2004 Tour Reports
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Tara K sent this report of the 10/2 New York, NY New Yorker Festival appearance to the Henry Rollins list on 10/5:I attended The New Yorker Festival’s panel, “Political Rockers”, on 10/2. I did take notes to be sure that when someone spoke, what I wrote would be what they said. Where I can’t reconstruct the quote, a response is paraphrased. What follows is an attempt to reconstruct a 1 1/2 hour discussion about politics by Henry Rollins, Krist Novoselic, and KRS-One.
The panel was held at the New York Public Library in the beautiful, but acoustically poor, Celeste Bartos room. This wasn’t an issue initially, since you could hear the men with the mics. Mr. Sasha Frere-Jones moderated and introduced the panel. In his opening remarks, he mentioned that Henry would be working with IFC (Independent Film Channel) on a project called “Henry’s Film Corner”. He gave props to Krist Novoselic, who was promoting a book, Of Grunge and Government, published by Akashic Books. And, while he did not mention a specific project of KRS-One’s, Frere-Jones did note that he is a busy, busy man - many social, religious, charitable, and musical projects.
Sasha Frere-Jones (SFJ): “If you could speak with the troops, what would you tell them?”
KRS-One (KRS): “Stop watching television.” In his view, that commercial (which he sang) - ‘be - all that you can be - in the army’ - did a lot of damage.
SFJ asked what should they do instead:
KRS: “Have a conversation.” Talk to someone unlike yourself - that’s what he would tell people. He went on to note that he was once homeless and had nowhere to sleep but the steps and reading rooms of this very library. You had to read to stay: so he’d read. That opened up another world.
Same question, to Krist Novoselic (KN):
KN: He’d tell them he supports them. He “resents” those who say ‘if you don’t support the war, you don’t support the troops’.
SFJ asked Henry Rollins (HR), who has talked to the troops, “what do you do there, do you play music?”
HR: “No, it’s a USO handshake tour.” He explained that meant he met with small groups of soldiers, went through “700 handshakes!”, signed things, and took pictures with the troops.
SFJ asked if he met fans there.
HR: He met people in Iraq who would come up and say “I saw you in Chicago!” He’d ask, ‘really - when?’; and it would turn out to be a show he did six months ago. Said that the soldiers in Iraq told him that the base was attacked every afternoon; sure enough, it happened while he was there. So he got to sit through an attack. He said you could feel the mortar rounds
going off in your chest.
SFJ asked how they had all become politically aware.
KN: Said he got early information on politics from ‘zines and other bands, a sort of punk rock network. He also said that Aberdeen, WA had something like 15% unemployment, and the only reason he had a job was a teen program. He became very aware that without that help from the government, he’d have nowhere to work.
KRS: Ronald Reagan. He said, “the Reagan era created hip-hop”. Things happened to them when this man spoke. For example, Reagan announced cuts during a speech on tv; the next day, he remembers watching people go into the playgrounds to tear up the rubber mats, all on the basis of some program cut of Reagan’s. So what he learned was that “all doors were shut”. Music was the only door open.
HR: His mom. She worked for HEW (Health, Education, and Welfare) and at National Education and Planning “working on why Johnny couldn’t read”. She went to all kinds of marches, so his household was “very politicized”. When he went to elementary school, he was one of four white kids; the rest were bused in from Southeast or Northeast. Every day, some kid would punch him in the face and say ‘you killed Martin Luther King!” <At this point, KRS-One is just shaking his head and going ‘Wow’ --> So he would go home and say “mom, why do they hate me?”; to which his mom answered “They don’t
hate you. Just smile at them and try to make friends”.
SFJ noted that both HR and KRS had songs about the police. He asked HR about punk, and “Police Story”.
HR: “Punk is suburban/urban white-kid angst.” What Black Flag wrote and sang about was from their personal experience with cops. He said a cop dropped a sack of white powder at his feet one time and said “that’s yours!”. And he’s shaking, because he doesn’t have the money to make bail. He doesn’t take drugs; he’s barely eating - so how could he afford them?
SFJ asked HR to give us a line from “Police Story”:
HR: “They hate us/We hate them/ We can’t win/No way!” He went on to say that they’d do these fake Darryl Gates ads on K-Rock for their shows. When radio djs would ask them why their shows were so violent, they’d tell them it was the cops who started the violence. They could prove it, since they had pictures of the cops beating girls, and of the defensive wounds on the girls’ hands from the billy clubs. “The whole band weighed about 400 pounds,” he said, because they were all starving. They
were hardly a threat. “We don’t want your daughters; we just want what’s in their lunch boxes!”, he said.
SFJ then asked KRS about the police:
KRS: His experience included watching the police shielding crack dealers from communities trying to get rid of the drugs. Off-duty cops would give them brand new guns, including an uzi he posed with on an album cover. The cops were “an occupying force”, even when they were your fathers, brothers, relatives, and neighbors. In one song, he wrote : “Officer, Officer, Officer! Overseer, Overseer, Overseer!”, because he saw the police as the overseers of the ghetto. He began to realize that there was no freedom in America, that it was an illusion - that in this country, freedom simply means “there is no wall”. “But there’s no justice,” he said.
SFJ asked KN to comment.
KN: “Artists and musicians are the alarm bell” for what’s wrong with society. When Ice-T came out with “Cop Killer”, the politicians jumped on him. But Ice-T “is not the problem; he reflects it”. He said that if Ice-T ran for governor of California, everyone would be like ‘uh-oh, he wrote “Cop Killer”’. And yet Governor Schwarzenegger pumped cops full of lead in one of the “Terminator” movies, and no one said a word about that. He then segued into how he believes the political system is broken; that he formed his own PAC; that he advocates proportional voting; and that he wants to overhaul the electoral system, which he compared to “a DOS system from the early ‘80s” (a line that got a big laugh).
SFJ somehow got HR on the subject of dissent --
HR: Said that people try to clamp down on dissent. He’s had fans of his come up to him after shows where he’s talked about Bush and say “what’s your problem?” However, he’s with Thomas Jefferson: he has the right to disagree. He says he’s also encountered people who have said if you don’t like it, “why don’t you leave?”, to which he says “Well, no -- why don’t YOU?”
-- and KRS on the U.S. and drugs --
KRS: Said the U.S. is a “drug nation”, of both legal and illegal pharmaceuticals. He sees America as lawless and in denial, that we are a group of people who live one way inside and another way outside.
SFJ then asked KRS, why didn’t hip-hop address 9/11?
KRS: Because hip-hop culture says “9/11 happened to them - the rich and powerful - not to us.” He said that black people were racially profiled downtown - thrown out of those buildings and made unwelcome - so the people who threw them out got theirs, in their view. The terrorists and the war are *distant*; the oppressors are in their face here in America. Part of the oppression is outsiders trying to control what hip-hop should be and what it should say. While he personally does not recognize the oppressor, because he is known and does not have to in order to get his music played, the average hip-hopper does not have that power and access. Going back to 9/11, he quoted the Jadakiss song and said hip-hop feels that Bush knocked down the towers, not the terrorists. For the hip hop community, there is no democracy: it’s an ideal.
And here’s where it gets interesting. Everyone starts jumping in:
KN: Argued that there is democracy, but “democracy is broken”. For example, it’s wrong that voting district lines are drawn by incumbents to favor incumbents. What about the fact that corporations give money to candidates - who then ‘spend’ it to buy advertising from the same corporations? He then reiterated his earlier points about proportional voting and overhauling the “DOS” electoral system. People needed to use their vote to fix the system.
KRS: “Isn’t a non-vote a vote? If everyone boycotts, what’s the message?”
KN: Restated that people don’t vote because the system is broken, but this could be fixed by... proportional voting, and by overhauling the electoral system...
HR: “We’re privileged” because we have the time to read books and become well informed. Well, if you work 60-70 hours a week, where is your free time? He says he’s cynical, but the way he sees it, if you give in to apathy, “you’re giving in to the republicans. You have to get into it. If you don’t vote for someone, vote against them.”
KRS: “We ARE voting by not voting, because the system is corrupt. Capitalism is corrupt.” He said that capitalism and democracy don’t mix.
HR: “We could bring back Lenin. I hear he’s still hanging out over by the Kremlin.”
KRS: “Let’s take voting out of the picture. Representative government does not work. Economics does not work.” He said voting is flawed because of the corruption of capitalism. He’d advocate a society where there was no money at all, where the system worked on credit and debit and the goal was the common good. He’s talking about a world government versus a national government, that we need to start thinking globally. He said we need to take voting and commerce out of this society.<At some point during this, HR put his hand over his mouth, hunched over, and looked straight down at the floor>
KN: He disagreed, saying “what’s corrupt is when politicians manipulate the law to their benefit.”
HR: He disagreed as well: you can’t get the financing out of politics or out of countries. America is everywhere. We have it all. We can’t just wash our hands of it - “the world would implode in a burning fireball!” He thinks what’s in place works for a reason, but people abuse it. He began talking about companies eliminating U.S. jobs. They’ll send the last 1200 blue jean factory jobs overseas just so the rest of us can wear cheaper blue jeans. “The world is not run honestly.”
