**** Social Distortion

LIVE AT THE ROXY

(Time Bomb)

The meat-and-potatoes punk of Social Distortion is never less fun for all its familiarity, and on this live set both the fun and the passion prove indispensable. After all, they pretty much invented this kind of supercharged punkabilly, and they've perfected their delivery over nearly 20 years of playing out (earliest songs here date from 1981): the unison wall of guitars, the happy, relentless two-beat stomp, the scraped-string exclamations, the countrified hooks. Frontguy Mike Ness's bad-boy persona is a pose that rings true, as does the gravity of his born-to-lose tales of social alienation and love gone wrong. Consider this 17-song set (recorded in Hollywood last April) the perfect one-disc portable Social D. It's Ness the vocalist who's the revelation here: the mix keeps his voice -- and his words -- right up front with the guitars, and he pushes his swaggering pipes for maximum emotional heft without losing the pitch. Ness might trade in despair and alienation, but the catharsis -- from his first great song, "Another State of Mind," to signature covers like "Under My Thumb" and "Ring of Fire" -- is a punk tonic.

-- Jon Garelick