Come Original — 311 Brings High Energy Hip Hop/Reggae To Mechanics Bank Arena

Bakersfield is well regarded as a music town. Roots run deep, with legends Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Jean Shepard, and Susan Raye bringing The Bakersfield Sound to a national audience. The local obsession with musical entertainment endures with well known Bakersfield-based groups including Korn, Adema, and local acts Mento Buru, The Appletons, Whiskey Galore, Fistful of Nickels, Vince Galindo, and many more. 

Bakersfields’s Historic Fox Theater, Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, World Records, Dignity Health Ampitheatre, and Mechanics Bank Arena have all hosted innumerable world-renowned acts over the years, in every conceivable genre from Tim McGraw to The Ataris.

On March 3, 2024, Mechanics Bank Arena hosted Omaha-based rock/reggae/hip hop/funk band 311. Mechanics Bank seats 10,255 in the main arena, but this show was held behind the stage of the 3,000 seat theater, in a 100,000 square foot space that MBA calls their ‘Convention Center.’

San Diego’s Sitting on Stacy kicked off the show with F Nature, and I think it’s fair to say 311 is counted among the young group’s musical influences, along with Sublime and half a dozen other bands I listened to in high school. With an easy reggae beat, punk elements, and some surf rock riffs thrown in for good measure, Sitting on Stacy’s set was a perfect warm-up for 311’s signature blend of hip hop, reggae, rock, and funk. 

F Nature was followed by Making Any Sense, Baby Girl, This Summer’s Day, Crème Brûlée, Tokyo, Chest Hair, California, and ended with Birthday Wishes. 

I’d highly recommend checking these kids out on their YouTube channel here, and then checking out their catalogue here for streaming and download.

And then it was on to the main event. The last time I saw 311 live was in the early days of the Warped Tour. I’m old. I know. The 90s are huge right now, though. A quick look at 2024’s big festivals and tours will yield such names as Weezer, P!nk, Usher, Beyonce, Green Day, Alanis, Blink-182, Foo Fighters, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Porno for Pyros, Tool, and many more acts from the late 20th century. 

The set kicked off with Beautiful Disaster, followed by Freeze Time, Come Original, Taiyed, Do You Right, Large in the Margin, All Mixed Up, Transistor, and Sick Tight. Then P-Nut played an extended bass solo for several minutes, before the rest of the band retook the stage for Don’t Stay Home, Extension, Too Late, Loco, Applied Science, Champagne, One and the Same, Amber, You Wouldn’t Believe, and Creatures (for a While). The night was capped with a two song encore of Feels So Good and Down.

I’d been waiting for this show for a while. It’s been a minute since I’ve driven less than two hours to a show as big as this one. The venue did surprise me a little, considering the size of some of the other venues on 311’s current tour, but it worked. The crowd was hot, the opening act understood the assignment, and 311 delivered a set that was packed with hits from throughout their epic three and a half decade career.