However, the July 7th show brought back the energy, and a lot of the songs that made them an alt-rock mainstay. Feeding off the success of their “Greatest Hits 93-03” set, the band displayed a vigor that kept the crowd going the entire night.

The nearly two hour set started with requisite 311 jams “Are You Ready” and “Homebrew”. The energy took a backseat about six songs in, because of a fistfight in the first ten rows that stopped the show for a few minutes. Lead singer Nick Hexum handled the fight well and allowed enough time for the fight to pass before getting back to the show.

Songs such as “Come Original” and “Freeze Time” were ignored on the last tour stop in Detroit, but they were covered during this show. Halfway through the set brought the band’s current hit, a cover of the Cure’s “Love Song”. Even with the popularity of the song on radio, it seemed as if most of the hardcore 311 fans just wanted the band to get the rest of the set.

The estimated crowd of 11,000, consisting of mostly college kids (a lot of Michigan State sweatshirts around); hippie-wannabes and thrift-store indie kids was probably the largest crowd 311 played to in a few years. The past few years had seen crowds about half that. The last time 311 played for a crowd that large, they opened for Jay-Z on the Liquid Mix Tour in 2002.

The large, vibrant crowd gave the band some extra momentum throughout the show. End of the set songs like massive radio hit “Down” and crowd favorite “Feels So Good” received the strongest reaction from the crowd. All in all, another good set from 311.

Art can be contacted at arthatesyou@detroitbuzz.com