Forty-six-year-old Ness is a flawless performer, his best performances mimicking some of his best recordings – for two, “Crime Don’t Pay” and “The Devil in Miss Jones,” off 1999’s Cheating at Solitaire. These days he’s shunning drugs and praising Obama; he’s also slick as his hair and speaks and moves with finesse, posing with his Les Paul the way it’s meant to be held, playing with the authenticity and heart you’d hope for from such a man. Even in his cowboy hat he squinted with a fury lacking the slightest bit of phoniness or irony.
Before we could cry out for a Social D song, he gave in and ended on “Down Here (With the Rest of Us)” and returned for an encore session, throwing on that hat and completing the night with “I Fought the Law.”