02 May 311 Rock the House Friday Night

Twenty-five years and 11 albums later, 311 is still keeping the crowd happy.

They know how to play for a festival crowd, even if it means breaking out some of the songs they’re a little tired of playing.

“I wish we’d mix up the set list a little more,” bassist Aaron “P-Nut” Wills said, sitting in an RV parked by the FPL Stage, right along the Intracoastal. “We have too many songs.”

On Friday, May 1 at 8:15 p.m., a bright full moon illuminated the crowd of thousands. The audience’s cheers grew as 311 made their way to their instruments.

“Sunfest, how you feeling?” said lead singer, Nick Hexum (you can read our interview with Hexum here).  The band went into their first song of the night, “Homebrew,” and it was like nothing had changed.

“What’s up West Palm, how you feeling?” Hexum continued. “This is a kick ass place to put on a concert. People of South Florida, let me hear you make some noise.” 

311 played  songs that spread across the band’s timeline including “From Chaos” and “Freeze Time,” but they also mixed in new tunes off their recent album, “STER3OL1TH1C.”

When asked if “STER3OL1TH1C” was everything P-Nut wanted it to be, he said it was that and more.

“We second guess ourselves a little bit. We’ll smooth things out instead of leaving them rocky and bouncy, which we weren’t afraid to do when we were younger. And now, it’s not like we’re afraid to do it, but it’s just easier to simplify things instead of taking radical turns. But [album producer] ‘Scotch’ [Scott Ralston] is a weirdo, like all sound guys, so working with him again, we’ve already got songs ready for a 12th album.”

And of course, they played their 2001 hit single, “Amber,” which will fittingly be the name of their first 311 beer  — Amber Ale.

P-Nut really took the reigns on the project, being the band’s resident beer expert. “I had a girlfriend a million years in Omaha when we were growing up that worked in a brewery,” he said. “It was a nice lesson.”

Now, he’s ready for a whole line of 311 beer: “As soon as they came up with the Amber idea I was like ‘OK, I got something else. Let’s do something nice and strong let’s call it ‘The Beautiful Disaster.” I’m really excited about it, I love trying it. Some of the most interesting meetings we’ve had have been the beer meetings, call it work.”

As the band played songs like “My Stoney Baby,” their reggae influence crept through more and more, to the crowd’s delight — and the band. Hexum revealed in our previous interview that the band’s next album will include more reggae songs.

“We need to,” P-Nut said of the genre. “There’s bands that have had whole careers based on a facet of something that we do and we’re more concerned about rocking the crowd. Maybe we could smooth them out.”

And judging by the crowd’s support, it seems like they’d be willing to follow anything 311 does.

The mix of ages in the crowd — from a boy who couldn’t be older than 8 years old sitting on the fence in an oversized 311 shirt, throwing his fist in the air, to older couples dancing to the band’s well known “Love Song” cover (originally by The Cure) — served as the perfect exhibit of how many different generations support the band.

“I feel like we’ve changed way less than the audience has changed,” P-Nut said. “The audience has changed 100 percent and we’re just the same people.”

The band continued with songs like “Jackpot” before finishing their set. The group’s rapper, SA, provided comedic relief as he fake conducted the band, did robotic dance moves and even played a mean fake violin.

“No one burns more calories than SA, no one sweats more,” said P-Nut of his band mate. “He’s just a unscrewed fireplug just leaking the whole time. I’m far away I’m on the opposite side of the stage.”

And he was. P-Nut was on the far right side of the stage, cool, calm and collected, playing his bass with green lights illuminating the frets.

He was very in his zone, and he attributes it to his pre-show routine.

“An hour before I play, I’ll warm up through yoga or working out,” he said. “Not like Jared Leto, Jared Leto will run. You’ll see him like ‘Oh I think 30 Seconds To Mars is going to play’ and you’ll see this flash, this really attractive flash of darkness go by and it’s Jared running his ass off. He would be doing the 5K if he were here. ” 

311 wrapped up with encore performances including “Beyond the Gray Sky,” where the band asked the audience to ‘light a candle for the dead.’

The response was a mix of lighters, cell phones and LED lights — perhaps the truest testament to the number of generations 311 has touched.