'02 Tour

Adam Johnson sent this report of the 12/19 Pomona, CA band show to the Henry Rollins list on 12/20:

Well, it was a late night last night.

One word: Incredible !!!! The opening band went on around 9:15, so the start time on the ticket was a little off…….

The opening band was the Kindred. They looked a little unique, but once they started playing, they kicked ass. I couldn't tell you a thing about the lyrics of their songs because you couldn't understand anything coming out of the singer except for the 500 times he said FUCK on stage, but they all played with a ton of intensity.

Mother Superior hit stage and backed Keith Morris for about three songs before Henry came out and destroyed !!!!! They played a ton of songs. Even more than were on the benefit album.

Henry let us know what the latest on the case was, and that they were using money from these last few shows to pay for further DNA investigation. He also told us that they were filming a video for Rise Above tonight, and it would also be used to raise awareness for the cause. They then did Rise Above again at the end with Keith helping with back-up vocals.

James Woolley sent this report of the 1/20 Nottingham, UK band show to me on 8/30:

Bought THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW FOR SURE last week on cd and it made me want to write up my feelings on the last ROLLINS BAND concert I went to.

It was a Sunday night in Nottingham at the Rock City venue. Rollins Band were playing, supported by the band QUEEN ADREENA who reminded me of the film WISE BLOOD if anyone here has seen it. One of my favourite films, you see. When the band appeared, Henry was sporting a rather unattractive stick-on novelty moustache which I have never seen him do before, then to be stuck up onto the drum kit just below the nose of the glaring sun image which we've all seen before on the cover of THE END OF SILENCE and a certain person's back. This was joined by a good song, DISCONNECT, which was performed with much skill. I won't go into detail about the music, other than to say that the band looked happy and the crowd were well into it, especially at the front where I was being pushed about. I recall well my friend Chris Whyld being remarked on by Rollins because he was wearing a novelty gold tie, saying something about the band HAIRCUT 100, who used to dress rather snazzily I reckon. I was pretty young in the 80s so I can't remember. Anyway, it was funny at least.

Afterwards, I waited around the back of the place with some gals who seemed highly enamoured of the band, which I can't blame them for. I felt pretty stupid standing there, eventually Rollins came down some steps and headed towards the girls and they wanted to get on the bus with him. He said something about the cold in Russia. However, I imagine they were hoping for some heat to be provided by the Jim-Marcus-Jason triangle topped off by the Rollinsmeister. They looked eager, eager and ready. Before they headed off with Henry to the bus/coach, I asked him if he had seen MULHOLLAND DRIVE for some reason. He had not yet and I said he ought to as its a good film in some ways. Anyway, I look forward to seeing Rollins in JACKASS (the film) if he remains in the final cut, although I think it would benefit greatly from some ROLLINS BAND music. They use a song by THE MINUTEMEN on that don't they? Not a lot else to say, but I hope my insights are worthy in some shape or form, if not then...my apologies.

Britney Whiting sent this report of the 4/25 Boise, ID spoken word show to me on 4/28:

I saw Henry at the Big Easy in Boise April 25, 2002. He was, as per usual, hilarious. The Big Easy is a really small venue, I managed to fight my way to the fourth row and then chilled out for an hour before he hit the stage. He pretty much talked about the same stuff as reported in the Denver show. I was quite surprised that he only talked for about 2 hours. Some guys on the right side of the audience wasn't too respectful, he stopped in the middle of a story (about the 5 stalkers he's had in his career) and listened in on their conversation...and proceeded to rip them a new one.

He came to Boise because he had an open day in between Rhode Island and Pocatello, ID. Apparently he didn't want to "sit naked in a Motel 6" all day. So he came back here, said he had a great time last year. Of course, he lamented getting older. Before the show, a CD that he listens to on the road was playing. He realized that all of the bands on the CD were popular 20 years ago. Got into a whole "back in my day" rant which led into a "Black Flag playing in Texas, got called a faggot and beat up a guy rant."

Some other things: Wants to harpoon Rosie O'Donnell, Americans in foreign countries stand out, Butt shot in Morgan's Ferry, the West Memphis Three.

Anyway, it was a great, fairly spur of the moment show and I can't wait to see him for the third time next year!

The show was at CU Denver in the Auraria Events Center. It was free to students, so the crowd was really young, but they seemed to know his stuff pretty well. I was impressed.

He started off with ripping on the place - it was in a gymnasium - and the lighting. There were two spotlights on him - one on each side of the stage. He likened it to being interrogated.

