If I Had A Point, I'd Say It Plain

Last night I attended the 311 concert at Muncipal Auditorium. I've never seen 311 live, but I do own an old video that shows a number of concert performances. I've only been to a few concerts: System Of A Down/Limp Bizkit and Clipse/50 Cent (Clipse didn't show up). The 50 Cent concert was cool because I had been a fan of his for a while and new all the music. Anyone who has ever been to a rap concert of that caliber can reinforce the fact that they are chaos incarnate. A hundred guys running around babbling incoherently into mics.

Alien Ant Far opened for 311. I'm not much of an AAF fan, but they weren't bad. They apparently had some label trouble and the lead singer was making light of the fact that no one bought their last album. Since I didn't know any of the songs and couldn't understand more than the last word of most lines, I didn't really read much into the music. Their performance seemed pretty tight and the crowd did not boo them. That seemed to be a good sign.

When 311 finally came out, everyone finally perked up and paid attention. The excessive volume has rattled the short-term memory that would normally allow me to recall the list of songs. They came out strong with something fast and furious. They changed up the pace now and they by sprinkling in fast, slow, new and old. The highlight of the evening was Chad's famous drum solo. The rest of the band left the stage and all the lights focused on Chad. While your attention was diverted to the drums, a bunch of loose drums were brought onto the stage. Suddenly the rest of the band reformed around the drums and the whole band started playing together! Talk about a lot of percussion.

After one song they acted like they were leaving. The left the stage, waving and whatnot. After a bit of cheering and lighter-waving the came back and treated us to another song. When that song ended Nick stood quietly for a second and finally said: "I've only got one thing left to say... FUCK THE BULLSHIT IT'S TIME TO THROW DOWN!" The crowd went nuts. That final song capped of a great concert.

311 runs a concert in the way you would a expect a set of 15 year vets to do it: concise and fluid. There wasn't a lot of time wasted talking and bullshitting. They played the songs that the crowd wanted to hear, even taking a request or two from the their forums and signs in the crowd. A poll (by way of applause and screaming) was taken at one point between Hive and Don't Tread On Me. Hive won, showing that the crowd was a bit more old school.

Good show, good venue (easy parking with easy exit), good times.