Transistor

311 Livestream 3/11/21

Transistor was released on August 5, 1997 and the first time I ever saw 311 was exactly three months later on November fifth. While this stream was not half the experience of that concert it was still special. Maybe it was due to the stream actually being on 3/11 but something just felt different about this one versus the other two I had seen. Maybe it is just because I forgot how many songs I really like on the album. Maybe the band was stoned? Whatever the reason(s) I thoroughly enjoyed seeing/hearing 311 play the shit out of “Transistor,” “Beautiful Disaster,” “Electricity,” “Use of Time,” “The Continuous Life,” “Color,” “Light Years,” “Borders” and “Stealing Happy Hours.” S.A. Martinez has a unique voice and his singing on “Inner Light Spectrum” was stellar. Before performing “Light Years” Nick Hexum said that the song was tentatively named “Ghost Town Reggae.” Apparently ghosts killed the bass after that because P-Nut was out of service for the whole song but the rest of the band carried on like the professionals that they are.

311 11/5/97

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Less than two months later and my whole world was about to be rocked. Roscoe and I decided to make a trip to Seattle to see two consecutive nights worth of concerts. The first of these concerts was this 311 concert. I believe we stayed with my friend T-Bone. The first opening band was a then little known band called Incubus. They were touring for their second full length album S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Brandon Boyd had long dreadlocks and beat the hell out of a hand drum on “New Skin.” I remember thinking they were pretty good but then forgot about them until after Make Yourself came out. Next up was Sugar Ray. They were enjoying the success of the song “Fly” from the album Floored. I thought they were alright but the singer, Mark McGrath, was pretty funny because he was so sarcastic. Then came 311. They just flat out rocked. They were on tour for Transistor but I had got into them via Rose right after the self-titled album came out. Some short random girl asked me to put her on my shoulders, which was cool because she was cute, but that got old fast.