Social Distortion “Kill” It with Descendents and The Chats in Brooklyn: Review, Photos, Video + Setlist

A combined 95 years of California punk rock made its way to Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday, September 12th, for the second of two nights at Brooklyn Paramount featuring headliner Social Distortion with direct support from the Descendents.

Rising Australian punkers The Chats kicked off the evening at 7 p.m. sharp, delivering a high-energy set as they ripped through songs off their two studio albums, 2020’s High Risk Behaviour and 2022’s Get Fucked.

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Descendents then took the stage at 8 p.m., delivering roughly 25 songs in less than 50 minutes. Frontman Milo Aukerman and company leaned heavy on the band’s classic albums Milo Goes to College (1982) and Everything Sucks (1996) as they tore through more than 40 years of punk rippers.

At 9:15, the members of Social Distortion made their way onstage, with legendary frontman Mike Ness getting a roar from the crowd. The singer-guitarist has been back in action the past couple years after being diagnosed with tonsil cancer in 2023, and beating it a year later.

Social D launched their set with “Born to Kill,” the title track from the veteran punk band’s first album in 15 years, released in May. They followed that up with their blistering cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”

On this tour, Social Distortion are touring with a cool video backdrop that displays footage and images relevant to each song in the set, offering a visual history of the band to accompany the music.

A handful of songs into the set, Social D took it old school with back to back performances of “The Creeps” and “Mommy’s Little Monster” from their 1983 debut album, Mommy’s Little Monster. And as a special treat for the Saturday night crowd at the Brooklyn Paramount, Ness and company broke out the 1988 classic “Prison Bound” for the first time this year.

The main set wrapped up with the fan favorite “Story of My Life,” with Ness preceding the song by detailing his writing approach to the band’s gold-certified 1990 self-titled album.

“Punk had changed by the mid ’80s, and there was a lot of us who didn’t know where we fit, so we had to make the hard left, and carve out our own sound,” he told the crowd. “I was certain when I wrote this group of songs that no one was gonna like them, because they weren’t just stereotypical punk, they weren’t hardcore, they weren’t heavy metal. Why do we gotta be put in a box anyways?”

He continued, “I decided to bring American roots music, and take everything I learned from punk, and combine them. It turns out you all like this song because you’ve all been singing it with us for over 30 years.”

After exiting the stage, Social D returned for a three-song encore consisting of “Reach for the Sky,” “Bad Luck,” and the show-closing “Don’t Drag Me Down,” putting a cap on a rousing two-night stand at Brooklyn Paramount.

See photos, video, and Social Distortion’s setlist from the Brooklyn show on Saturday night below. The tour runs through an October 3rd gig in San Diego, with tickets to the remaining shows available here.

Social Distortion Setlist:
Born to Kill
Ring of Fire
Untitled
Tonight
No Way Out
The Creeps
Mommy’s Little Monster
The Way Things Were
Machine Gun Blues
Don’t Keep Me Hanging On
Partners in Crime
Prison Bound
Through These Eyes
Story of My Life
Reach for the Sky
Bad Luck
Don’t Drag Me Down