MAY 23rd, 1997
SOCAIL DISTORTION
RED 5
& AUTOMATIC 7
ALL AGES @ Safari Nite Club
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This was and still is to this day the biggest show I've ever promoted. My day began around 11am with load in. You see SD tours with it's own PA. Think of it, you tear down the house system and then load in a large system and set it up and then tear it down load it out all in one day. All you've heard about Mike Ness being an asshole and hard to work with isn't true. Of course, him hanging out in the bus all day helps. We sold 500 advance for this show and had at least another 50 or 70 that either sneaked in or worked the show. The joint was packed to the point where dew collected on the walls from all the sweating. SD's rider asked for Solvent Green (you'll only get it if you've seen the movie Solvent Green. Remember "Solvent Green is People.") and I had Shawn running around town looking for Solvent Green for about a week before the show.
Automatic 7 openned with their kinda early SD sound. I watched about 3 or 4 songs and they were quite good but I really didn't have the time to check them out properly. They did do a cover of The Clash's White Man in Hammersmith Palias in which they screwed up the lyrics a little but no the less a good cover.
I don't remember much of Red Five other then they had a girl in the band. I wasn't really that inpressed but maybe if I wouldn't have been all stressed out I would have dug them.
Now for Social Distortion, They gave everyone what they came for. Playing for close to an hour and a half. A little of the Mommy stuff like Telling them, 1945, and Mommy's Little Monster. A little of the Epic stuff to round the set out with Ball and Chain, Story of My Life, Bad Luck, and Don't Drag Me Down. Most of the time they were playing I was busy running around checking on the crowd outside and all those fun promoter things like answering the same questions over and over. I did enjoy what I saw and heard.
After the PA was loaded out, we all sat in the back and patted each others backs. We had no fights, no one had gotten on stage (the only club up till then that had done that on that tour) and we did something no one said we could do. Shows like that can kill you if you let it.
