Once again, it’s Social D vs. the world

Twenty-one years after Social Distortion released the Orange County punk classic “Mommy’s Little Monster,” frontman Mike Ness still has a chip on his shoulder. Straining into the song to kick off the first of five sold-out nights at the Wiltern LG, sawing at his guitar, unsmiling, it was Ness versus the world -- and his thousands of fans were ready to join the epic battle, breaking out in several fights during the evening.

Transforming pain and alienation into rocket-like, bluesy punk shout-alongs has always been Social D’s stock in trade, and the sudden death of founding guitarist Dennis Dannell because of an apparent brain aneurysm in 2000 gave the night an especially emotional edge. Although the band played a record 20 sold-out nights at Hollywood’s House of Blues in 2003, it hasn’t toured since releasing “Sex, Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll” in September, Social D’s first new material in eight years, much of it about Dannell.

“I wrote this song three days after I buried my best friend, a guy who helped me start this band in a garage in Orange County when the world was telling us we couldn’t do this,” said Ness, introducing one of the more cathartic songs on the new album, “Don’t Take Me for Granted.”

With former Cadillac Tramps guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham now on guitar, and newbie Brent Harding filling in while Rancid bassist Matt Freeman raced home for the birth of a baby, Social D had the crowd singing like soccer fans on such faves as “Prison Bound,” “Sick Boys” and a blistering version of the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb,” with Dan McGaugh on piano.

But the place fell apart into a moshing frenzy when Ness introduced the night’s final song, “about a boy with an old guitar and nothing else but dreams,” launching into the radio hit “Story of My Life.”

The band has changed, but the message -- and the battle -- remain perfectly, thunderously, the same.