Live review: 311, Sublime with Rome @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Denver Post)

Welcome to 1995 in 2011. Sublime with Rome and 311 brought their Unity Tour house party jams to Red Rocks Amphitheatre for a venerable throwback night.

Sublime with Rome is still mostly playing the same material that was recorded with original singer Bradley Nowell in the early 1990s, while 311 has recorded 10 studio albums that haven’t evolved the band’s sound much further than their breakthrough self-titled album in 1995. You might even accuse these bands of being “cover” bands of their own material. Their members have grown older, but their music and stage persona is stuck in the ’90s, and they almost appear to be filling roles they created for themselves 20 years ago.

So what does that leave us with? A highly entertaining show, a wildly enthusiastic crowd and one of the more enjoyable nights at Red Rocks I’ve experienced this summer. It was about the whole experience. While the music may not be as fresh as it once was, the bands surely have a perfect “summer in Colorado” vibe.

Of course Sublime with Rome opened with “Smoke Two Joints” and set the crowd on the path for the evening. Speaking of the crowd, on my row alone was a group of middle school girls with matching braces, a group of high schoolers with their hats sideways and an unstoppable urge to dance, some mid-20 somethings that still shop at Hot Topic, all the way to balding 40+ crowd with their own kids in tow. And while it sounds like an awkward combo, it was actually pretty great to see them all united in dance under the cool Colorado sky.

While it is somewhat humorous to watch a bevy of white suburban kids enthusiastically yell, “187 on a motherfucking cop” during the chorus of “April 29, 1992,” a year in which many in attendance were born, it was clear most people were in attendance to dance, then smoke, then dance some more.

311 opened with “Beautiful Disaster” and quickly moved through a series of songs from the new album “Universal Pulse,” as well as more crowd favorites such as “All Mixed Up” and “Amber.” While new tunes such as “Sunset in July” sounded poppy to the point of boy-band status and caused notable lags in the crowd energy, ultimately the crowd danced and swayed at every opportunity to do so. And I have to say that I’m a sucker for drum solos that evolve into whole-band drum circles, no matter how pre-rehearsed.

According to 311′s lead singer Nick Hexum, this was the band’s 10th visit to Red Rocks, and by the large and relatively young crowd, it is probably a good bet that this won’t be the last.

This was the music of my high school years, and in the end I can say I have aged about as gracefully as the tunes in the air on this damp summer evening. That is to say not as well as I had hoped, but still fun in the right circumstances.

http://www.heyreverb.com/2011/08/17/sublime-311-red-rocks/