caught a rollins spoken word gig last night . just him and a mike on an empty stage. that cat is so frickn intense and magnetic and just DOES NOT STOP !he took 1,000 people on a roller coaster ride for a solid 2 1/2 hours ! everyone was riveted and the crowd was pretty varied - hard core rollins heads, pasty white yuppies and techies, many more people over 60 than i’d ever expect including the barbara bush look alike who came halfway through and booted us out of her center aisle seats. not alot of brothers though but i’d say 5-10%.
amazing to me a guy can do that every night with maximum t-level intensity ! he does some good impressions and his voice is sooo frickn strong it’s unreal.
2 1/2 hours no down time, no dead air, no piss break. the guy didn’t even have a bottle of water on the stage and his voice never cracked and i swear he never even cleared his throat ! killer time for $20. unbeatable !
[quote]elevationgain wrote:
Damn Swivel you lucky mofo…
I’ve always wanted to see his spoken word live.
What were some of the topics he discussed?
[/quote]
wow my brain was just over stuffed w/ so much material i can’t remember it all. major topics i remember were G.W. the press corps., his(rollins) perspective on iraq and afghanistan where he’s spent quite ALOT of time especially in what he described as the seemingly endless hospitals for our soldiers. he took a like a two week train ride on the trans siberia express and didn’t bring nearly enough food and had to eat the train food and puke in the"people’s toilet" and told how people get of the train at stops and the train leaves them there w/ no money passport etc ! said there’s nothing to do for two weeks but wonder if you’re gonna die watching the frost grow on he inside of the cabin. after a week he figured out that the intermittent clanging noise he was hearing was the russian weightlifter stewardess chopping off W/ A HATCHET the stalagtite like formations of feces that form and build and build and build into a giant logS off the back of the train as they evacuate “THE PEOPLE’S TOILET” .
also spun a good one about various people minor celebs and pakistani cab driver named “ijaz” who tried to pick him up. "henry give me your phone # and i will drive my cab day and night until i have enough money to fly you back to my big house in pakistan "
he did a serious bit about the his last days w/ joey ramone. that one hit home pretty good. but the personal stories about the soldiers in iraq he’d met definitely hit the hardest. it was really hard to hear some of that stuff. he did say they were getting kick ass state of the art care, that what you see anywhere in the media is a really clean version representing a small percentage of the majority of the wounded, and how incredibly strong and endurant and kick ass capable the nurses who really run those hospitals are.
amazing to me was his ability to go off on these detailed tangents - even juggling two or three at a time and then come back to the where he started like ten fifteen twenty minutes before and tie it all together. the guy can really weave it . awesome !
I didn’t even realize but I believe the Rollin’s Band put out a new album this year? Probably one of the best shows that I’ve seen (besides maybe Fugazi) was Black Flag waaaaaayyy back in 86’. Just classic Rollins; no shirt, no shoes, black shorts, and long hair. The guy belted out well over 2 hours of strong armed punk rock without one lapse in intensity.
[quote]bgl500 wrote:
I didn’t even realize but I believe the Rollin’s Band put out a new album this year? Probably one of the best shows that I’ve seen (besides maybe Fugazi) was Black Flag waaaaaayyy back in 86’. Just classic Rollins; no shirt, no shoes, black shorts, and long hair. The guy belted out well over 2 hours of strong armed punk rock without one lapse in intensity.[/quote]
you know it bro ! its not the old rollins band but last few years henry plays w/ a trio that performs as “mother superior” when they’re not rollins band. they smoke ! yeah rollins in just those shorts is so classic. they say every real rollins fan has seen his balls.
i’ve never seen 'em and i’m not sure it’s on my list of things to do before i die…i remember though the first time i ever even heard of him was prolly on good ol MTV about ten years ago and there was this waaay to intense motherfucker w/ a ten foot neck and birth control eyeglasses yelling into the camera about what they do to bulls before the bullfight and how when the odd bull spears the matador it’s " SOME RIGHTEOUS PAYBACK !!!" i hadn’t even heard his music yet but i was hooked right there !
If you can’t catch him live, he’s remastering 2 or 3 of his spoken word albums for re-release.
I’m getting mine.
Where’s that “Iron” piece he wrote. Someone posted it over on Chris’ blog.
If the stars align and he can catch up to him, Chris said a T-Nation interview with Hank is in the future.