311 LIVE!! | REDHAT AMPHITHEATER
Coverage by Chris Sturk
311 performed at the amazing Redhat Amphitheater in Raleigh NC in sweltering hot weather as noted by Doug Martinez who said to the crowd. “Does it ever cool down in North Carolina Raleigh!?”. The crowd started to laugh, and everyone shook their heads “NO!”. I have had the opportunity to cover 311 three times over my career and even saw them perform live in the late 90’s when I was a senior in high school. One of my favorite records from 311 is called “Grassroots” which was released in 1994, and that album was always in my CD player on heavy rotation. The song “Homebrew” was such a great song with this killer breakdown that just got you pumped up and then add in the killer lyrical performance of Doug Martinez and Nick Hexums vocal harmonies, it just made that record amazing. I had never heard anything like 311 before until my introduction to the Grassroots album, and ever since then I have been hooked. To be honest there are so many great songs from that album I could talk all day about it!
311 has been around since the early 90’s but are best known for their self-titled breakthrough album which was released in 1995 called “311”. Some people including my friends, and I called it the “Blue Album” because the album cover was this cool blend of dark and light blues with the 311 logo at the top. This album included some of their biggest hits to date, songs such as, “Down”, “All Mixed up” and “Purpose”. This album was played on every alternative rock station in the state of Massachusetts which is where I grew up and was one of the best records of that year. The band then released another killer album called “Transistor” which brought us the great songs “Beautiful Disaster”, “What was I thinking” and “Tune In”. Another one of my favorite songs is from the album “ From Chaos” which was released in 2001 and the song is called “Amber”. It is such a chilled out song with some great harmonies, one of my favorites. Ok, enough about the music lets talk about the show!
311 always puts on a fun and energetic show with Nick Hexum moving around the stage and engaging with the crowd as well as Doug Martinez. The performance at the Redhat was a little bit different from shows I have seen before. This particular venue offered them a larger platform to play with and they had these large panels that lit up with different colors as well as strobe lights shooting out into the night sky. They opened the show with the song “Beautiful Disaster” and the crowd went crazy when the heard the start of the song. I turned around in the pit to see fans raising their hands and singing along with each lyric. I myself even had to take a moment to sing a long for a few bars and then get back to taking images! They performed some of their biggest hits including, “All Mixed up”, “Come Original (which is such a fun song!)” , “Amber” and they closed out the show with “Down”. The band as a whole sounded incredible and they are alway so much fun to see live. You can’t help yourself but sing along and dance around while they perform. If you are a 311 fan and have not seen them perform live yet, what are you waiting for!! It will be one of the best shows you see this year.