SFJ asked HR ‘how do you confront apathy?’:
HR: First he came back with, “you inspire”. Then said he was inspired by “young people”, because he admires their energy and enthusiasm.
SFJ asked the panel, “are you going to vote?”
KN: “I’m excited to vote for Kerry!”
HR: “I can’t wait to vote!”
KRS: “No.”
SFJ turned the floor over to audience questions. It was at this point that the bad acoustics became an issue. People began to speak, but it was apparent that the panel was having a problem hearing them. Finally, a student addressed a question to Henry, who told him to speak slowly and right into the mic, because the sound was getting sucked up into the ceiling and they couldn’t hear the questions. Just when they figured things out, the discussion was all over.
There were many questions from the moderator where the entire panel was not addressed, and parts where panelists weren’t asked to respond to one another. At one point, KRS-One made the statement, “America needs to commit suicide!” That deserved a follow-up question or a response, but was given neither. Frere-Jones also seemed confused, at one point asking the panelists for their ‘presentations’, something that they all greeted with puzzled looks. But the kicker had to be when he asked them all to ‘put a little more music’ into their responses. They looked as baffled as we felt.
Despite the glitches, it was a fantastic view into their political thinking - and it was cool to see all of them wrestle (often vocally) with their vastly different opinions!
Joe sent me this report of the 9/16 Kent, OH spoken show on 9/17:
Hey, i just saw rollins tonight at the Kent State University show. I figured i would pass along minor details.
First off, the only merchandise i saw for sale were a large stack of books. all his old stuff. nothing new.
As for content and length...i would say he started between 7:15pm and 7:30pm. Went till 9:45pm.
Topics included:
1. his trip to the airport (which took a side trip into a story about getting to the airport in india) and to the show.
2. then he moved on to Johnny Ramone and his first Ramones gig (same story as he has told in the past). with updated info about the 30 year tribute concert he just did last week.
3. his USO tour to Kuwait/Iraq, in which he spoke about sleeping in saddam's guest house and palace, and staying in Uday Hussein's torture chamber. Then he talked briefly about his tour of Honduras and his firsthand view of "the war on drugs." (in which he took the opportunity to tell everyone not to do) That lead to a short story about kicking off the INDY 500 and future plans to head to Cambodia i believe.
4. Then he moved on to talking about Bush's policies with Sex education and gay marriage. Very negative towards Bush, and right on the money.
5. Talked about his love of travel and books.
6. Talked about his audition for a movie, which was split in 2 by a story about the death of a "friend's mother" who i assume is Ian Mackaye's because he said alot of the same stuff he had said in his books about her being "like a mother to him" and how "many famous bands have stayed for dinner at that house" etc..... He's apparently doing a movie (or did it already) with some older well-known actors. i can't remember anyone's name other than James Brolin, because he referenced a scene in a sex shop where he had to improv some dialogue with a woman, and ended up asking if they had any "Pussy Whip" (sex version of ReadyWhip) for people who are lactose intolerant, which lead to jokes about Brolin having oral sex with Barbera Steisand. Then he talked about leaving his movie lot to bust in on the set of "The Ring 2" to say "Before you die, you see...THE RING. and before you die again, you see the ring 2!" pretty funny stuff.
7. Then he reminded everyone about their need to get out and vote, without mentioning any specific names as to who to vote for (even though the night was filled with SEVERAL anti-Bush statements that drew huge applause)
That was about it. It was a pretty solid evening. He kept the pace rolling without dragging or settling down too much. Very high energy for apparently having been up since 4am that morning. It was (i think) my 5th spoke word show and definitely a good one. The only complaint i have is that it is called the "Henry Rollins for President" tour and there was no merchandise relating to that. I would have liked to have gotten a Tshirt that said that.
Anyway, i am tired and that is my review. Hope the info can be used in some way.
Tara K sent this report of the 4/6 Farmingdle, NY spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 4/13:
If I start ‘elaborating’ on spina bifida man’s strange hemorrhagic symptoms or G-Dub’s plan to conquer evildoers by playing his jazz record collection, just ignore me. I’m writing a final paper on ebola & pneumonic plague, and *trying to write* a speech to save a house. It’s a wrecked, broken house, but it happens to be the last home of a jazz icon.
Anyway, this was the first time I’d gone to this venue, and there were - in WWCCS? (What Would Clean Channel Say?) speak - ‘glitches’. The ticket stated “doors open at 7 pm”; by 7:30 there were two big lines of confused people outside the club, and neither moved until 7:45. Also, there was a bit of chaos about which lines were for what that was seemingly solved once you got inside. However, there were still definite problems that had staff calling people’s names and pulling them from their seats. Never seen anything like it.
At 8:20, they were still sorting out the mess. Meanwhile, VH1 is running on the tv sets. Lo and behold, there’s Henry. Couldn’t hear what the hell he was saying about Richard Marx, but did notice a weird thing about the venue acoustics: any audience noise not directly beside you sounded as though it were coming from fifty feet away. I could hear the blues playing through *someone’s* mac; I could hear Henry when he stepped onstage at around 8:40; but there’s nothing like the sound of the whole room laughing - and that got sucked into some black hole.
The show kicked off with a blonde running up to Henry with a bouquet of red roses, a gift he greeted with “What can a guy say when he gets a dozen roses? You feel like such a pussy --”. He then apologized for the delay and explained that he’d been here in our ‘village’ since 6 am and was as anxious to start the show as we were. Apparently, our troubles were courtesy of Ticketbastard (and here’s where the victims of ArtistDefect - er, Direct - piss themselves laughing). Henry went off on them, that you wouldn’t believe how many angry emails he gets from fans about Ticketbastard problems. Just as he begins the whole “courageous spatial entrepreneurs” segue with his “things are going to get political and you and I might disagree” routine, some man in the back booms out “F*CK BUSH!!!!” Cheers - at least around my 2x2 acoustic box - and Henry shoots back, “Hey - stop stealing my material!”
Obviously, some of that material is the same. However, we did get to hear about the D.C. fan with spina bifida, whose refusal to borrow money stands in sharp contrast to the able-bodied 19-year-old panhandlers Henry chastises. One angle I haven’t seen addressed in a show report is that, because this fan can no longer afford both his rent and the pain meds he’s using, he’ll have to stop his medication. In a true ‘Life of Brian’ ‘let’s all look at the bright side of life’ moment, the man says that at least this means he’ll be able to talk to Henry coherently the next time he sees him.
No more stories of Henry’s unrequited love for Sheryl Crow and Ann Coulter. He did, however, speak about the kind of angry, dried up old women he’s seen protesting gay marriage and his speculation that Condi Rice looks as bitter as she does because she’s never had a screaming orgasm. OK, I laughed - mainly because he _imitated_ a screaming orgasm - but part of me thought the whole thing bordered on “all she needs is a good f*ck”. Besides, why single out Condi when the men in that administration all look as though they’re suffering from the extended side effects of a Levitra overdose?
Speaking of a painful lack of gratification, we did get more insights into the Rollins adolescence. He’s talked about his obsession with girl’s school uniforms before, but this time he was completely focused on the skirt. He’d stand on Wisconsin Avenue, wait for the bus to his school, and watch the girls go into the National Cathedral School. It took him until 9th grade to realize that something was located in that article of clothing - but what? What was in there?! Why did he want to know?! Also, when he did finally get to date a girl, he wasn’t allowed to touch anything. The one time he put his hand on the girl’s breast, she matter-of-factly asked him what he thought he was doing, and would he please stop. I’m guessing that “skirts ablaze!” came well after this one. Also, If I remember correctly, he said he’d scoured his mother’s poetry collection to figure out how to talk to women, but that this had been a total waste. No one, but no one, discussed girls with him or tried to explain to him what he might want or why he wanted it.
We also got a bit about how Henry used to throw papers for the Washington Star, and how it took him hours to complete a route because he couldn’t figure out how to throw the papers without mangling them. A lot of his own money went into purchasing replacement papers once he’d ruined the first set. This wound up being a nice, added set up for the Japanese water toss story.
If you’ve seen shows where Henry discusses his utter lack of social skills, this came up again in the Shatner story. Apparently he holed himself off in a little corner with his plate of free food during Monday Night Football and had everyone in the place wandering up to him to ask if he was OK. After about the tenth visitor, he looks up to see Ben Stiller seated alone at a small corner table and goes over to introduce himself. “So what are you doing here?,” Henry says, and Stiller explains that he once did a movie with Shatner, and has been coming to football night ever since. Suddenly, Stiller looks up at Henry: “You mean, you get the emails, too?!” Seems Shatner has a very aggressive assistant lining up the guest list for these parties.
In all, a good show. I wasn’t going to stay afterward, but I met a girl from a grad class and she convinced me to wait with her and her boyfriend. Since I had about three shots left on a throwaway camera I’d used to take pix of the broken dream house, Michelle offered to take a few pictures. The result is a classic. There’s Henry - and there’s this white streak of light. That’s where I would have been, had it not been the last piece of film in the camera. Priceless.
