311 | Hawaii

In 1995 I began working for 311. During the eleven years that passed after that , I had the opportunity to travel with them all over this country, including Hawaii. Generally when the band visited Hawaii they would rent Harley Davidson motorcycles and spend at least a day cruising the island. Being that they were somewhat novice riders, management would often encourage these joy rides to take place after the show, so that any accidents would not interfere with the concert. Most of the band equipment was shipped in days before the concerts, including the merchandise for the shows. The promoter would hold the stuff until the first show, and then we would rent a small airplane to island hop the gear between shows. Some of those small cargo planes were incredibly rickety looking, and rusty. The band and crew took commercial planes, or sometimes helicopters between islands.
Promoters are allowed to print posters to advertise the show. Some of these are done with more artistic talent than others. All of these promo posters become collectible. Very rarely, the bands photograph is included in the art. These posters are distributed to record stores, bars, nightclubs, and schools in order to advertise the upcoming show.
On March 24th 2006, Three-Eleven performed a show at the Kona Brewing Company, in Hawaii. The promoter was allowed to incorporate a photograph of the band in its Promo poster.
I am auctioning this RARE poster, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

311| Sticky Aftershow Pass

This authentic and unused 311 backstage after show pass comes from the Soundsystem tour of 2000. I don't remember what the marks CS stood for back then. These after show passes are generally reserved for attractive audience members, radio station personnel and contest winners. Unfortunately, a pass like this guarantees nothing other than being held at bay by a local security guard, while the band showers, eats, parties with friends, and then maybe stops by the meet and greet area, hours after the last note of the evening has been played.

To be sure, in some venues, it is a different story altogether. If the promoter offers a room, and staff, catering and couches the parties can, and do rage. Most often, promoters are trying to save money, and contribute nothing to the after show party on the 311 tour.

Most of the after show meet and greet happens on one of the bands 3 tourbusses, only a few of the people sitting in the house holding pen, get invited onto a bus.

In 1993 I toured with Gun's and Roses during their tour with Faith No More and Metallica. They brought 3 semi-tractor trailers full of after show equipment (one of which was a patio that unfolded to accommodate three 8 person hot tubs) which were used to build tents around the enormous after show parties at every venue.

There were over 30 trucks that carried the G'n'R tour around. 311 generally travels with 3 trucks max.

311 | 711

In 2000, 311 was touring to support The From Chaos Album. I traveled with the band sporadically on this tour as more and more mail-order/Internet business was pouring in at home. Many shirts have been popular over the years but one that stood out was the 311 7-11 logo. It was one of the most popular. Whenever I ordered it though, in the back of my mind, I thought I wonder what 7-11 thinks of this. Well one day in October of 2000 we found out. The 7-11 corporation hired an attorney in New York, to contact us to say that they did not like us selling a shirt that looked so similar to their logo. They asked us to cease and desist selling the shirt, and to send them all the remaining shirts. We sent them a few boxes with an apology. Since we had just ordered hundreds of them we tried to unload them quickly at shows in New York, Pennsylvania, and Boston, at $5 each. They sold like crazy at $5 a pop, but soon we got another letter from 7-11 claiming damages. At this point, we decided to use them as giveaway shirts to local crew at the end of each night. Again, threatening letters came from their lawyers. At this point we just sent the rest to the lawyers and walked away from one of the best selling 311 shirts of all time. During the shows where we sold them for $5 some fans bought dozens at a time, and I still see them being auctioned on eBay from time to time. The venues who we asked to sell $5 HATED doing this, since it was equal work for ¼ pay. One venue hated it so much that they counted us back several dozen bootleg Jessica Simpson shirts slipped in with our returns for the evening, thereby increasing their profits. Merchandising is a cut throat affair, that any band who is popular is blessed by the curse of.