Then, although he said he hates to read things to people because it's like wimping out and not being able to do his job, he read off of the these two HUGE neon green pieces of paper. The first page outlined his observations since he's been back in LA since the end of the tour. The second outlined an e-mail exchange he had with a girl who asked him if he liked Enya and Enigma. It was hysterical. He said he wasn't sure if she was serious or a major master at yanking his chain. His first response was 'Is it Enya the new age singer or the new Enya Ass Crack Pipe 12" dance single?'. He also told her that he's always found Enigma to be a mystery. This exchange went on for four e-mails, which culminated in him explaining his church habits and asking for recommendations on which Enya record to start with. I guess she recently e-mailed him back to see if he liked her suggestion. He said he just could not respond out of fear of being cruel.

He did a whole rant why life is so weird for him in LA. Talked about how his agent practically pounces on him when he's back because she wants to make her 15%. He affectionately called her the dung beatle. So he described his attempts as a non-actor to make the dung beatle happy by auditioning for 'Death to Smoochy' with Danny De Vito - which I think he described on Up for It - and as a replacement host for 'Beat the Geeks' on Comedy Central. We all need to watch for the new season of that show because he got that job. That should be fucking awesome - he said he just berates everyone.

This just transitioned into why, as an East Coast person, he hates LA so much - because no one really means what they say. "We love you, man!" "Did I get the job?" "No, but we love you anyway!" As he has said many times - he just ended up there because that's where the work is. The other great thing that he mentioned about the fakeness of LA and its inhabitants was his appearance on Jay Leno last year with Catherine Zeta Jones. He described how she attempted to give him the Hollywood air kiss and how he is 'icky' with that kind of stuff and had never done that before. The result was him trying to relax enough in less than a second to participate in this ritual and ending up looking like a fish gasping for air. I saw it and it was a riot. He was SO uncomfortable. His new line is that it's because there wasn't enough motherly love in his life for him to be comfortable with that kind of bodily contact.

He did discuss his appearance on 'Late Night with Zack' and how he made a complete ass of himself because they came in his dressing room and let the camera roll on him while he was getting ready. He said that the most horrendous things come out of his mouth when he is front of the camera or in front of audience and he always lives to regret them. In this instance, he picked up a copy of the latest GQ with Tobey McGuire on the cover and though it was kd Lang and her girlfriend (apparently a woman's bare leg is wrapped around Tobey) and said so on camera. I guess the VH1 guys were just wincing. He also talked about how weird it was to do the intro skit, where he made out with this woman. He said that he knew her for approximately 60 seconds before sticking his tongue down her throat. They did two takes and then he shook her hand and left. Said it was one of the weirdest experiences he's ever had.

Then he ripped on Dubya and mentioned that he thought Donald Rumsfeld is the bomb. He said the guy always has an answer for everything and really doesn't care if people like it. He talked a little bit about 9/11 but did not dwell on it. He also mentioned that he is secretly stalking Bill Curtis so he can take his job on 'American Justice'.

The last bit that he told before I left started off with how he doesn't get women and he knows he never will - his standard battle of the sexes stuff. Then he segued into the fact that he got together last summer with a girl he's been friends with for ages. They finally figured out that they were really attracted to one another and had tons in common. He came back from tour earlier this year and was frantically cleaning his house because she was coming to LA for a visit. He got an e-mail from one of her friends saying he had to call because there was urgent information on this girl. He was skeptical, but called anyway only to find out that she had just been killed in an automobile accident. It was really sad. Poor guy... his lesson was the same that he told after Joe Cole died. You just have to keep moving on after these things happen.

And then I left. I heard him ripping on college kids who send him e-mails with horrible spelling errors in them. His comment was, 'Why are you in college if you can't spell?"

Anyway, I hope someone on the list was there for the whole show and can share what other topics he covered. Trust me, it was horrible to have to leave in the middle.

the set list from the sxsw show was whore, dog house, radio sucks, rolling boy blues, jaded little princess, black silk, worthless thing, and the wiggle.

MC sent me this report of the 2/27 Buffalo, NY band show on 3/14:

