First rule of life: Know when to make an entrance. Second rule of life: Do not attempt to show up fashionably late to what you think is a 7:30 p.m. concert, only to find out it started at 6:30 p.m., and you just missed the two opening bands. Especially if those two bands are the Urge and Shootyz Groove. Especially if State Theater security guards force your friend to run his chain wallet all the way back to the car, nearly causing you to miss the main act. Oh yeah - and especially if you are supposed to review the show.
On that note, the Urge and Shootyz Groove were, uh, reported to have rocked out pretty hard at 311's State Theater show Friday night. But we're not a forum for gossip, so we'll leave that part of the evening to the imagination.
311, however, was one giant, flaming ball of punk/reggae energy. The band, which was playing to a crowd of about 20 at the Shelter just a few years ago, managed to sell out the State Theater this time. And for good reason.
Fans were crowd-surfing during the silence between songs. When 311 played "Who's Got the Herb?" a guy toward the front held up his bowl and yelled, "I got it, man! I got it!" Girls were screaming, people were grooving - 311 had broken through.
The only 311 material to get consistent radio play is from their most recent album, "311." But the boys from Nebraska kicked off the show with "Homebrew" - one of the more mellow tunes from their second album "Grass-roots."
From there, the band jumped around, mixing up styles and textures with their always-difficult-to-pigeonhole sound, and playing tunes from all three of their albums. "Nix Hex," "Hydroponic" and "Freak Out" (from 1993's "Music") highlighted the exchange between booming lead singer Nicholas Hexum and higher-pitched master of turntables S.A. Martinez.
Different band members stepped forward at different moments during the show, however. Recent songs like "Down" and "Jackolantern's Weather" rely heavily on the guitar work of Timothy J. Mahoney, and Chad Sexton blew the crowd away with a massive drum solo during the middle of the set.
311 left the stage with the resounding battle cry "fuck the bullshit, it's time to throw down!" (from "Fat Chance" - arguably the most hard-core song on "Music.") The show could have actually ended there, but as fans probably already knew, band member P-Nut had not yet had a chance to "beat that thang." (He's the bassist, all right?)
P-Nut took his turn in the spotlight when 311 returned to the stage to encore with "Feels So Good." It was an intense ending to another incredible show by the boys from Omaha. And after P-Nut "beat it," 311 beat it, as well, leaving crowd-surfing victims to crawl out to their cars, sweaty, happy and in intense pain. Third rule of life: When you have whiplash ... it's time to go.
311 performed for a sold-out State Theatre crowd Friday night.