All Mixed Up

Yay, the 311 concert was awesome! Well, let me clarify that. 311 was awesome. The other bands playing the show were kind of lack-luster.

The first band to take the stage was a relatively unheard-of group, Ingraham Hill. They were pretty impressive. They kind of had a whiney, punkish sort of thing going, but it worked for them. Overall, they did a solid set. The twelve people that were there seemed to enjoy it.

Next was Better Than Ezra, who, unbeknownst to me, are responsible for a number of hits I heard from the KJ103 days. They were pretty good too; the lead singer really knew how to play to the crowd, and we all got to get in touch with the mid-nineties. What was really unfortunate was that all 30 people who were there were sitting down at this point, with the exception of the six down on the floor. That said, had they bothered to stand up, they would have had to sit down.

The third act to grace our presence was Unwritten Law, who, despite the lead singer's constant implorations to "get the fuck up," would have put everyone back in their seats, if not out the door. If anything, I can say that they were really good at playing their instruments loudly, and screaming. It was not what one would typically call music, but you could tell that there would be music there, if the band could just calm down a bit, and quit banging on things and screaming their heads off. They seemed pretty angry, or angst-ridden, or something, but I couldn't tell just what it was for, because the only lyrics I could understand were the eloquent "Ooh, la de da," and the profound "Where my bitches, where my hoes? I'm too fucked up to be in love." Anyway, they finally calmed down a bit to play that Seeing Red song from the radio, which was actually pretty good. I gave them an unenthusiastic golf clap as they left the stage, and waited in anticipation for the band I forked over my dinero to see.

As I said before 311 was awesome. They played stuff from their new album, some radio hits, and some songs from their older times; their set did justice to a more or less illustrious 12 year career on the national stage. My only complaint is that they did not play Flowing, one of my four favorite 311 songs. At least they played the other three. Their set was about as well executed as I've seen, everyone played/sang well, they reacted to the crowd, going as far as taking a request for an old song from a guy with a cardboard sign, and had a bunch of crazy lights and stuff. Ultimately, they put on a good show without detracting from their music, which is what I paid for.

The concert, on the whole, was a bit scatterbrained. The bands did not really fit in the same mold, but in the end, that didn't matter. I paid to see 311, and they more than delivered to make up for the lackluster atmosphere of the first two acts, and the horrible performance of Unwritten Law. Aside from one crazy guy with a torn shirt getting arrested, a fight breaking out, and the persistant reefer smoking going on all around, crowd control was pretty good. In the end, I left the Lloyd Noble Center with a smile on my face, a ring in my ears, no baby in my womb, and, more than likely, a contact high. Overall, it was a good time, despite the shortcomings.