311 Day: Vegas Weekend Demonstrates Band’s Enduring Cult Status, Renewed Touring Strength

Alternative rock touring mainstays 311 always make an occasion of “311 Day” — March 11 on the calendar — and this year seem to have taken it to the next level, with a marathon weekend in Las Vegas bringing out the diehard fans for the annual destination, an NPR Tiny Desk concert reminding those who may have forgotten, and headline tour dates on multiple continents.

“We’ve all been to band events at hotels, but from the second I walked in the hotel doors at the MGM, it was 311 shirts and hats and merch and fans everywhere,” said Cory Brennan, head of 5B Artists + Media, which took on management of the band about a year and a half ago.

Brennan, known for signing and continuing to manage Slipknot among the company’s mostly metal and hard rock management clients, says 311’s rabid diehard fan base has always been strong and remains strong, as evidenced by 10,000 people largely traveling to attend 311 Day, which included two marathon sets at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas March 9-10.

“It was the most communal thing I’ve been to and the most unique experience,” Brennan said. “They played more than 83 unique songs across two days, probably three and a half hours a night on Saturday and Sunday. They’re playing catalog that only the fans would know. You got 10,000, you know, over 10,000 fans in this arena knowing every word.”

The band’s 311 Day celebrations have been taking place as mostly an every-other-year endeavor, starting in 2000 and taking place in various locations including arenas, multiple Vegas events and, in 2023, the 311 Caribbean Cruise with Sixthman. The concept is simple and pure — to celebrate 311’s music and fans in an exclusive environment for diehard fans.

“They get insanely prepared, they take this insanely seriously and set the bar high for themselves a number of years ago and they have to keep elevating it in their minds,” Brennan said.

Next year’s 311 Day is already on the calendar as another Caribbean Cruise, March 26-31, although Brennan says there could be additional 311 Day events if the opportunity presents itself.

However, Brennan and the band see opportunity for the rest of the year as well.

“Their fans consistently show up, they have a rock catalog of a big-time rock band with a series of No. 1 hits, but they also have the lifestyle component of someone like Phish or The Grateful Dead,” Brennan said, noting that the band’s music fits in multiple settings, with reggae, punk, rap and funk leanings. This has seen the bandstepping up its touring and festival game, this year playing larger stages and hitting countries it hasn’t seen in years or even decades.

“For a number of years they sort of went under the radar, at least in terms of the mainstream media and they weren’t really concerned about it but for me, people should known that 311 is doing consistently amazing music, and they have a plethora of mainstream hits,” he said.

“Now, all of a sudden you see 311 playing the DWP festivals or the C3 festivals, you see the reaction of them playing Shaky Knees in Atlanta, or the reaction of them playing in the dark at Aftershock in Sacramento. You can tell a lot of those fans have not heard or seen 311 in a while, and that was special.”

Helping remind the general public about the band was an NPR Tiny Desk concert, which aptly aired on March 11.

“It’s not just reaching the core fan base,” Brennan says of the band’s increasing public looks. “Now it’s reaching people who knew the band from 2000 to the nineties, but just haven’t been following the trajectory of the band.”

The rest of the world is getting in on the action, with 311 recently playing Japan for the first time in 20 years and European dates the first time in about 20 years as well, Brennan said.

It’s been somewhat of a re-education for the industry as well. Brennan credits promoters like festival producer Tim Sweetwood at C3 Presents, who booked the band to play the company’s Sea.Hear.Now, Oceans Calling and Shaky Knees events, along with Andy Copping at Live Nation in the UK and Matt Schwarz of DreamHaus Germany.

Jared Martin at CAA is the band’s agent in the U.S., where the band has headline dates into in the spring and a lengthy outdoor run this summer.

“Promoters are reluctant to work with some people they haven’t worked with in a while, and fortunately I have good relationships with some of these promoters because they’ve seen us deliver on what we said we’re going to deliver on,” Brennan said. “But they can go from Shaky Knees to Aftershock to Hellfest. Three really different festivals, but they fit on all of them.”