Erin sent me this report of the 4/2 Toronto, ON spoken show on 4/5:
Hey! Just thought I'd make a contribution after a total stand-up show that Henry gave this past Fri in Toronto.
He begins by saying how Fri has always been his favorite day of the week. Always something to look forward to with 48 hours of freedom ahead of you. He went on for a solid 3 1/4 hours! So he was definitely in a good mood.
He wanted to start things off by making mention of the recent news with EMI having heart failure over music sharing and how its affecting the surplus of millions that artists like Jennifer Lopez should be getting for making the kind of "music" that just doesn't hold up to deserve the money. He then declared that he thinks it's time to declare total anarchy on the music industry and suggested we all steal as much stuff as possible to stick it to em. Let's make these guys work for every penny we spend--noting if you gave $5 to any real musicians they'd find a way to make it work beating cans, their heads, whatever, but it would be real. He has it figured out, if we strip them down and make them get back to the real stuff there would be a lot less junk to wade through. These guys with 13 million + in their bank account whining in courts about the 63 cents they lose on song downloads is ridiculous-"If you have 13 million in your bank account-and no one needs that amounts of money a quarter million and you're set for life, but if your childrens' children's children are set for life. Then you make the music and give it away!"
Then onto the Mars and whole Bush speaking in general. It's hilarious how he points out how Bush will suddenly look off to the side and go silent and you just know he's about to "improv" and it no longer makes sense. Like the whole "Spacial Entrepeneurs" thing. This led HR to thinking about the name a star thing-only possible example to make that statement make sense. In general he says Americans are working hard at getting him the hell outta there, and says this is the first time he can say he's not voting for someone but AGAINST someone in a real pro-active way.
The WM3 tour was a terrific story, esp the last show in Japan where he managed to clock one of the American jerks up front with a water bottle. This was a big deal as he goes on to recount just how bad a shot he really is--referring to having a paper route as a youth. He did a hilarious reenactment of trying to crack papers over his thigh and then deftly toss them onto doorsteps only to actually end up half-crippling himself and scatter papers all over someone's lawn! The best part of this story was how after he asked the crowd if they wanted to see the guys leave they actually did! He's tried this several times in the past (esp with the skinheads at BF shows way back when neer with any luck). In the end the tour raised a whopping amount of money for the guys and the case is still ongoing. So awesome.
Detailing his experiences in Afghanistan "cheering up" the troops was amazing. He went because he wanted to support the people over there not because he supports the war. The story of his trip there on the cargo plane and the extreme landing which left him "wrapped around the soldier next to him screaming and crying at the same time" was too funny. The whole experience was obviously huge for him and while he's not "looking forward " to going back, but definitely is into the experience and amazed at how these people are just dealing with "being shot at every day" like we complacently deal with going through traffic to work everyday. Also mentioned a little girl he met in the hospital there who caught his attention as she had this stone-faced frown just sitting on a bed and turns out had had her leg blown off by a landmine. He has a soft spot for kids (he always tells a story about his managers kids) because they are so real, not screwed up yet. This little girl was already affected...
He also stayed light throughout the night mixing in stories about dating experiences (the whole music/books questionnaire thing) and how this difficulty in finding someone to spend time with inevitably leads him to nights wearing the helmet and bite plate, "coming to" in his driveway or the hallway of some hotel room.
The William (call me Bill) Shatner deal was another hilarious story. Henry's sweaty palmed, geeky obsession with Adrian Belew was so easy to relate to. It's funny to think of him being just like one of us in that sense. The whole "I can't behind that" sees to be an eerily perfect combination of minds. Apparently at 72 Bill is intense and still going strong-something Henry has some common ground with-so much so he gets invited to a Monday Night Football thing (free food!) where he meets Ben Stiller and asks him whether or not they are now in some kind of cult!! To finish off the evening he assures us that the Rollins-Shatner alliance will help keep US-Canada relations despite the craziness that has been as a result of the Bush administration.
So, like sweaty-palmed obsessed fans, we waited by the bus after the show with about 6 other people for him to emerge into the rain. Very gracious and polite he thanked us all and shook hands. He signed random items, tickets, shirt, someone's shoe (?) and books incl a Henry Miller copy an Ottawa fan was currently reading--I couldn't catch the title-- which got HR opening up a little talking about books and how Miller was a huge influence on him. Told us THE titles to have were the two Tropics, Black Spring and of course his all-time fav. Air Conditioned Nightmare. Held out pretty good til the fan with his entire Rollins CD collection who wanted everything signed plus a pic taken with the man finished off his patience. It was an honor to meet the man, something I have been too chicken to do in the 15+ years I have been consuming his work...
Anonymous sent me this report of the 2/26 Winnipeg, MB spoken show on 3/27:
BURTON CUMMINGS THEATRE - WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, CANADA:
A friend of mine put me on to Henry Rollins a few years back when he lent me "Big Ugly Mouth". I also read "Watch a Grown Man Cry/Now See Him Die" and I honestly had no idea what to expect from a Henry Rollins spoken word performance. I expected intensity and strong opinions, but I certainly didn't expect him to be as engaging, entertaining, and happy as he was.
Henry acknowledged our detachment from American politics, but was at pains to explain to his Canadian audience that George W. Bush does not represent the majority of Americans, legally or morally. He assured us that millions of Americans were working night and day to ensure that Mr. Bush would never again hold any degree of authority outside of Texas. I thought the Bush-bashing was a bit too easy, but Henry brought up a valid point: as long as Bush can joke cavalierly about sending young Americans to die in Iraq (Henry referenced Bush's recent speech where he's looking for WMD in the Oval Office), Henry Rollins has the moral authority to say whatever the hell he wants about Bush. So he did.
His set consisted of the George Bush "spacial entrepreneurs" malapropism, his USO tour, his doomed love affair with Sheryl Crow, the unfortunate telemarketer who called him at home, the Kill Bill premiere (I didn't like the movie, either), the Bill Shatner "I Can't Get Behind That" encounter, and repeated mention of his rather peculiar masturbatory habits, attendant blackouts, and related equipment (a crash helmet and bite plate). It might be old hat to many Rollins fans, but it was new to me and I really enjoyed it.
Since I knew Henry only from a spoken word CD and some pretty dark poetry (and an excellent turn as a cop in "The Chase"), I was impressed that Henry's digs at people were never mean-spirited, President Bush notwithstanding. He came across as thoughtful, entertaining, and even optimistic. After about two and a half hours, he finished off by telling us that the vast majority of Americans are good people, and that we Canadians should come down to visit more often - but bring a flak jacket.
Ruta V. Grigola sent me this report of the 2/20 Chicago, IL and 3/21 San Francisco, CA spoken shows on 3/26:
CHICAGO - CONGRESS THEATER FEB. 20TH: I had the opportunity to interview Henry 10 days prior to the show in Chicago (I work for a college radio station in Chicago) and one of the first questions I asked him was why he chose the Congress Theater as opposed to the Vic Theater which he usually plays when he is in Chicago. He said that agent man thought they should try a different venue to change things up and so more people could come and check him out. The Congress Theater holds about 2900 people and he didn't think it would sell out. He was right. The balcony was empty and most of the main floor was filled up. Unfortunately, the theater is in major need of some TLC. It's a grand old theater but it's dirty and needs a major paint job and to make matters worse, they had no heat on in the building that night. It's 30 degrees outside, we definitely needed heat! Henry told me that he had never been to this theater before. So, it was funny when he came out at 7:30, he first said, 'I just got into town 3 hours and when I walked into this place, I was like what the hell is this place? Where's the heat?'. I managed to score a seat in the third row center of the main floor, perfect view. Henry came out wearing his blue Dickie pants, baggy grey tshirt and black shoes. 'I am getting shorter, smaller and grayer, and I am more angry than the last time I was here!"
He covered most of the subjects that have been stated in the tour reports on this website. George Bush antics from his poor facial expressions to using the word spatial incorrectly, he talked about the money spent on Mars and brought up the DC Spina Bifida fan. He then went on to talk about Karen Kwiatkowski and her website. At this point, a drunk fan in the front row yells out something to Henry and Henry just shuts the guy up, 'hey, just because you are sitting in the front row doesn't give you the right to scream at me!' The drunk guy shuts up and Henry starts talking about these other websites about the war and gets sidetracked by another heckler a few rows back. Henry shuts that guy up too, 'oh no, you came to listen to me, we're not going to listen to you!'. Ugh! How annoying - I like the fact the Henry shut these idiots up real fast. I got a little lost on these other websites that Henry was bringing up and what he was trying to say. I feel like he was trying to tell us too many things. He moved on to other subjects like meeting Ike Turner, the Kill Bill premiere, Janet's breast, gay marriages, meeting women and wanting to know what music and books they like and when he finds out that the chick digs Nickelback, he replys 'GET OUT OF MY CAR!!!' - it was hilarious. He moved on to meeting William Shatner, eating a Toblerone candy bar, his USO trip, trying to understand his sexuality when he was a young teenager (in reference to his talk about Bush and abstinence) - interesting note here - as he talked about why he didn't understand what he was feeling at that time, he said his father wouldn't talk to him about that kind of stuff and someone in the audience made a brief comment and Henry looked to the side of the stage and said, 'no really, my father is an asshole, you don't what to know what he said to me, it's really messed up'. That threw me for a loop because Henry rarely ever talks about his father.
