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311 and Snoop Dogg Baton Rouge River Center - 7-29-08 Quite a few New Orleanians were in attendance tuesday night at the Baton Rouge River Center for the 311 Unity Tour Show. Snoop Dogg opened the show with a large band consisting of a DJ, Drummer, Bass Player, Guitarist, and a cast of characters on vocals. Snoop rocked the mic hard for his set, but unfortunately, either the mix or the acoustics or a combination of the two were such that the only things clearly audible were Snoop's vocals and the snare drum. Everything else was lost in a bass heavy mush that had no clarity of sound, but was ridiculously loud. The mainly young crowd loved it anyway, and Snoop's ability as an MC is without question, but I can't help but wonder, why is it necessary to ruin the sound of what was probably a great backing band with excessive volume? Three-Eleven came out strong with a tune called "Beautiful Disaster", and Tim Mahoney and Nick Hexum played a very nice opening harmonized guitar melody together with drummer Chad Sexton and bassist P-nut funking out the groove to support the melody. Hexum sang well with a sureness of pitch and clarity of tone that was remarkable. Raps and Turntables were provided by S.A., who jumped around the stage with boundless energy. The band played a set of tunes, largely from their first album, which was heavy hitting and tight as could be. The set got mellow with a cover of the Cure's "Love Song". The sound overall was much better for 311, however there was still a lot of distortion, not that the band was creating intentionally, but that came from the overdriven PA system and the concrete acoustics of the River Center. The drum solo in the song "Applied Science" showcases Chad Sexton's blazing fast chops, and as he got deeper into the solo, more drums were brought onstage for the other members of the band to play. With the drums quickly staged, they all played together with each of the other instrumentalists taking a part of Sexton's beat and playing that on their drum, creating the effect of a marching band's drum cadence. This was highly effective and cool to watch. Their light show coordination with all of this was  pretty amazing as well. We walked down to the center of the arena on the break and took a look at the state of the art computer system controlling all of the lighting effects, and with its five computer screens and what looked like an extremely expensive digital mixer, I can see why the effects were so tight. Overall 311 as a band was on fire, and played tight as the skin on a drum. Also, Snoop Dogg turned in a solid performance, but, the sound left a lot to be desired. Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Comments (1) ... written by cameron crofts, November 26, 2008 hi my name is cameron crofts report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0 Write comment Name Comment smaller | bigger Write the displayed characters Add Comment