Ok since nobody else sent in a review of the Buffalo show, I guess I will. It was snowing like crazy, usually it takes me 30 minutes to get downtown, but it was closer to an hour. After dealing with the traffic delays, I got my usual good parking spot so I wasn't too upset. When I walked in, they had Black Sabbath-Paranoid blasting over the PA. That put everyone in a good mood. Opening band was Dirty Mary, a 3 piece all girl punk band from NYC. They are all gorgeous, and they were actually better than I thought they would be. Before Rollins Band came out, they had some crazy death/thrash metal going over the PA to get everyone pumped. I put my earplugs in and found a good spot in front of Marcus. It was a great show, and they were really tight. Not too loud where they just destroy your eardrums, so I removed the earplugs. Best spot to stand was in front of Marcus, plenty of breathing room. All the idiots were standing in front of Henry and Jim. Set was similar to the Boston show minus I Glo, Are you Ready, Frozen, and Too Much Rock, with the addition of Nowhere To Go, All I Want, and Do It as the final tune. About the 3rd song in the set, some idiot was crowd riding, and landed right in front of Henry giving him a boot to the head. Henry looked like he was in stun-mode, he sat on the drum riser for a second, shook it off, but didn't miss a word or stop the tune. That's why he rules, he doesn't pull an Axl Rose by stopping the show and throwing a shitfit. Other than that the crowd was really into it, one of the largest I've seen in the place. My personal highlights were the ANSOR tracks-Nowhere to Go & 10X, and Starve/All I Want. Hell every song was great, it just seemed to go by so fast, made 90+ minutes seem like a half-hour. Not much talking between songs other than telling some kids screaming "USA Rules" to pull their heads out of their asses and see how the world really is.This was my first real band show, (went to Warped for the mini-set), and I hope Henry's got it in him to do some more music. But if it was his last tour, he really went out on a high note. Oh yeah, I got the first drumstick Jason threw out, it's nice and trashed. Didn't hang around afterwards, I wouldn't have much to say to him, plus he signed a bunch of mailorder shit for me already. Some guy I know got his Damaged record signed, he also had Dez and Robo sign it at the Misfits show last fall. Can't wait to hear the Chicago live CD.

sandman89 sent this report of the 3/1 & 3/2 Chicago, IL band shows to the Henry Rollins list on 3/6:

hey, just got back home to phx from chicago. i agree with most that both nights were great but the 2nd was better (3 EOS songs!). the 1st night, i walk in with my buddy, sluggo, and this hot redhead walks up to me and says she knows me (i was like, i wish!). turns out it was monica from TX and she recognized me from my rollins pic on my site. nice gal, great handshake. met debi after the show the next night and she's a sweetheart. we waited in the cold for about an hour for sir hank. sorry i forgot to wind the camera, debi (doh!). i was a little nervous/excited. i think i got some good pix and will post some when i get em developed.

saw an instore performance with local H a couple days later and it rocked. met em and they're real nice guys. i hope local H ain't just a chicago thang that y'all just don't understand. i really dig that band and hope they find success outside the windy city. food was great, weather sucked. par for my former hometown.

