With winter weather on its way and midterms looming over students’ heads, UCSD wisely chose to have 311 lure students out of lecture halls and onto Warren Field for the first free noon concert of the year.
Vocalists Nick Hexum and SA Martinez, guitarist Tim Mahoney, bassist P-Nut and drummer Chad Sexton welcomed a midsize crowd on Oct. 22 with a warm greeting. “”How y’all feelin’? Y’all ready for some lunchtime rock?”” asked Hexum.
The band launched into its 16-song set with “”Freak Out,”” taken from the band’s 1993 debut release “”Music,”” and directly followed with its 1996 hit “”Down,”” which met with a typical solid crowd response of cheering and raised arms. The band was smiling and headbanging throughout, obviously enjoying themselves and playing off of the crowd’s enthusiastic response.
“”I didn’t think the school had it in them,”” said junior Olivia Yaung.
Coming off of the steam of the rap-metal hybrid of “”Down,”” the band shifted gears for the new Weezer-esque pop song “”What do you do?”” This was a gutsy move for a band playing to a crowd that consisted mostly of students on their lunch breaks getting to see a band for free.
“”It’s too bad the crowd isn’t into it,”” said junior Kate Leiserson. “”It’s really cool that UCSD did this.””
During some of the band’s non-singles, such as “”Eons”” from 1999’s “”Soundsystem”” LP, some people still bobbed their heads and danced a little, sometimes singing along. Mixed responses to the band’s set can be partially explained by the fact that a sizable portion of the audience consisted of non-UCSD students who had come to see them.
“”I think it’s awesome that it’s free,”” said UC Irvine student Judy, who drove down to San Diego just to see the show.
Highlights of the show included the pretty guitar arpeggios and dreamy vocals of “”Champagne,”” the five-person drum solo of “”Applied Science,”” and the harmonic Boston-style guitar riffery and razor-sharp drumming of “”Beautiful Disaster.”” The band’s current radio single, “”Amber,”” achieved one of the best crowd responses, transfixing the crowd with its looping guitar riff and laid-back vocal delivery.
“”311 really put themselves into their show. They have lots of energy,”” said UCLA student Vivian.
Before the band broke into its closing number, vocalist Hexum declared, “”It’s called Feels … So … Good,”” in a voice that caused a number of girls to scream. Watching the band have fun with the crowd and with each other is what made the experience enjoyable, regardless of who was “”into it”” and who wasn’t.