Concerts
311 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, 8/23/11
by James on Aug.24, 2011, under Concerts
Yesterday I drove a couple hours down to Mountain View to catch 311 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. Even though my brother got me into them around the time of Grassroots, I didn’t see my first show until 2005. This was my sixth, counting a 311 Day and the Caribbean Cruise this past March, where I saw them twice in addition to catching the simulcast of their third show.
Here’s the setlist from last night:
1 – Beautiful Disaster
2 – Prisoner
3 – All Mixed Up
4 – Sunset In July
5 – Do You Right
6 – Freeze Time
7 – Rock On
8 – Nix Hex
9 – Plain
10 – Applied Science
11 – You Wouldn’t Believe
12 – Gap
13 – Wild Nights
14 – Amber
15 – No Control
16 – The Continuous Life
BASS SOLO
17 – Nutsymtom
18 – Weightless
19 – Beyond The Gray Sky
20 – Don’t Stay Home
21 – Creatures (For A While)
Encore
22 – Who’s Got The Herb?
23 – Mindspin
24 – Down
A few real rarities in there like No Control, The Continuous Life and Mindspin. It’s the second time I’ve seen Gap and they haven’t played it a whole lot since 2008 so that one’s always a treat. It was nice to hear a few of the new songs from Universal Pulse live, too. I had a great spot, about on par with the location I was in for the indoor show on the cruise. Thanks to getting in on the presale I was just five rows from the stage, probably about twenty feet away. It’s not General Admission at Shoreline except for the lawn, so it was nice to be able to get up and move around and know I still had a seat there for me when 311 took the stage. Hey, it was close enough to catch one of the drum heads SA Martinez threw out at the end of the show!
311 is a big touring band, exemplified by playing roughly 50-70 shows per year for over a decade, including over 100 in 2000. They never disappoint and always put on a show that not only looks great, it sounds great as well. One of the things I appreciate – and it might be underrated – is they’ve been together for about 20 years now with no changes. Some bands out there, including Oasis and The Smashing Pumpkins, have had different guitarists and drummers over time, but not 311.
It shows, both on stage and off. These guys just love playing music together and there’s a certain unity to it (that was used intentionally) that makes it so much better. Nick Hexum brings the vocals along with some guitar, SA Martinez complements with more of a rap style and harmonizes nicely with Hexum’s own abilities, Tim Mahoney and P-Nut add in their excellent talents with the guitar and bass, and Chad Sexton’s precise drum skills help complete the whole. I’ve always been a fan of how they incorporate numerous musical styles to create something very original.
As anyone who has looked at my site knows, I love shooting baseball and nature. Concert photography is one of those things that’s a little tougher to do and one reason is the lighting. Without spotlights on people, it’d be even harder than it can be without good professional equipment. Just going as a fan without credentials, I also have to leave the Nikon D3 and the good lenses at home. That’s why I was happy to get some pretty nice shots from a non-DSLR Nikon P500. I’ll probably be putting more photos up on my own site later on but here are 20 of my favorites.
