What do Bruce Springsteen, Good Charlotte, and Guitar Hero III have in common? They are all fans of Mike Ness, singer and songwriter of seminal punk band Social Distortion. Ness just finished a two-night stay at Lincoln Park’s Park West, where he played songs ranging from his own solo material to traditional folk and country covers, and all the way to acoustic renditions of Social D’s classic songs. Last week, Bruce Springsteen joined him onstage in The Boss’ hometown of Asbury Park, N.J., for several songs. While nothing of that caliber happened at Wednesday’s show, Mike Ness did put on a solid rock and roll show aided by one of the better sound systems in the city.

After opening act Jesse Dayton, which Ness described as “Texas Honky Tonk”, Ness and his backing band stormed the stage in a blaze of Stetson hats, tattoos and sideburns. I hadn’t seen his solo act before, and although I do own both his solo albums, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Social Distortion has a very distinctive sound — put on any song by them and most fans of the genre will be able to tell you who it is. The only problem is that often they won’t be able to tell you what song it is… Social Distortion songs are notorious for all being written in one of three rhythms and using the same four chords. This translates into Ness’ solo work a bit as well. That being said, a big part of his solo albums are his own renditions of classic country and rockabilly songs, which are decidedly distinct.

For their parts, Mike Ness and Co. seemed to be having a great time. At 45 years old, he’s at a stage in his career to just relax and play for the hell of it. And he certainly was doing just that. Strutting about the stage, it was clear that this was someone who has been around for a while, Interestingly enough, he brought out an older crowd as well — I was definitely in the generational minority. Ness spoke about playing songs that have always been influential to him, as he was growing up and later as a musician, and it was clear that a lot the crowd connected to these songs. To be honest, I wouldn’t have known a fair amount of these songs had it not been for his cover album “Under the Influences”, but when he started that signature SoCal croon and the steel guitar was singing, some of these old greasers started jiving so hard that even the toughest pomade couldn’t keep their pompadours slicked back.

He wasn’t just arbitrarily singing these songs either — he chose songs that clearly have personal meaning to him. In and out of rehab for heroin in the 80’s, Ness has lived through the life he sings about. Ending with a cover of “I Fought the Law”, Ness rounded out the night with a nice mix of songs about love (the good and the bad), life lessons learned, and good ole’ outlaw anthems- the “Story of [his] life” so to speak… and what a hell of a story it is.