Saturday, December 14, 2002

A Hot Ticket in Their Hometown (Omaha World Herald)

The native Omahans who make up rap-rock group 311 have been touring since June, traveling three times to Europe, once to Japan and several times across the United States - yet there's something in Omaha that nothing across the globe can beat.

"As always, I've got to have my favorite pizza - La Casa pizza," said drummer Chad Sexton. "There is absolutely no pizza like it anywhere."
Sexton and his band mat3es plan to hit the pizza joint when they return to their hometown this weekend for a private Creighton University concert Friday and a sold-out show Monday at Sokol Auditorium.
The show marks the first time 311 has played Omaha in a year and a half. At the time of the band's last performances - two shows in October 2000 - the band was preparing to head into the studio. Since then it has released "From Chaos," the band's seventh album and first since 1999's "Soundsystem." It is the first on Zoo/Volcano Records.
The label just released the album's third single, "Amber," and the accompanying video, which is airing or scheduled to air on MTV, MTV2, VH1 and Much Music.

"The thing that's different with 'Amber' for us is we're finally making it to Hot AC and Modern AC stations," Sexton said. "All the time we get played on modern rock or alternative rock stations. By now all the alternative rock people have come out to see us. But it's kind of new to these pop radio stations, and I think they are liking what they are seeing."

Sexton said there are several reasons the single is being marketed to different radio formats. But, he said, the band isn't the impetus in that decision.

"Everyone that hears 'Amber' really likes it, and it's the type of song that could fit on a pop format," he said. "The label has done a wonderful job of marketing it for that."

When the band was younger, it was more persistent about having a say in which singles to release, he said. But as band members have matured, they have realized the benefits of letting label representatives handle that part of the band's business.

"We don't want to be in control of everything to the point where it runs us into the ground. We realize we're with great people," he said. "At this point we're very trusting."

It hasn't always been that way.

In August 2000, the band sued its label at the time, Capricorn, alleging that the label's bouncing among three record-label partnerships and four distributors created an unstable atmosphere that hurt 311, the label's best-selling act. After Zoo/Volcano Records stepped in to buy Capricorn, the band dropped the lawsuit in a deal that promised better promotion of 311.

Sexton described the new relationship with Zoo/Volcano as "100 percent different - definitely better."

"This part of the tour is going great. We're selling lots of tickets. We've sold out a lot of our shows. But for a band like us that isn't like a Backstreet Boys or a Linkin Park, it's just really incredible that we can go around and pull 4,000 people without having a big radio hit."

Aligning with one of today's hottest rock acts hasn't hurt either - the band opened for Incubus in 311's best European tour yet, Sexton said. (Incubus' April 25 show, which does not include 311, at Pershing Auditorium in Lincoln also is sold out.)

After 311's spring tour wraps up, the band plans to spend the summer writing and rehearsing new material it will take to the studio to record late this year, Sexton said. The new material should be even more radio friendly, he said.

In the meantime, the band, now based in Los Angeles, is looking forward to a quick stop in their hometown.

"We are not fans of the cold," Sexton said. "But we really look forward to the food and, of course, seeing our families."

La Casa is ready for their visit, too, said Victor Hahn, supervisor at the restaurant's Leavenworth Street location.

"I know about their thing with our pizza," Hahn said. "They all like it, but (Chad is) almost on a crusade with it."

A crusade led by a rocker whose band has sold more than 5 million albums certainly helps business, bringing a "cool" factor to the already popular pizza place.

"One of the best things about it is our customer base tends to be a little on the older side because it's people who have been coming here since we opened in 1953," Hahn said. "So it's nice to have younger people saying they like our pizza."

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