Sinatra gets tribute from band he wouldn’t like

Geoff Carter

Monday, May 18, 1998 | 10:53 a.m.

"This one's for Frank Sinatra," growled Social Distortion vocalist Mike Ness. The standing-room crowd at the Hard Rock - not at all bad for a Sunday night - cheered as Ness quoted the Chairman: "We only live once, and if you live your life like me, that's enough." With that, the venerable punk band shot off "Let It Be Me" like a load of heavy buckshot.

Ness said a lot about himself and his band with that dedication. Well before Sinatra's passing, Las Vegas began to lose the entertainment value that classic Sin City delivered - artists playing three week stints, two shows a night, two drinks minimum. Lounges were torn out in favor of slot machines. Caesars Palace's idea of a good time morphed into Huey Lewis and the News.

Meanwhile, Social Distortion - a classic punk rock outfit, one that can preserve the edgy narrative of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" on one hand, while actually burning you down with the other - began to play two to three Hard Rock gigs a year. In New Vegas terms, that's the equivalent of a three-week run at the Sands.

"Yeah, I love Las Vegas," said Ness, introducing "Cold Feelings in the Night." "One of the few places that would even have had Social Distortion back in 1981."

So the love jones is firmly established, once and for all. One might have ascertained Ness' feelings for the Entertainment Capital using the frontman's smart, funny banter as a basis for their conjecture ("Hey there, junior, how old are you? Ten years old? He's going to be a bad [expletive] when he grows up"). Or one might have gotten the notion from the man's stage persona: a heavily-tattooed tough guy, with slicked-back hair, a split-legged stance, low slung guitar and a singing voice like a motorbike engine. He's no Sinatra, but he swings in his own unique way.

If one can get past the man's reputation - he freely discusses the burglary record and subsequent incarceration that nearly did him in - you'll find Ness the Angry Hepcat, a consummate entertainer. To hear him belt out "I Was Wrong" and "Prison Bound" is to experience a reaffirmation, an epiphany: yes, this is why rock and roll exists. Drummer Chuck Biscuits, guitarist Dennis Danell and bassist John Maurer helped to prove Ness point to last night's crowd again and again, blasting through "Under My Thumb," "Story Of My Life" and "Under My Thumb" as if the band had formed yesterday.

Sinatra would not have liked Social Distortion's music - too bitter, even for the Frank that recorded "I'm A Fool To Want You" - but he would no doubt have appreciated their commitment to playing it, and to making every member of the audience - first-timer or tenth - feel like they had gotten the best show they had ever seen the band play. And he would have loved Mike Ness, running mascara and all, schmoozing it up with the late-show crowd.

"Hey, you wanna hear some happy songs?" Ness grinned. "I'm sorry, we don't play any happy songs."

Top of the list, king of the hill. Somebody get these guys into Caesars' big room, and fast.