At its biennial March 11 show, rock/punk/hip hop/reggae band 311 is known to play sets of 60-plus songs that last for five or six hours. The group's current tour, which includes a stop at the Knitting Factory in Reno on Monday, is the band's way of doing stretches before the marathon of this year's "311 Day" in Las Vegas.
The bassist for 311, who goes by the moniker P-Nut, proved he has the energy for long sets in a recent 40-minute phone interview, during which he demonstrated that if given a topic — from the band's history to electric cars — he will expound on it with gusto. Had the batteries in this reporter's recorder not run out, the interview could have kept on going.
"This whole tour is based around us getting songs ready for 311 day," he said from his home in Southern California. "It's an eclectic show, not a specific set. It could be anything."
P-Nut was referring to what fans might hear at the Reno show from 311's library, which goes back more than 20 years. Casual listeners will recognize 311 by songs that hit the charts and the radio, such as 1995's "Down" and "All Mixed Up," 2001's "Amber" and 2004's cover of The Cure's "Love Song," which was featured in the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore film "50 first dates."
The group officially formed in Omaha, Neb. in 1990, with vocalist/guitarist Nick Hexum, vocalist/dj S.A. Martinez, lead guitarist Tim Mahoney, drummer Chad Sexton and bassist P-Nut. The quintet of Midwestern boys grew up with all different kinds of music being played in their homes in the 1980s, P-Nut said, which contributed to the variety of influences each member brought to the group.
"There was no scene in the Midwest, so we kind of got to make our own scene music-wise," P-Nut said.
The result of that blend was a style of music that is difficult to categorize, but always upbeat with undeniable rhythm. The group's varied appeal is evident in some of the other stars with whom 311 has performed: from rap legend Snoop Dogg to rocking Hasidic Jew Matisyahu to The Wailers.
While the group has, according to official Web site www.311.com, sold more than 8.5 million albums in the U.S., 311's real mark has been made by extensive touring and unique live shows. The highlight of the group's live shows is 311 Day, which started as a New Orleans show in 2000 but was moved to Memphis in 2006 because of Hurricane Katrina. This year, the show is being held in Vegas for a slightly less dramatic reason.
"This time there's a surgeon's convention in which 30,000 or so doctors are showing up on that same week in New Orleans and they scooped tons and tons of hotel rooms and actually kind of jacked up the price since surgeons are a little more well-to-do than your average traveling-around fan of rock music," P-Nut said. "So we had to come up with another place and we didn't really want to do it in Memphis again, just to do something different. If we were going to be forced to do something different, we wanted to do something different different. So Vegas kind of reared its head and I was a little reluctant about it, picturing our fans taking over the city, but I've warmed up to it a lot."
Vegas will no doubt welcome the thousands of fans who turn out for 311 Day, which typically is a multi-day event, culminating in an hours-long performance by the band.
"It's more mentally challenging than physically challenging because you can take it at whatever pace," said P-Nut, who cites R&B singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Curtis Mayfield as one of his biggest influences. "On stage you can pretty much decide how hard you're going to push yourself and it's easier when there's 12,000 people watching you, egging you on. They're the hardest of the hard core fans that take the time, trouble and expense to travel and see our marathon show. It all makes it, not easy, but it makes it easier. We wouldn't do it on a regular show but knowing people expect a lot out of the 311 Day show and it's every other year it kind of allows to get physically and mentally prepared for it."
Throughout their career, 311 has remained steady in releasing new albums, putting out new material every other year or so, in addition to various greatest hits and live recordings.
"I think its just our drive to just keep doing something different is really the key," P-Nut said of the group's motivation and longevity. "You listen to a lot of our older stuff and the stuff recorded in Omaha and then the first couple albums I saw and I continue to see us on mission to just keep being creative and not fall into any particular kind of formula. If we want to make hard rock song or we want to make a reggae song or we want to make some kind of evil mishmash of the two and then anything else kind of comes out its all fair game for us and the band and that's what really keeps it interesting. I think if we had just a narrow view of what our sound should be like I don't know if we'd have made it as far as we've gotten because some or all of us would have gotten bored with a simpler concept."
The band's most recent album, "Uplifter," was released in June 2009 and was produced by Bob Rock, who is known for helping bands through tough times (e.g., Metallica in the mid-1990s). P-Nut said 311 was in a bit of a rut and that Rock helped them through it.
"He picked out little gems of ideas during jam sessions, which impressed us all really deeply," P-Nut said. "He broke some of the tension that had grown between us and helped us appreciate each other's idiosyncrasies."
The band will play Monday at the Knitting Factory, 211 N. Virginia St. in Reno. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. with Tomorrow's Bad Seeds. Tickets range from $40 to $90 and can be purchased by visiting http://re.knittingfactory.com.
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