Ok, I drive to Madison from Minneapolis on thursday to meet up with my friend Warren and talk him into bringing the digital camera. On friday we head down to Chicago. After a whole bunch of circling we find one block that doesn't have any little signs saying 'Permit parking only' and its just one block from the coffeshop where we had arranged to meet people, and 2 blocks form the club! Score! I had my red mittens on the table as the identifier. Finally a couple of people show up. She had on red gloves and was looking around so we asked if they were looking for Debi, and they were. It was Courtney (from the list) and her boyfriend Marc. They had driven up frrom Wichita which is even further than me! Woohoo! So we made chit-chat and drank and ate some more while keeping an eye out for others. No-one else ever showed up, but that's just par for the course i guess. So Courtney and Marc went to get in line at the club, and we went back to the car to ditch some stuff and put on our ass-kickin' boots. When we got to the club, there were about 20 people in line already, and Courtney/Marc were about half-way back. We hadn't seen Amy yet, but she had something to do first, and she would be wearing a black parka and reading a Eudora Welty book. Didn't see her. FINALLY the doors open! We got our coats checked and went to get in position after finding C and M again (initials will be easier to type). We get right up front and center to wait, and there's Chelcia and her sister Victoria from the list. I tell C and M that I never found Amy, so they ask for a description. Turns out she was right behind them in line (but she didn't know what they looked like, so they never met). Now they're looking around to see if they can spot her in the club. No luck. Rats! Chelcia and Vic moved to the balcony to get less battered by the crowd. The opening act was a free-jazz group called XMarsX. Very honk'n'squeak, if ya know what i mean. They weren't bad. There were a bunch of younger kids near us, including this airhead girl with a poorly done mohawk. we called her the Porcupine. The opening act only played for about 30 minutes, then there was a short break to re-set the stage. Woohoo! Rollins Band! They did Disconnect, with each member coming out seperately and starting to play. Man, the place went off when Henry hit the stage!!!! He has his hair shaved super short right now. The floor was packed, and we started to get pushed around, so we finally wound up about 5 people back and kind of right of Henry. I couldn't see him very often, but had a good view of the rest of the band. The club bans moshing, diving, and surfing but that didn't stop the crowd in the center. There was a short security fence (maybe 4 feet high) seperating us from the stage. The poor security guys had to stay inside there. They did drag out and eject a few people, and the crowd started trying to pass the crap surfers to the security staff. That was pretty funny to watch, like pizza delivery. There were 2 guys who were the worst; getting held up nice and high so they blocked Rollins and could be the center of attention, even during the last number (Do It, of course) as Rollins is letting out his final howl and thanking us for coming out. So anyway, we started getting smacked around ( a whole bunch of bony guys kept elbowing me and pounding on my shoulders), but Warren was able to stand his ground to get a bunch of pix(he got about a 100 total). Not focused or anything because he was just able to hold the camera up as high as possible, click, and hope for the best. The band played for about 90 minutes, including the encore (too short!!!). I screamed along to every song! it was wonderful!!! Sweaty, smokey, and fucking happy as a clam! They did tape both shows, but didn't video. Arghh!! Since it was an all-ages, they have to clear the club before 10 pm. So we hooked up briefly with C and M again to say good bye and get our coats. As we're standing outside, I hear this little voice say 'Debi?' It was Amy! She wound up in the balcony. She said she could see me and Warren from there, getting bounced around. We talked for a bit (she's a very cool person) and arranged to look for each other in line the next night. She told her story about standing in line behind someone who was wearing red gloves (C), and not knowing whether to ask if they were from the group. Anyway, Warren and i go back to the car (surprise! a parking ticket for $50) so we can find our way to Lori and Paul's (our hosts) house. We've never been there before and its an hour north of the city. So we set out, and after just a few miles, the snow starts. Lord almighty! We couldn't see more than 3 feet, and it was super-wet slush. The wiper blades started icing up. At last we made it to Paul and Lori's place safely. It took a while to calm down from the tense drive. Ack, again!!! The next day we hung out and got some lunch, then we (including Paul) headed downtown for the show, and to go record shopping. Still snowing like crazy, very heavy and wet. my coat pockets filled up with slush as we walked around. Store owners were offering to towel off our hair as we entered their shops. i found some great stuff! 'Cupids' Revenge! Punk's most romantic songs'! We left the car in the parking ramp, and took a taxi to the club. Still shitting snow. We didn't find Amy or C and M, but did see Chelcia nd Vic in line. After we got in and checked our coats, the guys went to stake out a spot right at the stage, but over to the sides. We picked a perfect spot! Minimal shoving, a great view of Marcus and Henry, and there's only one layer of people ahead of us. The opening band this night sucked. They need to practice a LOT more! But the did use 2 bubble machines, which was interestimg in its own unique way. Again the guys played about 90 minutes, with a few overlaps of songs from the previous night (illumination! Yay!!!). They did Too Much Rock, and the crowd loved it! Saturday night was sold out, and the place was packed to the gills! I had a great time, pumping my fist and screaming along. Rollins actually leaned out into the crowd (after telling them not to drop him) over the fence. its weird to see all the guys wanting to touch him. Testosterone by association?? Much less bad crowd behavior, and we did get to see the security guys come over the fence, put a guy in a headlock and drag him out. Cool!!!! The band was totally on, and Rollins really was like an animal. It was fantastic and draining!! As the crowd was thinning out, C and M came back over. she wore her little red gloves all thru both shows! What a trooper! And she got the set list!!! Sandman came over! Woohoo! Another one! When we all got to the lobby, i saw Monica and said "Hi". We lost track of her after that. After we got our coats, we all met up again outside the doors. The snow was even worse!!!! So there we are; Me, Warren, Paul, Sandman, C, M, a guy named John waiting in the blizzard for the band to come out. Sandman is funny, cool, and did NOT bring his grandma to the show. We kept dodging the cables as the sound truck guys packed up. It seemed to be about a 30 minute wait, but it felt like more! So cold, windy, wet. Yuck! Then Marcus and Jason ran for the van with a bunch of their roadcrew. Jim came out, and Chelcia and Vic introduced me, and he autographed my mitten. Then, finally, Rollins came out!! He stayed and met folks and signed stuff. He signed my left mitten!!!! Which means he held my hand!!!! Ok, i suppose that isn't really very interesting. I thanked him, and gave him the cd of coffee-song mp3s i'd burned and he said thanks. And I didn't see him throw it out in front of me!!! YAY!!!!! We took a pic of Sandman and Rollins and hung around for a few more minutes, then went to the diner for hashbrowns and coffee (should've just poured the coffee in my boots). It was amazing!!! I am a complete, irritating, fan girl!! And an idiot. <sigh> Anyway, there's the story. long, but i thought you'd tolerate it. ;D The next day i was so sore and tired and dehydrated. It felt like i was hung over! But i'd do it again in an instant. 8)) Warren burned all the photos to a cd for me. I've posted a few in the 'photos' area. Man, there was so much more, but i wanted to get all of this down right away!!

