It was kind of hard to figure out how it all happened.
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311 and Snoop Dogg
At: Comcast Center, Friday
Punk-rock hipster kids with nipple piercings, camouflage cargo shorts, and back tattoos didn't quite seem like rapper Snoop Dogg's target demographic.
It made more sense seeing the sea of people spaz out as soon as guitarist Tim Mahoney let the menacing first chords of 311's anthem "Beautiful Disaster" rip through the Comcast Center Friday night.
It was definitely 311's crowd. Snoop was a multiplatinum co-headliner on the bill, trying to make his hits accommodate.
With classics like "Gin and Juice," "Ain't No Fun," and "Deep Cover" weaving between newer hits like "Drop It Like It's Hot" and "Sexual Eruption," it wasn't too difficult. He also had Kurupt and Daz Dillinger with him, toeing the line between guest performers and backup dancers.
Plus, in a really twisted, Ben Folds-covering-songs-off-"The Chronic" kind of way, Snoop has managed to transcend race the same way Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan have. Granted, Snoop was onstage with mammoth Nation of Islam-looking security guards; a diamond microphone that made it look like he was rapping into a pimp cup; a skull cap covering his braids; his crazy uncle Junebug dancing across the stage; and his uncle Rio wearing a tiger-skin sequin suit, singing hooks like an old Motown singer. Hanging above all the action? A big marijuana leaf.
Even if it didn't make sense in theory, it came together in action. 311 is an institution on a summertime touring circuit, and Snoop's catalog was built for summer. The fun overpowered the awkwardness.
Snoop's live band managed to neatly transform most of his songs into a near-rock set, just asking for chaos by throwing in the House of Pain classic "Jump Around," then later on trying to get the same crowd to snap dance.
"Hold on," he said. "I don't want y'all lookin' all unorganized now."
Honestly, that pot leaf is probably what brought Snoop and the crowd together. They were definitely the type to wave their lighters in the air, not their cellphones; the illuminated orange dots spread to the back of the amphitheater.
After 311 had torn through the happy slam-dance song "Do You Right," "Love Song," and "All Mixed Up," Chad Sexton let loose on a drum solo that made Snoop's set-ending crash session sound less epic.
While lead singer Nick Hexum grabbed a new shirt, stage hands brought more drums out so that all five members could drum as one for a sort of dark and intense makeshift Taiko drum session. It was easily the highlight of the night, even if bassist Aaron "P-Nut" Wills lost one of his sticks trying to keep up.
The band barely came up for air in its 90-minute set. The only time it did was when Hexum said the group was finally coming out with an album after three years and that "we want to see if we can get everyone in here to jump to the beat."
After the whole House of Pain experiment earlier in the evening, Snoop had to be somewhere saying, "Good luck."
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