311 Rocks The Valley! (Little Rat Bastard)

On the 9th of December, I had the extreme pleasure of covering one of my personal favorite bands, 311. When I found out that they were coming to the valley I immediately put in my request to The J. A couple days later I received the “OK” in an e-mail, stating that I was on the guest list as well as a time frame of when who was going on. After reading it a couple times, because of the excitement, I soon realized that there was 2 set’s that 311 would be playing. Soon after that I lost my lid and got even more excited. I started going through all of their tracks in my head wondering which ones they would perform. I was really hoping they would play a lot of their older stuff from their self titled album, which in fact they did. They have never disappointed and have always come through on all of the great songs.

After shooting the 3 songs, I returned to my seat but I felt like I was stumbling all over the place…second hand smoke. The place was one giant hot box, but that is quite honestly expected at a 311 show! To my surprise no one was removed from the venue and they were not shy about where and what they were lighting up! For me, a $6 beer was good enough to enjoy the show.

We were on our feet damn near close to the entire show because of the set list. They kept mixing it up from old to new to older to newest. Once I finally calmed down and tried to take it all in I looked around the venue and noticed the crowd. It was a good mix of older and younger people. From my experience, I’ve noticed the older generation will generally be in the crowd. I did notice a couple father/son attendees which I thought was real cool! It made me happy to see that just because my generation can share what we went through in the 1990′s to the younger thundercats and keep great music and musicians going through the ages!

Recommendation, if you haven’t checked out a live 311 show, do so. You will not be disappointed and have a blast! They have such raw talent and all of them, Nick, S.A., Tim, P-Nut and Chad will keep you entertained for hours!!! Just wait until they all get on the percussions and P-Nut “beats that thang.”

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