Anyway, stupid drunk guy in the front row pipes up again and got Henry all pissed off. He told the guy to back off or he's going to have him kicked out! I wish he would have done it because this drunk guy was a real pain and he was ticking off everyone sitting around him. Anyway, Henry finished up the show at 10:30pm. All in all, it was a great show and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Henry came by the front of the stage and shook drunk guys hand before he walked off the stage which was very big of him. Since it was cold, rainy, and snowing that night, I decided to head to a warm car instead of hang out by the bus for Henry which I assumed many did.
SAN FRANCISCO - WARFIELD THEATER MARCH 21ST: I have friends and family in San Francisco and I wanted to celebrate my birthday there and it just so happens that Henry was in town last weekend and my friend bought me tickets which was very cool. The Warfield Theater was much nicer than the Congress Theater in Chicago so that was a treat. My friend and I got down to the front and scored four row seats center on crowded main floor. The folding chairs were all over the place and seating was a bit tight but it all worked out. Henry came on promptly at 8pm and covered most of the subjects I saw in Chicago which I was expecting. However I will say this show was better because his speech seemed more fine tuned than the show in Chicago. He skipped some things said in Chicago and elaborated more on the Spina Bifida guy, the WM3, didn't relay all the websites on the war, stuck only to the Karen K one, didn't bring up Sherly Crow (good, I hate hearing about her), the Kill Bill premiere or meeting Ike Turner. Also, the crowd was very responsive to what he was saying and no one heckled him which was great. I had to think that heckling thing really pissed him off in Chicago because he got interrupted like 4 times.
Everything that Martha and Jessica said about the show is the same as I would say also. I liked the fact that it was a no smoking venue too. In Chicago, everyone smoked and drank too much beer. Doesn't Henry hate drunks?! Henry finished the show promptly at 11pm and we all gave him a standing ovation. He wore the same blue Dickie pants he had on in Chicago and a snug black tshirt. Good to know that he can still wear those snug tshirts at 43 and he still looks great. Henry works so damn hard and I appreciate the fact that he is still around and doing his spoken word shows. He gives a 100 percent on stage and he is stiil inspiring. I know he can get preachy about the 'go out and vote thing', but he needs to do that because people will listen to him and he speaks to his audience on a level that we all can relate too.
I stuck around after the show in hopes of getting to meet him. Henry came out about 15 minutes after the show and he changed into street clothes. He was wearing baggy jeans, Vans sneakers, a brown tshirt with a grey sweatshirt over it and yes, he's not that tall. I think he's about 6 feet tall and he doesn't appear as big as he does on stage. He looks lean, not bulky. Also, all the energy he exudes on stage is gone, he seemed a bit tired. He signed and snapped pictures with the group of 4 fans in front of me and yes, I saw him grab the phone from one of the fans (as Jessica mentioned in her review) to talk to someone. That was nice of him but what was the person on the phone expecting? He didn't chat very long. My friend and I were up next (Jessica, I was probably the couple you were refering to). I asked Henry to sign our 2 tickets and he did. As he was signing my ticket, I thanked him for the phone interview I did with him in Chicago and it was funny because he took a step back and looked at me and said, 'ya know, I do about 5 to 6 interviews a day, I just don't remember.' I was like, 'that's ok, I am sure all these interviews just become one big blur to you'. Since I had my camera with me, I just had to ask him to take a pic with me and he said sure, no problem. After, that I told him the show was great and he said thanks and moved on the group behind us. He was cordial and polite. I am sure it gets exhausting meeting tons of people night after night on this tour. All in all, great to see two awesome performances from the man!!
Jessica Bakey sent me this report of the 3/21 San Francisco, CA spoken show on 3/24:
Sorry it took me so long to post this:
The show in San Francisco was excellent. My husband and I were front row/just shy of center (it pays to get in line early for a G.A. show!). Henry hit stage at 8pm and stayed until 11pm... No water breaks, no note reading, no encore - no wonder! :) He started with W.'s Mars speech ("spatial entrepreneurs" etc.) and State of The Union address (wishing all of the speeches could be broadcast on closed-circuit TV so the rest of the world couldn't watch and laugh at us), then went on to the DC fan with Spina Bifida, more W. stuff (boys born of privilege / W.'s "unleashing the compassion" quote), how messed up W.'s abstinence program is ("puberty for guys is as subtle as a 2x4 across the forehead"), how rock records finally made sense after he started noticing girls ("I could never understand what Robert Plant's problem was!"), W. the homophobe ("just put the big red H on your shirt and be what you are!") and gay marriage ("Kevin says, 'You know Sean, I'd like to upset the Western World and turn America on it's ear... Let's get married!'"), the Janet Jackson/Super Bowl fiasco ("the brown orb of pleasure" being unleashed in the middle of the Super Bowl was like "a rose petal in the middle of a firefight - sheer poetry" / "Imagine the sheer desperation of Virgin records as they put Janet up to that - 'Well Janet, no one gives a fuck about your career anymore, so...'" / "you could find more tit-ha!-TEAT-alation watching that 2 minute Girls Gone Wild infomercial at 2am... Where were girls like that when I was young?!"), the war in Iraq ("The average weight of an adult male is 165lbs, so 45 tons or more of human flesh has been brought back in various states of mutilation"), 19 year old slackers trying to panhandle from him ("'Uh, excuse me Mr. Rock Star sir, ha-ha'... I unconditionally dig them, so I give them the 45 minute lecture"), the West Memphis Three (the Rise Above album and tour raised over $100,000), Karen Kwiatkowski's reports and how intense they are, the USO trip (among many other great moments, he talked about how he didn't want to sign the bomb and then regretted it when he did because he thought what he wrote was inappropriate and "not funny at all", and the soldiers were laughing and taking pictures of it - it was on the internet two days later much to Henry's embarrassment), recording 'I Can't Get Behind That' with Shatner/Adrian Belew/Matt Chamberlain and how he and Shatner are buddies now (Shatner lives down the street and invited him over for Monday Night Football... Henry said he wasn't into that and Shatner said there would be free food, so he went. "I ate so much free stuff - I can't wait for next season!" He went on about how he'll be camping out on Shatner's lawn with Shatner saying "Henry, I thought you had a home..." and Henry saying "I do now!" He also did a great bit about his love of Adrian.) Henry wrapped up by begging everyone to vote. A few of us in the first two rows gave him a standing ovation which got a *HUGE* smile from him... As more people stood up, he smiled even more. While we were walking to the parking lot behind the venue, we saw a couple of people lined up at the side of the building and a mini van idling nearby. We decided to hang out and ended up meeting Henry. We shook hands, talked for a few, he signed our tickets, and I wished him a safe trip since he was taking a red-eye flight to Canada that night. He thanked me and said "Fortunately, there are many more shows to go!" That was about it. He was obviously exhausted. The first person to meet him held out his cell phone and asked Henry to give his buddy some love advice... Henry was not thrilled. He listened for a minute, said something about "...if she loves you then you can make it work.", then he looked at the rapidly growing line and said "I got a long way to go here" and said goodbye. The kid was happy, Henry was annoyed, but he stayed cool. Next, a couple asked for a picture and didn't say much. We were up next, and when we left, there were about 15-20 people in line. I got the first hour+ of the show recorded (that's all the memory my D.V<oice>.R. had), which is better than nothing I guess. It was an amazing night. If he's going to be in your area, GO TO THE SHOW!!!!! :)~ Jessica
P.S. I used Ticketmaster because the MusicToday(?) thing made me a little nervous... Has anyone contacted Henry about all the problems with the ticket service?
Martha sent me this report of the 3/21 San Francisco, CA spoken show on 3/22:
San Francisco, CA, March 21, 2004.
The Warfield is sandwiched between XXX theaters and homeless people, with a smattering of foreign tourists. On my way up the sidewalk, I was approached by scalpers (!) hawking main floor tickets. There was a cursory purse and pocket check at the main doors but nobody seemed too worried about it. The show started on time with no fanfare and a lot of empty balcony seats. About 90 minutes later, the place was reasonably full up with San Francisco hipsters whose night out doesn't usually start before ten, even on Sunday. Rollins mentioned that he'd gotten some mail last year about how hard it was to get to the other theater on "rapid" transit, so management booked him into the more accessible Warfield. For my part, the change of venue made the difference between not going to the show at all (2003) and, clap clap, 2004 show's over, grab a taxi to point A, hit all the transit connections, and I was home tucked up into bed by 11:45 PM, a new personal best for travel time outside of commuter hours. The show covered basically the same topics already mentioned. Dressed in blue slacks and black T-shirt and shoes, HR walked on stage, acknowledged the crowd, put right foot in front of left, and then rooted himself into the floor. I mean, motionless, he stood planted like a tree. At the same time, he was talking really, really fast - if it didn't seem so unlikely, I'd say he looked nervous. At any rate, this wore off and by 90 minutes or so into it, he was as fully and physically engaged as the audience was fully present. He did his yogic Drishti thing as usual, last night seemingly focused on a spot on the back wall just behind the bartenders. For a guy who speaks as personably as he does, he is remarkably low on audience eye contact. The show last night might be summed up as "Henry does voices," which is better than being guided by them; there was enough of that out front. He did the Chuck Yeager "ah" pilot guy two or three times in different contexts, and nearly 20 minutes of William "Captain" Shatner impersonations. The spina bifida guy came up repeatedly and his situation really seems to have affected our hero, especially in light of the Bush mission to Mars. Although, when it comes down to it, I'm happier knowing that there's enough money in this country to fly a divining rod to Mars than I am knowing that the money flowing through William Shatner's career allows him to fly a guy out from the East Coast all the way to Nashville on a whim, just to eat really good scallops. Since spina bifida guy won't take a handout, I figure he might get more out of basic science than celebrity privilege. But that's just me talking, and last night I paid my dollars to see Henry Rollins talking, and Henry Rollins is celebrated enough to eat Bill Shatner's free food and get scalped on the streets outside.
