Photo Gallery: Social Distortion & Bad Religion at The Riviera Theatre • Chicago, IL

Brassneck | May 23, 2024

Social Distortion/Bad Religion

Riviera Theatre

Chicago, IL

May 20, 2024

Recap and photos by Curt Baran

There was a time when just simply being a punk was dangerous. I mean, you could get your ass kicked just walking down the street!”

Social Distortion singer Mike Ness shared this walk down memory lane during his band’s performance at the Riviera Theatre in Uptown on Monday night. He and his collection of punk rock stalwarts are now deep into their FOURTH decade as one of the first wave of hardcore punk bands to emerge from the West Coast (specifically Orange County). This was also their second of two shows played over the course of three days (they filled the Salt Shed two nights prior).

Sharing the stage with them has been another hardcore heavyweight from the Left Coast, Bad Religion. Although the bands have crossed paths multiple times, they somehow managed to NOT ever tour together. “Welcome to a historic tour,” Bad Religion lead singer Greg Graffin declared. “We haven’t played a show with Social Distortion since the ’80s,” which, considering the communal nature of that music scene back then, seems incomprehensible.

The bands are crisscrossing the States as a co-heading creature that has, on rich display, the impressive, influential catalog of songs each has amassed along the way. Considering the doors they’ve kicked open for successive and more commercially successful bands in their wake, it’s not only satisfying that they’re finally being rewarded for their immense influence but there was now little or no danger of any of them getting sucker punched on a Chicago sidewalk for simply being themselves.