Courtney Pollard sent this report of the 3/1 & 3/2 Chicago, IL band shows to the Henry Rollins list on 3/4:

Hmm...I'm not quite where to start. There's lots of stuff to talk about. I drove up from Wichita KS to Chicago with my boyfriend Marc to see both shows at the Metro, and put some faces to names of some of you wonderful folks out there on the list.
After an extensive search for red mittens all over town, I finally settled for red gloves just before hitting the road. It ended up not being a big deal, since Debi was the only person wearing red mittens (Amy wore green ones). Everyone else being too cool or too forgetful for brightly colored mittens, I guess. Oh well. Out of sheer stubborness, I wore those dumb red gloves to both shows. So for those of you that were there, the girl in the front with red gloves was me. On Friday Marc and I met Debi and Warren at Uncommon Grounds before the show. Then close to two hours in line. Note: both shows had the most non-smoking-est crowd both inside the venue and out. It was almost scary. RB roadies were creating more of a haze than the entire audience. Inside, we met up with Debi and Warren again to ponder the presence of chairs, acoustic instruments, and a guy walking around the edge of the stage with a sax. None of us has heard about a potential opening act, so we were kinda scared that Rollins Band had set up a really unorthodox performance for the sake of recording. Luckily, however, that wasn't the case. Local bands had been recruited to open the show. That night's opening act was x mars x, who I thought was ok, just not enjoyed by some of the crowd. Rollins Band was great as always. Henry seemed to interact with the crowd even less than usual that night. It may have something to do with the gate between the stage and the crowd. I dunno. Jim more than made up for it though. He really seemed to be having fun. As far as the setlist goes, I was having too much fun enjoying the show to remember, sorry. It was nice for once to NOT feel like I was just about the only person in the place that wasn't there to marvel at the big neck and tattoos and request Liar and TV Party. The crowd was still pretty rough on both nights. I had to fight to keep from being pushed to the back of the crowd on Friday (thanks to one of those groupie-types). I remember feeling really bad for the guy in front of me. I tried really hard not to crush him to bits, but I know I wasn't totally successful at times. On Saturday, Marc and I went to Portillo's, but thanks to mapquest being dumb, we got there closer to 1:00 than noon. We caught Victoria and Chelcia as they were leaving. They hadn't seen anybody else from the list show up. It sucks that they went to all that effort and didn't get to meet anyone new. :( Hopefully the rest of us will be as organised as you next time. :) Saturday night was even better than Friday, if that's possible. Waited for two hours (in the snow) outside this time. Just before going to the Metro, Marc and I got ice cream from the place across the street. As we were walking the two blocks between parking and ice cream/metro, Jim Wilson was walking right behind us. I wanted to turn around and say hi and that we missed MS opening up for RB, but decided that it would make me seem like one of those annoying people that make artists avoid contact with their fans. No way I could ever talk to Jim Wilson without being a total dork. Anyway, met some nice people in line, including a couple of guys that had flown up from Florida for the show. Both of them had never seen snow before, and had some neat stories to take home with them about building a snowman and catching snowflakes on their tounges for the first time. Very cool. Also note: ice cream really is a winter food. maybe it's the estrogen talking, but a chocolate/peanut butter cone tastes great during a snowstorm. The opening band on saturday was The Bomb. They sucked. They had bubble machines (totally inexcusable in my book....rock bands may NOT use bubble machines!) Instead of floating above the audience, the bubbles just flew back and got soap all over the RB equipment. Their sound person made the guitar way too loud and the vocals quiet. Nobody but the drummer knew what he was doing up there. All the while those dumb bubbles kept floating around. Gag. Rollins Band was awesome again. I had a spot right up front, and didn't have to fight to keep it. Henry seemed to be in a much better mood. Jim threw me a pick toward the end of the show, but I gave it to the guy standing to my left. Dumb, I know, but he was obviously only familiar with old RB songs, and was growing more and more enthusiastic about new RB as the show progressed. It was neat to watch. I have a pick from the show in Wichita, so I gave him this one. He held it like it was the hope diamond or something. It made his night, he was sooo happy. He also caught one of Jason's sticks at the end. It's cool to see a guy with the tough exterior thing going get an ear-to-ear grin like that. Karma pays off. After the show, one of the roadies gave me Henry's set list. I'll copy it down later...my boyfriend took it to work on accident today. It's all sweaty. Thin grey lines signifying rants, thick black lines for mic changes. Also met James briefly after the show. Did anyone else there notice the roadie with the Russian fur hat? he kept putting it on to make Marcus laugh. I hope everyone got home ok. Everything really did turn into a "winter wonderland" on Friday night. The interstate between Chicago and Wichita wasn't too bad. Lots of cars and semis in the ditches though. For closure, here's what I learned this weekend: 1. Red mittens are really hard to find 2. If you go to Chicago, don't try to get around town in your car. Parking is RARE and EXPENSIVE, and there's jerks who like to try to rip you off if you have Kansas plates. 3. Don't expect residents of "the big city" to have common decency like people in Kansas do. 4. Stick to highways as much as you can in a strange town. The most direct route may have you driving through the ghetto in Chicago. An experience that I would not advise any of you go out and try. So, that's that. I'll type up the setlist later. I'm looking forward to reading about what the rest of you thought about the shows.

