Pop Music Review : 311 at Roxy Mixes Power and Finesse

Soon after hitting the stage at the Roxy on Thursday, the band 311 was soon standing shirtless and sweaty above the mosh-sauna swirl. Fan euphoria aside, the sound of 311 is about more than the usual funk rock themes of sex and youth. It’s mainly about music .

The primal output of these five players from Omaha, Neb., matches the energy of anything else in the neo-funk-rock genre, while drawing on a sophisticated range of such other music as jazz, reggae and pop. That musical vocabulary had the band often at its best at the Roxy when deep into an accelerated instrumental jam, more Meat Puppets than Chili Peppers.

Drummer Chad Sexton shuffled all these diverse tempos into a cohesive rhythm, as co-vocalists Nicholas Hexum and SA traded raps and a smoother funk crooning, never overwhelmed by the volume around them.

Now well into their second national tour, the band (relocated to Los Angeles) has attracted a passionate club following, without the benefit of significant radio airplay. This 90-minute show demonstrated a mix of power and finesse that the band has yet to fully capture on record. But the performance of songs from the new “Grassroots” album showed it’s mastered this intensely urban pop style.