Sanjay Krishnan sent this report of the 3/20 Davis, CA spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 3/22:
Saw the show Sat night @ UC Davis. Doors ran a little late due to so many mishaps with tickets purchased through his website, has that been happening a lot? He still came on at 8 sharp, and was done by 10:30.
He started off talking about fox news, and I can't remember her name, but a specific woman on the news who he detested so much that it turned him on immensely, and how he was reading her books and it was just so insane to get through them. He went on to talk about how she didn't believe in pre-maritial sex, so he was going to end up marrying her in a years time and would be the one to deflower her, he went into this hilarious bit about the training program, that he would put his tounge through, hehe.
From there, I think it was the standard stuff that most of the reviews have been mentioning : the presidents speech on mars, meeting the guy who had Spina Bifida after the DC show, more comments about Bush's state of the union speech, Karen Kwiatkowski, gay marriage. He also talked about some enviromental issues effecting CA, and how Bush had a hand in appointing the guys that are more or less responsible for making decisions that are hurting the environment. Intermixed with all of this was stories on dating in high school, and watching girls become more and more attractive as they matured, and how his records took on new meaning once girls hit puberty.
He mentioned how Layne Staley's mom came out to the Seattle show, and how it was the first time she had been in that venue since Layne sat there with her 15 years ago when AIC played a benefit show there. From there he recounted the whole story of the guy trying to break into his house, and ended with the recap of his USO trip and how it looked like they got confirmation that he was going back again in late April.
I wish I had a pen and paper with me, he dropped so many names and websites that one should check out.
Benjamin Swagerty sent me this report of the 3/18 Eugene, OR spoken show on 3/20:
Hello there,
Wanted to write about seeing Henry last night in Eugene, Oregon.
Standard starting time-- doors at 7, show at 8, and Henry came out around 8:15. The funny thing is that there were some lighting difficulties at first. Before he came out, all the lights dimmed, but-- woops, false alarm. But he came out a minute later and started anyway. Five minutes into the show, the stage lights went out for a second, and then came right back on.
He immediately commented on it, something to the effect of "Are you guys fooling around with the lights, or just trying out something new?", directed at the lighting crew. Like, how can you mess up on something this simple?
He started off with jokes about visiting the Northwest [the intense weather, the gray skies that frequently threaten to rain] and the stereotype of Oregon, or Eugene, residents that are super-environmental or into pagan/witchcraft stuff.
He started into comments on the president's speech about Mars, and then recounted meeting a guy after the recent D.C. show. Some big vials of pills fell out of the man's backpack, he seemed really high on something, and had trouble speaking. When Henry naively said, "A little high on your own stash?", the man proceeded to explain that he actually had Spina Bifida, a very painful birth defect. The drugs counter a lot of pain, but make it hard to speak, and he could barely use his left arm. They talked for a little while, and he told Henry about how he can't really work b/c of his condition, and so he gets by on government aid, but is desperately poor.
Henry tried to help him get to a all-night restaurant to wait for the trains to start again in the morning [this was past midnight] but the man kept refusing the help, said he'd be fine, and left. Henry's point was that we can't choose gigantic, expensive missions when you have people like this who live in poverty and desperately need the help.
He proceeded into his comments about Bush ["spacial entrepreneurs"], and the uproar over gay marriages. He also spoke about Karen Kwiatkowski, the longtime Pentagon staffer who grew disgusted at Cheney and Rumsfeld's propaganda and policies about Iraq, wrote anonymous articles about it on the internet. She quit right before the Iraq invasion, put her name on her columns, and now speaks honestly from what she has seen, and what the administration's real motivations were. I read the LA Weekly interview a few hours ago-- amazing stuff.
Anyway, Henry talked about catching someone trying to break into his house, back in L.A., a while ago, and how insane it all was. The experience of playing in front of Japanese fans, and the great story of doing the USO tour in Afghanistan. Finally he spoke about working with Ben Folds, William Shatner, and especially Adrian Belew, to his great amazement. He ended with a strong admonition to vote, no matter which way you swing. All in all, it was about three great hours.
He was out by the bus within fifteen minutes after the show was over. A lot of people were there, waiting to talk to him or get something signed.
It was this big circle of timid people with Henry in the middle. But he was great, and people got a little more confident. I had him sign the inside cover of my sketchbook, and my little brother & I got a picture with him.
We're all pointing at the camera, like some hair metal band.
I asked him about something he mentioned last year: three things beginning with the letter K. One was Kolyma- an incredibly brutal prison camp in Siberia, and another was Ryszard Kapuscinski. I forget what the third 'K' was, and so did Hank. But he wholeheartedly recommended Kapuscinski's books, especially "Imperium".
I asked him what he's reading these days, and he said: A history of the Russian/Afghan war, a big biography of Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Notes from Camus, a book about Nicholas III [by an author who'd wrote about Stalin, I think], and something from the writer Mikhail Bulgakov, which I think was "Heart of a Dog". I also asked what he's listening to, and he said that he's got about 900 songs on his laptop. But he did say that he does listen to one band every day-- The Fall, legendary English band of fury and rage.
The whole experience was great. He felt like a great uncle who I rarely get to see, but when I do, it's all great, fun, and completely interesting and engaging for the whole time.
Thanks guys!
Chris Mansfield sent this report of the 3/14 Seattle, WA spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 3/15:
Hi All,
Wanted to report on the Seattle show last night before I head to work. Got to the Moore Theatre about 45 minutes before showtime and they were already letting people in. It was nice to just have our tickets scanned at the door and stroll right in without being searched. Security was nice and helpful. Times sure have changed. :)
Beelined for the merch table and picked up "Talk is Cheap Vol. 3," "Nights Behind the Treeline," and "Broken Summers." I must not have been paying much attention lately because I was pleasantly surprised when I read the back cover of "Broken Summers" to discover what it was about. I'm sure I knew that already from this list but somehow had forgotten, and I can't wait to read it now. Skipped the 15$ Luna Park DVD because I imported it from Australia last summer. (There are limits to my patience.) The autographed posters looked pretty damn cool and I considered briefly getting one to have framed for our wall, but decided ultimately that it wasn't that interesting to look at long term.
Strolled in to find our seats, about 2/3 of the way back in the balcony. Worst seats I've had in ages for Hank, but I blame the thoroughly crappy online ticketing folks (MusicToday.com) 2.13.61 used for wasting my time on that one. If you haven't bought tickets for an upcoming show yet, stay away from them. Go buy them at the venue's box office if at all possible. Hell even Ticketmaster is preferable because at least they're consistent. These pricks wanted a way-too-high service charge and to add insult to injury, two weeks after our order they e-mailed to claim there was no will call option (there was when we ordered and the venue confirmed) and they were going to charge us another $8 to mail our two paper tickets. Told them to cancel the order. They refused and demanded a shipping address. Told them again to cancel the order and called credit card bank to report pending unauthorized charges. It just escalated into an e-mail argument that ultimately resulted in a cancellation and full refund, but I'll never use them again. I was out of town for work for a few days when the presale was sprung and this fiasco started, so I ended up buying two tickets at the box office a week later and wound up in the balcony, but at least I didn't feel financially raped and shit on by yet another arrogant company that thinks it has a right to the money in my wallet. (Whatever happened to the customer is always right?)
We get seated and I immediately start to wonder what's the deal with the extra equipment. There is more lighting than usual and a large boom that is moving in and out from side-stage, about ten feet back, like a giant spider leg. At about 8:00 a gentleman walks out to the mic and drops the bomb -- Henry's having the show shot (in hi-definition no less) for an upcoming live DVD and he wanted Seattle to be the setting for it because we've always been so supportive of him. And oh, by the way, the show will run longer than usual because of it so they can get plenty of footage and try not to look at the camera when we get audience reactions, etc. etc. Oh YEAH!!!! Not that I care about being on the video but THE SHOW IS GOING TO BE LONGER! =)
I won't bother detailing what he talked about, as I'm sure others have done so already for the other shows on the tour -- I avoided reading anything about the show in advance as much as possible because I like to be surprised -- but it ran 3 hours 2 minutes. And my tape came out pretty good considering how far back we were. I hadn't even considered he'd go longer than 2.5 hours so I hadn't bothered to bring more than two 90 minute tapes, but when we found out he was shooting it -- oh shit... we could be here until sun up. :) But ol' Hank, with perfect timing, walked off stage one minute before my tape ran out. Awesome. :) I'll try to get it into mp3 form and onto the scratchpad soon.
