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Henry Rollins (USA): Spoken Word
04/14/03
AB, Brussels
A lot has been written about the schizophrenic maniac that Henry Rollins is. While his concerts with the Rollins Band are usually gut-wrenchingly intense, sweaty and, uh, very serious affairs (leading many people to think the guy is just a humorless macho misanthrope), his spoken word shows display an entirely different side of the man. Alone on a stage, Rollins cannot only be compared to a verbal hurricane (you have to witness the man’s non-stop delivery just to believe what you’re hearing), but he’s also loose, funny, and clearly feels at home when confronting 500-600 people with nothing more than a microphone and a bottle of water. I had read that Rollins’ current spoken word-tour had received rave reviews overall, with Rollins delivering the goods night after night. And indeed, he started around 8 p.m. and didn’t stop until 10:40 p.m. In between were funny anecdotes, spine-chilling confessions, exciting life stories and – unavoidably – also lots of bile.
Bile, venom, anger, call it what you want: that’s what Rollins opened with. At the age of 42, having been on the road for 22 years, he’s angrier than ever and needs to vent his opinions. This led to thoughts about age, about how people perceive you when you’re no longer a twenty- or thirty-something guy, and no longer expect you to be intense (“Wow man, you’re heavy … for someone your age”), and about surroundings that just don’t want to evolve at the same speed you do. Rollins, a self-made Renaissance-man, also vented his disbelief about several dodgy practises, in modern day society that still doesn’t succeed in meeting people’s needs and expectations, and the passiveness and laziness of the people he meets every day. A highlight of the night was Henry reading the questions he was asked by a college student (“If you were a crayon, what color would you be, and why?”), saying he was confronted with similar stuff all the time, and it still baffled him that someone “who’s paid to consume knowledge” had the guts to come up with questions like that.
Unavoidably, a certain portion of his performance was dedicated to more current affairs: the war in Iraq. Luckily, all this was not delivered in a pushy, moralistic way as Rollins repeatedly stressed he tried to be as open about it as possible, and instead of targeting easy victims (Bush and his administration) on an easy level with weak arguments, he tried to look at it from different perspectives, mainly focusing of Bush’s communication skills (his imitation of Bush trying to pronounce fragments that were longer than just a few words were plain hilarious), the censorship of CNN, the optimism of the Iraqi Secretary of Information, and the rudeness of Rumsfeld (“There are only two or three people on this planet who don’t give a fuck about what other people think about them, and Donald Rumsfeld is one of them”). The best part of the show (to me at least) came when Rollins dwelled upon the recent deaths of some of his heroes: Joe Strummer, Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone. Rollins told about the first Ramones-gig he attended (where 700 people where shoved in a venue that could fit maximum half of that, so that “by the time the Ramones started, the odor of ass-cracks, pot, beer and sweat was all over the place”), a gig that would be decisive for the course of his life (and that of most of his friends). The music-theme also led him to the West Memphis 3-cause (and the benefit album he organized to support it), and his involvement in movies. A highlight here was his story about how he bullshitted himself into Bad Boys 2, a 150 million $ blockbuster.
At the end, coming full circle, he once again focused on his current state of mind, but also told some stories of how he got to be the person he is: some of the things he told were almost painful (getting mistreated as a child during a birthday party, resulting in near-epileptic fits), others were funny (going to a party at the Osbournes’ place) or not nearly fitting the popular image people believe in (Rollins spending his nights bidding on Ebay). All in all, the show was a 150-minute shot of adrenaline. Entertaining, very funny, and often thoughtful, Rollins didn’t cease to amaze his audience by staying as fierce and honest as possible. The fact that he could entertain a packed venue for an entire evening might very well prove that he’s the hardest working man in rock ‘n roll after all, also when he’s there all by himself. Even when you’re not into the man’s music (which I can understand), you have to check him out in surroundings like this, because you’ll get so much more than you expected.
Henry Rollins (USA): Spoken Word
01/27/05
De Singel, Antwerp
Action Man Strikes Back
If you've seen Rollins a few times in action, backed by his
band or on his own, you know exactly what you're in for: energy and dedication.
