Behold the heavy hammer of 311. It hasn’t changed a lot over 23 years.
The Nebraska-spawned quintet, fronted by singer-guitarist Nick Hexum, delivers a pounding assault leavened by ska and reggae rhythms, and it rarely let up last night at Comcast Center in front of 16,000 people.
The band was back headlining what it called a “Unity Tour,” something it’s been doing with simpatico bands since 2006.
This year it was with ska-reggae-rockers Sublime with Rome. Both bands, to a degree, are out to prove relevancy after their ’90s heyday. Each has brand-new CDs — “Universal Pulse” for 311 and “Yours Truly” for SwR, its first since founding singer Bradley Nowell’s overdose death in 1996.
Hexum, who with his cut build and white teeth looks like he stepped out of a Gap ad, and the rest of the band began their 100-minute set with the head-banging snarl of “Beautiful Disaster.”
At one point, drummer Chad Sexton led a five-man percussion attack and at another, P-Nut unleashed a spacey bass solo — same as what they did two years ago here when I saw them last. Guitarist Tim Mahoney gave the band whatever subtlety it possessed with some tasty licks.
They tossed a few new songs in the 20-plus set, including a skanking “Trouble” at the end.
Overall, though, 311 kept hitting the same notes. Tedium set in and exacted its grip, relinquishing it at the end of the regular set with their shout-a-long fave, “Down.”
Sublime with Rome — the surviving rhythm section of Sublime with burly, tattooed new singer-guitarist Rome Ramirez — opened with an hour of highly compatible reggae-ska-punk, slinkier than 311.
Midset, Rome sang a couple of lines of “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse, the troubled soul siren who died yesterday. Sublime with Rome also played a couple of songs from their new disc plus favorites “Wrong Way” and the closing “Santeria.”
http://bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/profiles/view.bg?articleid=1353809
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