When rap-rockers 311 pull into Reno on Monday, it will be just a few days before the band’s biggest day of the year. Because when March 11 rolls around, it’s 311 Day, a day where fans from 50 U.S. states and several countries will fill the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas for a marathon show with a near 70-song setlist.
It’s a special concert the L.A. band does every two years, with the 2008 New Orleans 311 Day playing to 14,000 people at the Superdome. The Las Vegas show sold out in a day.
“It’s just a cool occasion for any hardcore 311 fan,” said SA Martinez, the band’s co-singer and rap expert before a recent show in Seattle. “We’re so lucky to have a day in the calendar year that we can really make the most of.”
And the band, now in its 20th year, considers itself very lucky to have been around with the same guys he played with in 1990 and making a living. While many of the bands that 311 shared radio waves with over the years have faded or folded (think Rage Against the Machine, Sugar Ray or Bush), 311 is still on the road and making new music.
“We really lucked out as far as the chemistry of the band,” Martinez said. “And there’s always going to be bumps in the road, regardless, and I don’t care how great it is for anybody, it’s a marriage and five people are involved ... I think we all realize what it means to be together as a band and how much we depend on one another. That really goes a long way for everyone, and at the end of the day we all realize that. We really truly are blessed to keep this going and to have this fan support over all these years.”
Fans at Reno’s show will get to see a much more intimate show, albeit a shorter one, than the massive 311 Day show. The band is doing small theaters before and after 311 Day as it ramps up for its bigger summer touring schedule, which Martinez says is the band’s main meal ticket.
“That’s really where we are able to sustain ourselves, and it’s just a lot of fun too,” Martinez said. “There’s not many bands that can make a living just selling records in this day. There are for sure some manufactured acts that will sell a gazillion pop records, but as far as rock bands, you have to tour and that’s it. We’re no exception there, but we enjoy it. It’s what we do best.”
True, 311 hasn’t sold “a gazillion” albums. They’ve sold about 8.5 million albums in the U.S. with six albums having reached the Top 10 of Billboard’s albums charts. While the band’s biggest album sales days may be in the past, the band released its ninth album, “Uplifter,” in 2009, its first since 2005. It’s got some of the harder-rocking songs that helped launch 311, as well as some of its mellowest music, which seems fitting, seeing as how the 2002 slow-burner “Amber” is one of the band’s biggest hits.
Before the band recorded “Uplifter” at its own North Hollywood studio, the members felt like it was time to take a break from making albums.
“It was just a matter of ‘let’s just go do some shows and not worry about having to make a record, and just enjoy life between tours,’” Martinez said. “Because we will be touring, we know that, but do we necessarily have to make another record? No. And that was something that will help recharge your batteries and make you hungry to make another record. And I think ‘Uplifter’ was one of our best records in a long time.”
While the band wasn’t making records, two of the members were making babies. Both singer-guitarist Nick Hexum and Martinez welcomed their first children last year, the first for the band as well. Martinez lit up while talking about his baby daughter.
“It’s great. I’ve wanted kids for a bit, and my wife and I had talked about it. Really, what it was, Nick called me up and said ‘I’m expecting.’ And I was like, ‘whoa! no way.’ After I hung up, I’m like, I’m going to try and have a baby. And at that point I just said ‘let’s try.’ Right off the bat, she got pregnant and that was that. My baby will have her first 311 Day coming up.”
It’s a beginning of a new era for Hexum and Martinez, but Martinez said he still sees no end in sight for the band.
“I think we have a lot of life as a band yet, and I would imagine everyone else feels the same way.”
In the short term, 311 will be spending most of next week in Nevada with shows in Wendover, Reno and Las Vegas. Martinez isn’t sure what the band will stay busy with amid the sagebrush, but he does have one idea while in Vegas.
“I’m a fan of (the History Channel’s) ‘Pawn Stars.’ I may try to make it to their pawn shop. It’s like a realistic ‘Antiques Roadshow.’
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