It's like a quality brand, Henry Rollins - 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
Even though short-sighted indie kids will still claim Rollins is a kind of
prehistoric macho man, unable to utter lines that are more elaborate than
"I'm a liar", those who actually have been paying attention know very well
he's one of the most articulate and intelligent rock performers out there.
Propelled by a relentless work ethic, the man has been leaving his mark for
25 years, through his band Black Flag and the Rollins Band, numerous side-projects,
writing and publishing books, releasing spoken word albums, hosting TV and
radio shows, the occasional acting jobs and touring, LOTS of touring. As such,
this was the fourth solo performance I attended in about 6 or 7 years and
none of them has been less than a minor triumph. Seeing and hearing
the bulky guy spew out his ideas on politics, society, the music business
and his own life (the highs ànd the lows) is always a trip, a journey that
takes you to places you didn't know he could take you to. 
Sporting
one small bottle of water - which he needed only once -, Rollins always delivers
a non-stop, high-energy monologue that makes you wonder how anyone could do
that for hours, days, months, years after each other. The answer is simple:
he's addicted to knowledge and to the stage. You may not agree with what he
says all the time (he is opinionated about quite a bunch of topics),
but you'll never accuse him of half-assed opinions or taking an easy way out.
Just like he surgically dissects his president's language impediment, you
won't catch him misquoting anyone or mixing up his arguments. You get autobiographical
anecdotes, socio-critical rants and semi-depressing accounts of less joyful
periods of his life, which would've been hard to take if it weren't for the
fact that he's actually a enchantingly funny guy. The humour, which has been
largely absent from his music career (that may change since his collaboration
with William "Captain Kirk" Shatner), is an almost constant factor during
his shows, as he tackles his subjects with wit, self-knowledge (and deprecation)
and an elastic face. After a short introduction, Rollins immediately got to
his main concern (also the reason why he's doing a Shock & Awe-tour):
the war in Iraq, the Bush administration and - especially - Dubya's (lack
of) verbal skills. Okay, okay, I hear you coming, this has already
been discussed to death by many and Bush is an easy target (does that
make it less relevant?), but believe me: when this guy starts off his
"Public Service Announcement for America," you're all ears. With a knack for
physical detail (I swear I've never seen a Bush-imitation being that
accurate) and hilarious timing, Rollins analysed the verbal skills of a president
he's obsessed with, and those who were there will never again forget his attempt
to make sense of Bush-isms like "unleash the compassion" and - an hilarious
highlight - "courageous spacial entrepreneurs" (an improvised synonym for
"astronaut"). As a patriot ("I love my country and I know a lot of Americans
who are good people. John Coltrane also came from there") and a privileged
outsider who's being confronted with how America, its culture and politics
are perceived all over the world, the self-proclaimed "aging alternative icon"
went on to discuss homophobia, Nipplegate and the re-writing of linguistics
exercised by some of his fellow Americans (the hilariously insane "French
vs. freedom" joke). From then on, one feverishly told story followed the
next, only to be interrupted by an occasional "here's something else that
happened." Movie auditions, meetings with "awkward" fans (which launched an
explanation of a rare birth defect called spina bifida), gigging in
Japan and dealing with aggressive audiences, they all appeared as a part of
an extended, 150-minute stream of consciousness. Some stories were sad (taking
leave of a friend's dying mother), some were harsh (visiting a.o. Kurdistan
and Iraq as a kind of United Services Organisations ambassador), some were
downright hilarious (the story of how he got involved with the William Shatner-project
and his impeccable imitation of said icon) and some were disarmingly honest
(lonely nights on eBay), but the show never lost its momentum (how many 2.5
hour shows like that can you remember?). Rollins often refers to himself
as a bullshit artist, a moderately talented guy who's fortunate enough
to travel all over the world and experience and learn about things, but the
thing about him is that he - more than almost any other artist out there -
uses his experiences, learns from them to come to terms with the world (or
make an attempt to) and shares them with others in a perplexing way. Even
for that reason alone, you should cherish the guy, we really could use more
artists like him. I sometimes wonder why exactly the guy and his music meant
that much to me when I was 15 or 16, but each time I see him giving his all
on stage, I'm reminded of the reasons. What a class act.
Read album reviews of similar or related artists: Rollins Band