SxDX - Great Saltair

Link to a youtube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/jererangalie
Link to show earlier in the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeSWSL-ljZc

A few excerpts of the show....decent video, good audio mostly.

Date: 14 October 2010

Venue:  The Great Saltair

Location:  Salt lake City

Overall impression:  

It was great...but it was a let down too...

Social Distortion entered the stage to a newly improved intro song.  I need to see if I can find it but it reminded me of "The Three Amigos" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJoknD_I8kY when they are riding into town for the first time.  The arrangement was stirring and most appropriate.  Johnny Wickersham on guitars of course got an immediate stir followed by the drummer and bassist.  Finally Mike walks in donning his cap and jacket.  Quickly setting the tone by opening the night with 'So Far Away'.

SxDx also played an acoustic set in a bar earlier in the day in SLC Link to Blog write up!. 

I think Saltair (the venue) had time restrictions. The set started at ~ 10 PM and SxDx wrapped at about 11:30 PM. Way short set for SxDx. They went to their encore departure after about 7-8 songs and encore was only about 3 songs. Not played: Story of My Life; Sick Boy, Mommy's Little Monster; Don't Drag Me Down....

The good: 

So, it was good b/c there was 3 new songs introduced, a lot of older material....they intro'd with So Far Away and opened encore set with Making Believe. Most of us purists were in the back just chatting and being a bit pissed about the short sets....normally SxDx plays 2 hours plus when they are mainlining - heck they play longer at most festivals as a non mainline....

The bad:

I think I am getting old and my standards are increasingly more demanding. The crowd that was there was poser-rific, but it's SLC.  Mike even mentioned before playing a rousing rendition of Prison Bound that there are too many crack-whores in the crowd that probably have no clue how to identify with this music.  Not played:  'Mommy's Little Monster', 'Story of My Life', 'Don't Drag Me Down', 'Another State of Mind', 'Under My Thumb'.  This wasn't too big of a deal, but it was odd to me after seeing them more than a dozen times and getting stirring renditions of each as their encore or mixed in their set list.

Summary:

The night started with SxDx getting straight to work with 'So Far Away' followed by 'Bye Bye Baby'.  Nice simple mood.  The SLC crowd didn't get warmed up until after the third song.  mike finally begins engaging the crowd a bit.  Of course he has become more prolific with his spitting into the crowd and this seems to be much more prominent than in years past.  I will have to try and rememeber the overall set-list but I was too shocked at the short set to remember.  Anyway, I was glad to go and see my favorite band.  We tend to all be getting older and it seems SxDx is not exempt from that either.  It was nice having my brother there and being able to enjoy the events with him.  I still remember like it was yesterday seeing them play a few other times and the memories keep getting sweeter.   We'll see how long the links stay valid for the channel that I found on youtube so I may revisit this event into the future.

I would say this wasn't their best concert, but I was glad my brother and I took the time to attend.

Set list included:

So far away, Bye Bye Baby, Prison Bound, Reach for the Sky, Sometimes I Do, Footprints On The Ceiling, I Was Wrong, King of Fools .

Encore:

Making Believe, Nickels and Dimes, Ring Of Fire