out of Memphis was Lucero. Southern country punks? Sounds crazy right? Well it works damn well for these guys and with an average of 150 to 200 shows a year since 2001 it has apparently been working damn well for quite some time. With a set that included: “The Devil and Maggie Chascarillo,” “Nights Like These,” “Bikeriders,” “Slow Dancing,” “Tonight Ain’t Gonna Be Good” and “Tears Don’t Matter Much,” just to name a few, it was surely a set to remember. Again the only thing bad that could be said was that the set was not long enough for the crowd’s liking, but what can you do when you are on a limited timeline? Lets hope they come around again soon so we can get another chance to see them live.
At last the house lights dim once again and out march those juggernauts, those masters of the craft, the one and only Social Distortion. The room literally hummed with excitement. Generations of fans, ranging in ages from 14 to 50ish, pressed towards the stage. From the first note the crowd began to chant and scream and stomp. The first words hadn’t even been uttered and already the crowd was in a frenzy. We even saw one guy in a wheelchair crowd surfing! Mike and the boys belted out an incredible set including “Don’t Drag Me Down,” “Sick Boys” and “Mommy’s Little Monster,” just to name a very few. Every couple of songs Mr. Ness stopped to have a bit of dialogue with the crowd or explain a particular bit of history about a song or just to impart some sagely wisdom from his years on the road. All in all this was one of the best shows of the year to come through Philadelphia, Social D can come back as often as they want.
