311 closes out the Grinders concert year in style with sold out evening of greatest hits in an amber haze

311 @ Grinders in 2023. // Photo by Brock Wilbur

Sunday night saw 311 swing through Grinders to close out their summer outdoor concert calendar season. Hailing from Omaha, Nebraska, 311 has been active for more than 30 years, with their debut album Music having just hit a three decade anniversary a few weeks back. [We spoke to S.A. Martinez at that time in an interview ahead of this event.]

Support acts took the stage early in the evening, with Blame My Youth’s rowdy, loose rock antics giving it their all to a crowd that was either too distracted by the Chiefs game streaming on their phones or was not yet in the right headspace/intoxication-level to fully connect with the opener’s set. On a night with football and a competiting Beyoncé mega-event at Arrowhead, the crowd here may have been dedicated, but the full force of the sold out wave of humanity didn’t really land until most of the way through AWOLNATION—whose show was zanier and more synth-sci-fi than it seemed folks were expecting. AWOL made some choices, from leaving most of the major radio hits off their plate to zigging into a frailer falsetto track right when it seemed the crowd was first fully on-board. We can’t wait to see them swing through again, but again for a divided attention audience in Mahomes/Kelce jerseys glued to their phones, an overall connection just didn’t land at this early Sunday set.

311 @ Grinders in 2023. // Photo by Brock Wilbur

The event fired on all cylinders for the boys from Omaha though, as an exceptional career-spanning set lifted the crowd to a near-fugue joint delirium. Some of the messiest drunks we’ve seen in a while collided with wildly patient, supportive showgoers for a love-fest that ended the summer on a perfect note. Nick Hexum and Martinez remained at the top of their game, never failing to catch a note or lyric. Tim Mahoney continues to have the angriest snarling guitar sound in the world’s chillest rock act, and the rhythm section of Sexton and P-Nut could’ve easily driven an extra hour at the pace they were going. With one of the longest and most varied setlists of this tour, KC was given a real treat and we can’t wait for them to swing through again.

SETLIST
Beautiful Disaster
Do You Right
All Mixed Up
Taiyed
Large in the Margin
Come Original
What The?!
Brodels
My Stoney Baby
Bass Solo
What Was I Thinking
Don’t Stay Home
Transistor
Too Late
Applied Science
Use of Time
Hydroponic
Flowing
Amber
Feels So Good
Creatures (For a While)

Encore:
Still Dreaming
Down

311 @ Grinders in 2023. // Photo by Brock Wilbur