Nick Hexum has been running marathons of late.
And in a few days, he'll be playing in one.
As a singer and guitarist in rock/rap/reggae hybridists 311, Hexum is steeling himself for the band's biennial blowout concert, "311 Day," where the group plays upward of 50 songs over five hours, attempting to conjure more good vibes and sunshine than the month of July.
In the meantime, Hexum's getting himself in fighting shape, even though the dude is so laid back and Zen, you can't really imagine him balling up a fist over much of anything.
"It's a little harder, but this is definitely similar," Hexum says of his pre-concert running routine. "You have to pace yourself, and you have to be prepared. You couldn't just step out there cold without any kind of stamina preparation."
Hexum remembers the previous "311 Day," when he got through the show just fine, legs strong, then it hit him all at once and he was drained, like someone had pulled the plug on a bathtub full of adrenaline.
"There's so much energy in the room that I didn't even get the slightest bit tired," he recalls of the concert. "And then even after the show, I was just walking around talking to people, high-fiving, hugging people, and then an hour later, the bottom fell out and I was just beat. I was just so tired."
With 311 first starting to get a set list together six weeks before the concert, where they play lots of rarities and deep album cuts alongside a heightened production show, the event has become a massive undertaking.
This year's installment is expected to draw fans from all 50 states and at least 10 other countries, with the 311 faithful snapping up 12,000 tickets to the event in a day.
Now in its sixth go-round, "311 Day" began in New Orleans in 2000, and has traditionally been held there, except for in 2006, when it moved to Memphis in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
As for the idea for staging a "311 Day" to begin with, it all started almost coincidentally.
"In the early days, we didn't tell people how we made up the name '311,' and that opened it up to a lot of speculation. People were like, 'Maybe March 11 is some special day,' " Hexum says. The band would later reveal that they took their name from a police citation code for indecent exposure in their native Omaha, Neb. "Then, we just happened to have a show on March 11 in New Orleans way back in the day, so we kind of turned that into a special thing.
"It's kept growing and growing," he adds. "Then about 11 years ago (on 311 day), we were like, 'OK, we're going to play three hours and 11 minutes tonight.' And that was like our longest show up to that point. Now, we're not going for any kind of duration record, we're just trying to make it the most special 311 show that there's ever been."
The event has grown to encompass more than just a concert, as it's now a three-day affair with a fan get-together at Jet at The Mirage on Wednesday and a pool party at the Mandalay Bay Beach on Feb. 12, where The Wailers will perform.
Basically, it's one big giant bear hug between the band and its most die-hard followers from across the globe.
"Since everyone's wearing 311 shirts and stuff, they'll just start bonding immediately," Hexum says of the atmosphere at the "311 Day" festivities. "I hear all these stories where people are walking around, like, 'Hey, where are you from?' I've heard that people have met their husbands and stuff like that at these things. It's something that's become bigger than just the band and the music. It's like a movement between the fans."
And this is very much in the spirit of the ideals that 311 has long espoused.
From the onset, a more communal vibe has hung about these dudes. The band was among the leading acts who took the rap-rock amalgam into the mainstream, but unlike most of their peers at the time, there was seldom any testosterone involved.
Instead, 311 has deliberately cultivated a more positive aura -- the band's most recent disc is titled "Uplifter."
As such, this bunch always has been more New Age than nü metal.
"We often have felt like, 'Man, we're a little out of step with where pop culture is at,' " Hexum says. "Especially in the late '90s, there was so much over-the-top anger, we were like, 'Well, what are you guys so mad about?' Music can be a very unifying force, and my heroes are The Beatles, who sing about love and coming together, and the spirituality of U2 and things like that, more than someone who's just here to destruct. That's just what's come naturally to the band, and we've continued to embrace it. It just feels right."
No comments:
Post a Comment