<setlist posted later> The encore wasn't put on the list, but I do remember 10X in there somewhere. Disconnect On the Day What's the Matter Man Tearing Illumination Hotter and Hotter Monster You Didn't Need I Want So Much More Low SO Always The same We Walk Alone Marcus Has the Evil In Him Starve Thinking Cap Get Some Go Again Your Number is One

Sanjay Krishnan sent this report of the 2/26 Boston, MA band show to the Henry Rollins list on 2/27:

AWSOME!! Got to the club around 4, and met up with the Mother Superior lads. Henry was down the street at the Golds Gym with the infamous Mitch Bury of Adams, MA, who I met for the first time, nice guy. Did an interview with Mother Superior for about 20 minutes before soundcheck. A lot of stuff was covered, but some highlights were: - Finished up an album with Wayne Kramer, which is being mixed right now, should be out soon, details to come... - SIN, new MS, out May 7th, if you didn't already know. Also, they have signed with Wayne Kramer's management now. - There WILL be a coast to coast Mother Superior tour starting in May. - Over the 2 nights in Chicago, the RB Will play *EVERYTHING* in their working set of songs, this way the band can have the option of choosing any song for the live disc, which will be a double disc, one live, one outtakes and enhanced stuff. - The benefit show in LA will be the last RB show for some time. The boys are going into Mother Superior mode, and Henry will venture on a long Spoken Word tour. Alright, once I get the interview transcribed, I will post the whole thing here. So I caught (and recorded) soundcheck after the interview. They played: Rocker Marcus Has... I guess Henry wanted to play Hard, but for some reason they didn't jam on it.

After soundcheck, Marcus, Jim, Jason, and I hit up a bunch of record stores in downtown Boston, they are such Vinyl hounds! Jason found yet another Kiss record, surprise, surprise. Anyway, did that till they had to head back for dinner.
So, first up here is the setlist: (I taped the show as well, they were not taping) Disconnect!! On The Day Up For It What's the Matter Man Tearing Illumination Hotter and Hotter Monster Side By Side Stop Look Listen 10 X One Shot Starve Thinking Cap Get Some Go Again Your Number is One Encore: Frozen Man Too Much Rock N Roll Are you Ready? I Go Day Glo More later, gotta hit some work...Hank had some nice raps in between songs...

Also forgot to mention that the band agreed with me totally on the fact that Nicer Shade of Red *should* have come out instead of Nice, it has to be their best record to date. Apparently Henry wanted to do the Ain't it Fun cover, I guess Jason kinda reminded him of the tune, and they ran with it. For merch, all they had was a short sleeve tour shirt (just says Rollins Band Tour 2002 on front, nothing on back), long sleeve Search and Destroys, and white girl shirts with NICE on the front. Selling 3 CD's, Yellow Blues, Clockwork Orange, and Nicer Shade of Red.

Jason Fusco sent me this report of the 2/25 Towson, MD band show on 2/26:

Recher Theatre is a converted movie theatre with a very low ceiling, that much easier to blow the roof off the place. The opening band is called Iron Boss, old school rock n' roll, a la Nugent or AC/DC, well worth the listen. Rollins was side stage checking out a song or two. They played about an hour, and had no fear of being the opening band. (They recorded a live album here last year).

Here's the set, (from the setlist) Disconnect On the Day Up for It What's the Matter Man? Tearing Illumination Hotter and Hotter Monster Gone Inside the Zero Nowhere to Go but Inside One Shot Going Out Strange Starve Thinking Cap Get Some, Go Again Your # is 1 Encore: Always the Same All I Want Are you Ready? Do It