I liked the show but they're still missing the edge from 5-10 years ago. His act is too polished and is too much like stand up comedy now. He used to just walk out and talk like it was a 3 hour conversation, telling stories of events that only he could get into, and yet again these were the best parts of the show. I really miss the motivational stuff and heavier material. Like scratch said many moons ago during a previous tour, I used to come out of his shows pumped and ready to kick ass. But I guess Henry's past that stage now. Maybe he feels he's said his piece for several years and if I haven't gotten the message by now there's nothing more he can do, and he'd be right. He seems in a "happier" place, and I sure won't begrudge him that.
Michelle sent me this report of the 3/6 St. Louis, MO spoken show on 3/11:
Henry finally hit the stage around 8:30 pm, and kept up his impressive, stream-of-conciousness blathering until somewhere around 11:00 pm.
I just have to say that I saw Henry for the first time last year, and, in my opinion, he blew himself out the water this year. The man never fails to make my jaw drop to the floor in wonder and amazement. He talks so fast and clearly, and so well, that it makes ones head spin just trying to keep up with him.
He started out the show by doing the inevitable, but totally understandable and necessary, GWB bashing. And apparently, most of the audience, myself included, agreed with him. The rant on Old Georgie's poor knowledge of language went into the whole thing about "spatial entreprenuers", "global posititioning systems", and various other Bush verbal fiascos. He mentioned Bush as being one of those trained Hollywood dogs, as in when he's done slaughtering the English vernacular in his horrendous speeches, he's looking off to the side for the silent, "good doggie" encouragement from Condoleeza Rice. Too funny.
He covered some of what is in Broken Summers as well, which I was looking forward to because I had been wanting to actually hear the whole burglar story. Which is even funnier when Hank tells the story live, because the story somehow lacks his enthusiasm in the book.
He also spoke about his adventure to the "Kill Bill" premier with Adam Rifkin. And people, I have to tell you that Henry's impersonation of Adam is absolutely hilarious. Henry imitates Rifkin as sounding like this very self-concious, bumbling, slow speaking man, who had a heart attack and can only speak through the left side of his face. He describes how him and Adam were trying to avoid the trip down the red carpet by sneaking in through the "regular"entrance door but somehow, end up on the carpet anyway. Then the real comedy starts when Henry and Adam are viciously attacked my camera flashbulbs, video cameras and microphones. Henry states that whenever he opens his mouth to say something, it's always the exact wrong thing. When he was asked by one of the media why he was attending the premier, he louldy and fervently stated, "FOR THE FUCKIN' FREE FOOD!!!". He was repremanded by the the lady for his use of the F-bomb, Henry apologized, and started his statement over. He was apparently struck with Tourette's Syndrome at that very moment in time, because he said the naughty word again, and was promptly released from the spontaneous, mini-interview. Other things worth noting in that story are Henry's spastic, vocally piercing impersonation of Quinton Tarantino and his animal attack on the free food buffet.
Other stories of the night included his encounter with the guy with the spina biffida, how he was called for jury duty, his USO trip to Afghanistan, a brief story on the making of the Rise Above record, and his meeting Ben Folds, William Shatner, and Adrian Belew. The Shatner/Belew story is priceless and will have you on the floor in hysterics. Hank's "man-love" for Belew is very apparent and adorable, and it shows when he tells the tale. Whenever Shatner's album comes out, I'm all over it, I just have to hear Rollins screaming along with Shatner on things "they can't get behind." Totally great!
Things that have stuck inside my brain and have not left: He stated that he doesn't get a lot of phone calls, and when he does, it's usually a telemarketer. He stated that he can't be mean to these people because they sit in one of the many rows of cubicles, getting yelled at by folks for eight to ten hours a day. He expaned on the story by stating how he likes to get into phone sex mode and verbally molest male telemarketers with such phrases as, "Peter, you sound...thick." He said that job has got to get mind-numbingly boring and somewhat stressful, so he likes to give the telemarketers something to remember him by. Isn't Henry always giving someone something to remember him by? Hilarious!
Henry talking about how much he wants to find a woman that is an avid reader of books that don't involve Harry Potter. He describes when he's out on a date, how he tries not to ask her the top five books and music that have changed her life. He says when he does this, he's testing her, and anybody that judges another person by what they haven't read/listened to is an asshole. So, he was basically pointing the finger at himself. He says that he feels like such a dick when he does this and even though he tries desperately not to do it, he does it anyway.
He mentioned how unfortunate it is that any man/boy who is Catholic and is a chronic masterbater, that the religion bashes it into your head that there is a "jack-off hell" that awaits you in the afterlife. Henry had the whole audience in fits when he said that he will be joining the many Catholic masterbators in this "jack-off hell", even though he himself isn't Catholic, just for the insane amount of times he's touched himself impurely. He went on to paint this intense, surreal and totally hilarious picture of what this "jack-off hell" must look like. It starts with a very large room, the size of like six Home Depots put together, and there is no moving air at all. It's all men, no women to be found at all. All of these men are packed together so tightly that their shoulders are crushed together. The men are dressed in the same Brooks Brothers suit, it smells like man sweat and cologne and they're all jacking off at the same time, for all eternity.
He ended the night by asking everyone to go out and vote. He said it's only the way this great country of ours will ever get better, is if we have 100% of the voters actually doing something to help out. Right on!!!
I'm almost postive that I may have left out a few things, he covered so much that I can't remember it all. I'm very sorry if this review seems a bit to long, I just had a really great time and wanted to share it with all of you. I hope that everyone gets to go to at least one of his shows this year, it's well worth it.
Lisa Faz sent me this report of the 2/29 Asheville, NC spoken show on 3/1:
Rollins covered the same material as the 2-23show with some commentary on the local flavor added at the beginning. He started by talking about a guy he met at his last show in D.C. This guy had waited after the show to meet him and have a private moment. When appropaching Henry, a car almost hit him and his duffel bag fell onto the driveway. Well, all of these drugs started spilling out... BIG horse pills. The BIG industrial strength bottles. Being a nice guy, Henry helped the guy pick up the drugs and they started talking. Turns out that this guy had spina bifida (really crippling birth defects... google it yourself). Anyway, he told Henry how inspiring he is, then told him that he was going to have to make a tough decision. This guy had to choose between working to keep a roof over his head or quitting and going on welfare/medicaid to get his medication paid for. See, he couldn't find a job with drug benefits. It's not like the medication will "cure" his spina bifida: it's a birth defect. There is no cure. The medications only help dull the pain to a somewhat manageable level. They kept talking, and the guy realized that he'd just missed the last train back to his place and mentioned it. Henry asked how he'd get home. The guy told him he'd just wait for the morning train. Henry offered to get the guy a hotel room, so he'd have somewhere to stay for the night, but the guy said no, thanks, but he'd be alright. Henry offered to at least give him cab fare, but again the guy declined. The conversation came around to Asheville because we have a lot of street kids. They took what I consider the hippie credo (make the world a better place) and instead misinterpreted it as "don't work unless you want to". How the hell they did that, I don't know. Anyway, this street kid hit Henry up for money, and it was on.
Since I work with special needs high school students, I gotta tell you, I hate this panhandling shit. I work with kids who don't have physical limitations, but can't read or retain much knowledge... but they have jobs. Anyway, it was a hell of a way to start out a show.
Debi sent this report of the 2/23 Minneapolis, MN spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 2/24:
Kathy and I were dead center, front row for the show. Only about 5 feet from the microphone and the man! Unfortunately, the seats this close are folding chairs. My back, legs and butt were killing me today! The chair was juuuust high enough that my feet didn't rest flat on the ground. And the cold air vent was blowing right on me. <whine>
The house music before the show was TroubleFunk; most likely the cd that his new label has just reissued. I kept wanting to jump up and dance. The crap-for-sale table had a LOT more stuff than in the past. 'Talk is Cheap 3', the new DVD, the trouble funk cd, tour poster, 3 styles of shirt, and 'Broken Summers'. 'Nights behind the treeline' was also there somewhere, I'm sure.
Ok, first off, he wore an old black tshirt (untucked) and some blue-ish colored trousers (they almost looked like they were originally suit pants) with his old black wingtips. He's thinner since he's been doing less powerlifting, and his hair is greyer than mine! Hahahaha! When he first came out, someone tried to be a heckler, but he shut them down right away. "This is NOT an interactive event. You shut up and drink, I talk."
He covered so many topics (and i'll probably forget a bunch of them and put the rest in the wrong order), but most of them were political and there was very little relationship stuff as in the past. Of course he talked about Bush's inability to speak the english language at great length. There was a fun aside about what a 'spatial entrepeneur' could possibly be, that involved buyiing one of those stars from the ads in the backs of magazines for a loved one. Very funny! He compared Bush to Lassie; the way he looks off to the side when he's done saying something, as if looking for the doggie treat.
