well.... I'm old. I remember a buddy of mine back in highschool told me about this band with a number for a name. Seemed dumb but we were just getting into music and I was all about "new" bands that I could brag about knowing/seeing. His older brother would drive us to concerts pretty much every weekend and we would usually bring a girl or two. We werent really athlectic so music was our thing to get girls interested in us I guess.

He had an album that was just called "music" that he wanted me to listen too. Again, dumb name. I took it home and game it a listen. Do you right instantly became our anthem.

My buddy told me they were playing a show out of town that we could go to, but it was 2 hrs out of town and his brother wasnt going to the show. Bummer. Two girls we knew were going though and one had an older sister's friend that could drive us.

It was a fairly long ride. It was kind of awkward because we only knew the one girl and none of her sisters friends. We couldn't find the venue when we got to town and drove around a bit. We contemplated just goign home until we saw a couple people walking and asked if they knew anything. They were going to the show. We parked and headed in with them. It was late fall and cold as fuck in western NY. None of us had jackets of course. The place was small and smelled awful. It was dark and a bit seedy. We hung with the people we walked in with and I felt super awkward. The band came on and it was cool. I still felt out of place not being able to drink or anything. One of the girls must have noticed because she said "relax" and handed me a hand wrapped cigarette. I had smoked a few before and thought how odd she wrapped it herself. It was not a cigarette. It was awesome.

The show was epic. The band addressed the crowd multiple times and the girl was super into me. We crashed somewhere in town that night. The girl and I dated for quite a while after that. Every time a 311 Album dropped we would all be first in line. It was always a great time when the tour game to town. Never quite as intimate as that first time though.

Music ended up becoming a big part of my life. I believe 311 helped shape that. I picked up guitar in high school and have used that to help me through the good and the bad. 311 has shown me that music should be more about open expression and not about what sounds catchy. I love them for that.

tl;dr: First out of town 311 show got me high, laid, and completely into music.