As my buddy Shane said: "You ready to get rocked by the 41 Year-old man?" Of course...Jason takes the stage first and starts drumming, followed by Marcus, and then Jim starts the riff for "Disconnect" until Rollins hits stage...very cool. The first 4 songs just burn. Rollins stops for a second to talk about all the places he's played nearby since the Flag days and that he's always had a good time here, "just down the road from where I grew up."He runs down all the places the band has played the last couple of months and says it's good to be back on the home turf after getting in yesterday. No signs of jet-lag here. He then says they're going old school and they bust into Tearing. Before Illumination he says: "the Belgians were more intense then you guys...we'll have to go into our MTV Unpluggged acoustic set..." The crowd kicked it up a notch after that. "Gone Inside..." was killer. Rollins is in good voice all night and loving every minute up there. "Starve" is great. Rollins talks about how we're all the same on some level, save facts and figures and social security numbers and other stuff that won't matter when the going gets tough during the break down in "Thinking Cap". "Get Some..." and "Your # is 1" close out the set with high intensity. The band leaves stage for a minute or two and then return and tear into "Always the Same", Jim breaks a string, but keeps playing into a wicked version of "All I Want". "Are You Ready" is intro'd as an "old Irish folk song." They close out a near 2 hour set with "Do It". Very cool show, despite missing some stuff I hope will show up on the live album (You Didn't Need, 10X, Marcus...). Big props to my new friend Aubrey for surviving up front.

Ingmar Tomassen sent me this report of the 2/4 Tilburg, The Netherlands band show on 2/6:

Rollins Band, 02/04/2001, 013, Tilburg, The Netherlands

Another good show. The crowd was a bit boring and just stood there, which is quite strange, I think they were not 'ready to rock'. Upfront is was really cool though; Setlist (100% sure)

Disconnect On The Day Up For It What's The Matter Man Tearing Illumination Hotter And Hotter Monster One Shot Going Out Strange Marcus Has The Evil We Walk Alone Starve Thinking Cap Get Some Go Again Your Number Is One

Encore (not sure about sequence or a missing song): Stop Look And Listen Too Much Rock & Roll Are You Ready? (another review & photo's can be found at www.rockezine.com soon)

Martti Rahkila sent me this report of the 1/26 Helsinki, Finland band show on 1/29:

Saturday, January 26th, Rollins Band had a gig at Nosturi , Helsinki, Finland. The place was full with very much "Rollins-aware" audience, somewhat dedicated fans only.

There were two warmups: Sunride from Finland and Dozer from Sweden. Sunride was okay, a promising new name, I guess. However, Dozer was somewhat uninteresting in terms of both music and their stage act. I guess this one wasn't one of their best gigs...

Rollins Band started at 23.30 with Disconnect, a brilliant choice for the opening act. As expected, most of the material was from the latest albums, but there were also some highlights from the older albums like Low self opinion and Tearing us apart from TEOS and Starve from CIAB. Two encores, the last one was Side by Side from Yellow Blues.

The band played for about 1,5 hours with hardly any breaks at all, really intensive performance. A friend of mine commented:

"I have seen only one man perform with such energy, and I'm not sure what Henry Rollins would say if he heard this man is Bruce Springsteen. He maintained the same kind of heat on a stadium stage about 100 m wide for 4 hours with a short brake and few slow country songs. But his message was a bit different... it was the Born in the USA tour in 198something."

At the front of the stage there were several mean-looking, shirtless tattooed guys, who inspired Henry to comment (not exact quotation): You may look hard from the outside, but you are all soft and sensitive from the inside. Like I am. Here's something for you. Then the band started with some really fast and hard playing (Gone inside the zero or perhaps Let that devil out, not sure though) A good example of Henry's sense of humour.

All and all, this was an excellent gig, Rollins Band at its best: no bullshit (not even merchandise), just plain, hard rock'n'roll!

Ville Silventoinen sent me this report of the 1/21 Cambridge, UK band show on 1/28:

I arrived to the venue too early, so I was one of the first persons to enter the hall. I saw Henry with his Apple leaving the hall at the same time. He wore jeans, t-shirt, gray hair and all. I bought the tour shirt and asked for Mother Superior stuff, but they had sold everything just few nights before. The warm-up band, Queen Adreena, started 1.5 hours later, I had never heard of them before (maybe local?). They didn't get much response from the crowd, although they played their set with energy. I don't really know how to describe their music, kind of a Hole meets Bjork meets Marilyn Manson. I managed to squeeze myself to the left corner of the stage before Rollins Band hit the stage. They started with Disconnect and the crowd went crazy. It was incredible to see the whole band (I am a big fan of both MS and RB) playing just a few feet away. Henry really puts 110% of himself into each song, and he does it with great sense of humour as well. He takes his "battle position" (like a surfer) just before the song starts, grins like a madman, thinking: "Get ready to be annihilated!" (At least this is how I saw it!) Every once in a while he stands straight up while the band continues to kick ass, walks merrily to the drum kit, takes a sip of water, wiggling his body to the music. It looked very funny. Most of the songs were naturally from Nice and GSGA, they played so many songs that it is impossible to remember the song list. They also played Low S.O., Tearing, Starve (nice talk from Henry before that one, he heard someone in the crowd yelling a name of some "not so hot young band" and told a story from Warp Tour how Starve made the crowd cry), Frozen Man, Side by Side, Nowhere To Go But Inside, Too Much Rock'n'Roll, Are You Ready and probably another song from Weight, but I cannot remember which one. They also played one song that I didn't recognize, might be from the Red Album that I don't have yet (starts with a fast guitar riff). One of the PA monitors kept feeding back, so Henry built a two monitor tower from them, slapping the top of it with his hand, directing even more volume towards the crowd. Before he did that, he was hauling the other monitor in his grip, bellowing: "God! I need more coffee! I need more human blood in my coffee!" I must say I would have been deaf after the concert if I hadn't wore ear plugs, the bass was thundering next to my left ear. Overall, the sound was very good and Rollins Band truly is the tightest, funkiest, funniest, hardest rocking band I have ever seen. They did one (or two? I was too excited to remember such minor details) encore, finishing with I Go Day Glo. Jim had a problem with his guitar amp, so Henry and Marcus started a "jazz jam". After two attempts to start the song, Henry was joking to Jim: "You are not ashamed of a song you wrote two years ago?", threatened what would happen to him later in the bus, especially because Marcus is the meanest of them all, despite of his friendly looks. Jason looked like he had run a marathon after the gig. The gig lasted for 1.5 hours and I am pretty sure everyone felt like they had experienced something special. This was the first time I have seen Rollins Band, and I hope to see them soon again.