He covered the fun of attending the 'Kill Bill' premeire with Adam Rifkin, getting his photo taken on the red carpet, and how in every pic he looks like a complete spaz (we've seen the pix, and he's right about that LOL). He also talked about the after-party and all the free food, and meeting Ike Turner (which sounded like a real trip).
He talked for a bit about the Rise Above tour last year, and how the show here in Mpls was the hottest (man, the stage lights were frying us! The bouncers had to start passing out bottles of water for us all to share). This lead into a story about the show in Tokyo and the american dickheads up front who got to taste his wrath.
Then he told the story of the guy who tried to break into his house, which is very surreal and hysterical. My fave part was the very end where the cops said they wouldn't tell anyone he called them so that he could 'maintain his street cred.'
This lead into the story of his USO trip, which you've really got to hear
in person. He was supposed to go to Baghdad this spring, but the USO has run out of money. They told him that only Joan Jett and he offered to come back.
From there, it was into the stories about doing some recording with William Shatner (and Adrian Belew!). He does a very funny 'phlegmy fan boy' imitation of how he idolizes Belew.
He urged everyone to vote, and then it was over, much too soon. It lasted a little over 3 hours, and we only got about 30 seconds of Sheryl Crow obsession (he was much more interested in her dating Lance Armstrong, and which side of the saddle Lance rests his lone ball for better aerodynamics). This was pretty funny locally since Lance's soon-to-be exwife is from a Twin Cities suburb.
Anyway, that was the show, in a nutshell.
Ajit Acharya sent me this report of the 2/15 Ann Arbor, MI spoken show on 2/17:
Hello friends. I thought I'd add my $0.02 to the tour reports. Henry's show in Ann Arbor, MI was a treat as always. He's been coming to our fine little college town almost every year since the late 80s/early 90s. He took the stage promptly and immediately apologized for making us brave the harsh Michigan elements to check him out.
Henry began with the usual G.W. Bush tirade - his incompetence with the language, his inability to "riff", etc. But it was refreshing to see him talk about many of the elements "behind the scenes" that average citizens may not be privy to. What Americans receive is largely "filtered information" as he called it. Henry spat out a few facts including:
1) Dick Cheney's financial stake in many Middle Eastern oil companies
2) Bush's appointment of David Hager to head the FDA Advisory Committee on Reproductive drugs. Hager is editor and contributing author of "The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality, Reproductive Technologies and the Family".
3) "Unleashing compassion" - Bush's terminology for financially supporting faith-based organizations. This led to a brief tangent talking about gay marriage.
4) The UnoCal pipeline - containing many letters urging an Iraqi regime change written by Cheney and Rumsfeld (originally sent to President Clinton as early as 1998).
I love the tidbits of information Henry dispensed... he clearly does his research, although I doubt we got the ENTIRE story. He once talked about starving his mind and seeking out nutrition in places most people don't look. Well folks, stuff like this isn't printed in USA Today and People magazine. He obviously spends a lot of time on Google though.
Henry also talked about being quite the fan of Christ (as he has in the past - "Haven't read the book, but LOVED the story. Very rock and roll") He got a laugh telling everyone that he envisioned J.C. looking likeViggo Mortenson... with Bootsy Collins' voice.
The other topics mentioned here were also covered including:
The Sheryl Crow thing
The Kill Bill premiere with Adam Rifkin
The Bill Shatner gig.
He also talked at length about the USO trip to Afghanistan. This was a great story... Particularly moving was his encounter with a six year old Afghani girl in a hospital bed. He talked about the confusion he felt after being asked to autograph a bomb that was to be loaded onto a plane. "In the rock and roll business, musicians get asked to sign a lot of things..."
He told us all how he called Geraldo Rivera "a stupid bitch" onstage in front of a huge crowd of soldiers. They apparently waited for a few seconds and roared their approval. So did we, for that matter.
Little slices of uncommon reality and unique perspectives throughout... with sharp Rollins humor thrown in. It was a cool show. Three hours flew by as usual... and we were eventually kicked back out into the cold Michigan night.
Paul Everitt sent this report of the 2/11 Hartford, CT spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 2/12:
HI all - just got back from Henry's SW word show at the Webster Theater in Hartford CT...It's a nice theatre just outside of Hartford that gets a lot of alternate act's coming through - Mest, Poison the Well were a few I saw that are coming up.
After the usual wait out side in the freezing cold we were allowed inside...the Theater is in the style of a lot of rock venues nice graduating floor going down to the stage smallish bar at the back...nice room good for bands and what we saw tonight...
Henry hit the stage just after 8:30pm and went straight into the routine on GW...most of you that have seen the show or who have been reading the reports on the shows will know what it's about GW's Mannerisms and how GW fronts up to interviews - suffice to say we now have the term "global positioning system" firmly burned into our minds...
He talked also about going to the Kill Bill Hollywood premiere with good mate of his who directed him in the chase...that was a whole scene (story) in itself....he also covered some insane moments that occurred in recent times, such as Henry arriving at his home to find someone breaking into his house and his hilarious conversation with the thief .. He also covered the WM3 tour from last year and the events around that
He also covered his trip to Afghanistan and the whole travails of Henry actually getting there (and back) for the USO tour - Which leads me to a bit of news which may or may not be new to everyone - anyone wanting a band or spoken word tour elsewhere right after this tour ends in might be (at least) temporarily out of luck - From what he said on stage tonight he will be doing another USO tour (this time of Iraq) leaving basically a day after this current tour ends in April.
Anyway he talked about being on the airbase and signing a bomb and how when the moment came to signing the thing how lost as to what to put there " you want it to hurt the bad guys but you worry about it getting the good guys"
He finished off with him arriving back from Afghanistan only to get a call from Ben Folds, with Ben asking whether Henry wanted him to help on a record that William Shatner was doing....I'm not going any further than that - suffice it to say it's damm funny!!
Merchandise wise there is plenty available - there is the Talk is Cheap" CD series (all $10 each) a studio spoken word CD (forgotten the name) with some readings of Henry's (also $10) also a book "Broken Summers" which details Henry putting together the WM3 tribute - it looks very much like it was done in the style of 'Get in the van". nice read- there's also the Live at Luna Park DVD, which apparently covers a little of the "Rollins in the Wrye" content with additional stuff thrown in - it all was on the table for $10....there were shirts but I forgot to look at them..
Anyway the show ran 2 .5 hours, the man left to a standing O and we all went back into the Connecticut Freeze.. Henry's tour winds on from CT with a travel day off followed by 2 shows in Ohio ( and I think he wends his way westward from there)
Anyway hope this helps a few people along, this was my 7th Henry SW show - 5 in the US and 2 in my home country Australia - all of them great!!
Tara K sent this report of the 1/30 New York, NY spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 2/8:
Taking a break from a life scripted by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes to bring you this belated report on the NYC Town Hall show.
A few eye-catching items on the merch table: the admonition “buy your girlfriend a shirt, you cheap bastard!” by the stack of baby doll t’s, which had something about ‘cheap’ inked on them... and the Trouble Funk double disc set of “Live/Early Singles”. I know some of you picked these up in the Infinite Zero days, but they’re on Henry’s new District Line label, a showcase for DC bands, and the money goes to a good cause.
Henry walked out at 8:15 and launched right into that “courageous spatial entrepreneur”, George W. Bush, and his command of the English language. Rollins likened him to a stunt dog constantly looking to its trainer to see if it’s done the right thing - because it’s absolutely terrified it will be beaten. There George is, delivering the painstakingly prewritten speech, when suddenly he looks off to the side and starts going off the page, creating complete nonsense. Of course, putting Condi Rice in the role of trainer does add a bit to that image... Henry, armed with what appeared to be a highlighted copy of G-dub’s recent state of the union address, then proceded to pick apart the bits he didn’t like. He said he forgot television isn’t an interactive experience and wound up yelling and throwing socks at the screen during the actual event. Talked a bit about Bush’s job retraining program for prisoners, pointing out that in the current market, anyone with a criminal record is at a real disadvantage for the few jobs we’ve got.
Then things got a good deal less serious. The ‘ass’ t-shirt - his ‘only’ Christmas gift, courtesy of Heidi - got a full explanation. When people in the audience went “aww!” over the fact that it was his only present, he said “no, don’t feel sorry for poor little me - because I’m not poor and I’m not little.” And the masturbation jokes are back, complete with the helmet and kneepads of old, though this time he’s spending quality time in his underwear with Google and Amazon.
A long riff that began with the fact that women in L.A. don’t read - well, OK, they do: but does the last Harry Potter book really count? Up till that point, the N.Y. women were trying to show some solidarity with those on the left coast, but that had everyone in hysterics. He always says he’s not quite sure how all his things ended up in L.A., but there he was, sitting at home, when the phone rang. Actually, it rang twice - but he was going to tell us about the first phone call, he’d get to the other - looking at his watch - in, oh, about three hours. He then proceeded to talk about the trip to Afghanistan, meeting the troops and talking to them about their experiences. He explained a bit about signing that bomb - that it wasn’t something he particularly wanted to do, but there it was and he did it. He said he was trying to figure out what to write and went for something funny, not expecting to ever see it again. Then the pictures hit the internet, and he’s been explaining the joke ever since. Apparently, he asked if he could go back - “but no one ever asks to go back!,” they told him - and he’s planning another trip this year.
