Just about two weeks ago, I was among the crowd of Seattleites (and those from beyond our city) who saw 311 play at The Moore, and if I were to drill down my comments about the show to one statement, it’d be that getting to see a band that legitimately had fun on stage and wasn’t looking like they were going through the motions was awesome – and unfortunately atypical.
Aside from the fact that I was able to walk up like an hour or so before the opening act hit the stage, it was a pretty solid crowd of fans that genuinely were into the band. I’d never caught them live before, but as a fan with all of their CDs and that can rattle off lyrics to some of the more random tracks, it was cool to be surrounded by a ton of people that (mostly) felt the same way. I’d always heard that they were an energetic crew on stage, and that definitely came through.
Frontman Nick Hexum definitely brought his “A” game, and seeing sometimes-frontman, always hyped-up fellow singer SA Martinez in action was a pretty good treat. But unlike a lot of other groups you might see, the whole band really kicks it up a notch, and I was amazed at one portion of their show, which I was informed was a staple – and have included a clip someone else in attendance shared. It’s a merge of “Applied Science” and a drum solo – probably not one that you’ve really seen before from other groups, even ones with tremendous drummers. Check it out:
Now I’m not here to post full-on reviews of concerts or anything, but I will say that I was more than taken aback by these comments from a fellow Seattleite who probably wasn’t too much of a fan of the band to begin with, and definitely didn’t dig the performance…at least the part she took in with her eyes.
I hate to say that it’s been nice being able to just pop into a few shows here and there in Seattle that I wouldn’t have gotten into day-of back in NYC or Northern NJ, but it definitely has – and getting to do it in a city with some pretty smart music fans makes it doubly so.