Sane River sent me this report of the 1/19 and 1/20 Sheffield and Nottingham, UK band shows on 1/28:

Hi Mark, I managed to catch 2 Band shows, in Sheffield and Nottingham, on the 19th and 20th. The set was roughly “Disconnect/on the day/up for it/what’s the matter man/tearing/illumination/hotter & hotter/monster/stop look listen/10x/low self opinion/always the same/gone inside the zero/nowhere to go/starve/one shot/side by side/thinking cap/I go day glo (dropped for Nottingham)/get some go again/your number is one/ (encore for Sheff) frozen man/are you ready/hello/do it/ (encore for Notts) are you ready/rocker/hello/do it”. They came on one by one playing “Disconnect”, at Notts Henry came on with a false moustache he said he’d found in the dressing room. They played a great set lasting about 1 ½ hrs “Illumination” & “On the Day” sounded awesome, and it was so cool hearing “Low Self”, which was spot on, again. During “Thinking Cap” he slagged off Nickelback. At Sheffield the set seemed to get of to a slow start and the Guitar wasn’t loud enough. But things soon clicked. Henry was in a good mood and talked quite a lot. He mentioned when he roadied for the Chilli Peppers in 1986, and Anthony said he was weary after a few songs and that, that would never happen to him. Marcus’ Bass went during “Do it” and he had to stand still while a roadie had to hold the lead going into the Bass, very Spinal Tap! After there was sampler tapes with “Your Number” & “What’s the Matter” on and big “Nice” posters given away, but not at Notts. Also there was T-shirts with dates on and “Nicer Shade” & “Clockwork” (with a different cover) CD’s for sale. Support was from Queen Adrena who were quite good in places.

Rhys Jenkins sent me this report of the 1/18 Dudley, UK band show on 1/28:

Dudley, JB's, Dudley, England, 18/01/02 Big anticipation for this gig having turned down the beastie boys/rollins band double gig in Manchester in the early nineties. Having driven to Leicester for a spoken word in May, my brother and myself set off on the 5 hour round trip in the typical shitty wet weather that Henry likes to take the piss out of. We caught the end of the support band who were abysmal. some demented woman in white screaming over the top pretty laughable if you have been brought up on hugo largo/throwing muses. reminded me of daisy chainsaw remember them ? anyway about 400 in the venue. a real mix of all ages - rock dudes/indie kids/students/some hoolie types/big geezers who do weights/nu-metal kids/ fair play quite a cross selection. Anyway jim/jason/marcus came on and launched in to a superb disconnect - they then proceeded to play the following(not in order)- illumination/gsga/monster/thinking cap(with ramones solution for world peace)/are you ready/you let yourself down/hotter and hotter/one shot/up four it/gone inside the zero/hello/starve/what's the matter man/ your no is 1/I didn't need/stop look and listen/side by side/ low self opinion/nowhere to go but inside/10x/always the same/tearing.

They were absolutely awesome. I cannot believe how much all of them put in to the performance they gave it their all and looked like they enjoyed themselves. Rollins was every piece the frontman that I expected and more but the band are superb. Jim wilson is a very good guitarist and no disrespect but there are a few around. The real joy is the rhythm section - unbelievable. We wondered if marcus blake had permision to go on tour he looked so young. I was surprised how many old tracks were played ! Any way top gig - will definitely make the effort again. I waited a similar amount of time before finally seeing fugazi and was not disappointed my expectations were so high it could have been a damp squib but was left buzzing all weekend.

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