The second phone call was from Ben Folds, who asked him to work with William Shatner on a track called “I Can’t Get Behind That”. Essentially, the two of them riff on things that really bother them, saying “I can’t get behind that!” They must have hit it off, since he got asked over to Shatner’s house to watch football. Of course, Henry’s real fanboy moment was when Adrian Belew showed up to play on the track; Henry claimed he went over and ‘poked’ Belew. Well, come on: it _was_ Adrian Belew.
Then we got to hear about the woman who scorned him: Sheryl Crow. Hilarious, especially when he started singing the lyrics to every lame 70s love song ever written, including Styx’s “Lady”. Of course, after Sheryl, it took him awhile to recover, but he’s finally found his blonde goddess. Yeah, you heard it here first: he’s writing love letters to Ann Coulter. <g>
No bad moments, aside from the people somewhere offstage who earned his wrath by chattering - he addressed some comment about teamsters to them. I don’t know if it was the venue or something in the water this year, but the audience was completely into it. Lots of conversations after the show about how great it was and how the guy gets better every time he shows up in our town. My favorite part? The big smile on Henry’s face when he got a standing ovation at the end.
Yoshi Aday sent me this report of the 1/31 Poughkeepsie, NY spoken show on 2/3:
1/31/04 Bardavon Theatre Poughkeepsie, NY
Henry mentioned his mother being a Vassar College alumni before he began the show. For a few minutes he gave a preview of the type of material the audience would be receiving that night. It almost seemed like he was testing the waters. Being basically a suburb of New York City and all, I figured there were many people connected to 911 in some way or another. He was rather energetic and performed for over 3 hours. I found this show to be more relaxing because of the theatre seating.(Last time i saw him was in toad's place last year, standing for 2.5 hours.)Some of the topics he addressed:
Bush and his lack of familiarity with the words
"global positioning system"
His one-sided love for Sheryl Crow ending
The WM3 tour
The USO tour
William Shatner recording
The Kill Bill premiere
Overall a great show with a new perspective offered which gave much to think about on the drive home. It's great to get a primary source of whats going down over across the seas.
musicgirl2367 sent this report of the 1/30 New York, NY spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 2/2:
I went to my FIRST ever Henry ROllins spoken word performance this past saturday. I had AMAZING seats, even though I was up in the second balcony, I got a GREAT view of him. I went to the WM3 benefit show last year in NYC and I was far away, but I got great vids and GREAT pics of that show. but luckily at the Spoken word show I got such a clear view of him. he is
1. beautiful (I've heard of him for a long time, but since I've gotten older, I recently realized just last year, how unbelievably attractive he is;
2. smart;
3. thin;
4. just a regular guy.
I really wanted to meet him after the show, but if anyone was in the city last friday, knows how fucking cold he was. I will just wait to see him when it gets hotter, did anyone get a chance to see him after the show and how did he behave, talk, etc.
he was so inspiring and awesome, we all gave him a standing ovation. I did not want him to leave, he did something to me that nite and I will always respect him and admire him for that.
he fucking rocks.
Mad Stan sent me this report of the 1/23 West Palm Beach, FL spoken show on 1/31:
Last weekend, my wife and I drove up to Palm Beach to see Henry at the Carefree Theatre. The venue was pretty cool, it was an actual movie theatre. Before the show, they had music running through the speakers, some rockabilly, Jerry Lee Lewis type stuff, some older rock n' roll that felt like the Ramones, then Public Enemy, then KISS closed the set. My wife was convinced this was Henry's own mix tape, since we all know how he feels about Chuck D, then his recent induction into the KISS Army. Anyone have any info? The show was great; he spoke for two and a half hours without a pause. Most of the topics have already been covered in other reviews, so I won't plagiarize. The thing that moved me the most was at the end, when he made an impassioned plea with everyone to vote. Hell, it inspired me enough to get my shit together and register (finally). After the show, we walked out to our car, which happened to be right down the street from Henry's bus. We decided to wait in line and try to meet him, since I'd heard he's usually cool with people after spoken word shows. My wife had him sign her Starbucks partner ID card, and they talked a little about coffee (he's got ten pounds of Peet's French Roast on this tour, in case anyone's interested, and said he's been drinking it since the 80's). When it was my turn to talk to him, I turned into a blithering idiot. I shook his hand, then started blabbing about how he was such a huge influence on me, and because of him I had quit smoking and drinking, and started working out. He said 'Good for you, you're going to live a long time.' I walked away thoroughly embarrassed; my nerves had worked me into such a frenzy while waiting in line I was shaking while I was running my mouth, he probably thought I was some kind of junkie. I had all these big plans, I had worn a super-cool Taxi Driver T-shirt (under my Search & Destroy hoodie) in case I got the chance to have him sign it, and I was so embarrassed I couldn't even ask. Here I was meeting my hero for the first time, and all I was doing was wasting his time and leaving him thoroughly unimpressed. My wife told me not to take it so hard, but I felt I had blown my chance. Then, this morning I read the article posted on this site from the NY Daily News, and he said,'--there are people who said, "I heard you speak and I stopped drinking".' Now I don't for a second have the ego to think he was talking directly about me, but it gave me the glimmer of hope that I hadn't completely wasted the time of a man who values his time so much. My advice: if you see the bus outside the venue, wait for him--you won't be disappointed.
I sent this report of the 1/16 Dallas, TX spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 1/23:
Rollins hit stage at 9:00 (in an "Ass" shirt that he later explained was a gift from screaming office mate Heidi) and talked to a standing room only crowd 'til 11:30. Various topics, not necessarily in order:
- doing an outdoor spoken show last year in San Antonio as a Jean Benet Ramsey-like kids beauty pageant was taking place nearby, the Texas family unit - giant father, soccer mom, beauty pageant kids, SUV, etc
- President Bush's made-up words and horrible speaking skills - "further upper", "spatial exploration", why are we going back to the moon and Mars?
- WM3 stuff - meeting one of the mother's of one of the murdered boys and getting her approval, dealing with the press and playing the show in Memphis
- Tokyo band show last year with 3 American assholes up front - Rollins pegged one in the head with a water bottle and there was only 1 witness in his crew to his miraculous shot
- going to movie premiers - "School of Rock" and "Kill Bill" with the director of "The Chase" Adam Rifkin ("free food!") - seeing Sheryl Crow and crazy Quentin Tarantino and meeting and hanging out with Ike Turner
- a Love Story - pursuing Sheryl Crow over the years and obsessing over and writing to Ann Coulter (who he refers to as Ann Hitler)
- surreal conversation with a guy in surgical gloves trying to break into Rollins' house, tour manager Mike Curtis in pursuit on foot, 8 cops in Rollins' living room
- California stuff - Michael Jackson, Schwarzenegger, Shaw Hannity blaming liberals for the forest fires
- recording with Ben Folds, William Shatner and Adrian Belew
- the USO tour - visiting troops in various places (Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Qatar), staying at the shell shocked air base, soldiers always with their rifles, seeing the Afghan countryside (warrior's graves, old Russian tanks, mine fields), visiting a hospital, seeing a C-130 and signing a bomb, doing a spontaneous show and calling Geraldo Rivera a pussy to thunderous cheers, etc. Rollins wants to go back (to Baghdad) for another tour in May
- jury duty - Rollins was dismissed when he had to tell the Joe Cole story to the judge and lawyers
Most of the topics I was familiar with from the latest book, interviews, etc but hadn't heard live yet. No hecklers, just one girl he shut up with something like "this is not an interactive experience ma'am, you just sit and dig me for awhile". It was as thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking as ever and, as always, the 2 and 1/2 hours flew by ...
Unfcknblvbl sent me this report of the 1/13 Tempe, AZ spoken show on 1/14:
Saw Henry's opening show at the Marquee Theater last night in Tempe. He talked for about 2 hours, 15 minutes. I don't want to give too much away about what he spoke. He opened up talking about kicking off the Rise Above tour on that same stage. Some of what he wrote about the tour in Broken Summers he expanded on.Merchandise:
- 3 t-shirts, all black. One short-sleeve with WMD on the front (you'll understand when you see it), blank on back; the other two with "Henry Rollins Spoken Word Tour 2004" on the front with the Search and Destroy and sun on the back; one is short-sleeve, the other is long-sleeve.
- Talk is Cheap, Volume 3.
- Signed Spoken Word Tour Poster. It looks like the cover of the upcoming "Live at Luna Park" DVD. (Signed 'Henry Rollins' in silver ink. If you recall his story about Ozzy from "You Saw Me Up There," you'll find the humor in this.)
- Broken Summers paperback.As I was waiting outside for him to come out, the people running the merchandise booths were taking stuff back to his bus and I saw a couple of shirts I hadn't seen. I bought my stuff before the show so there may have been different shirts after the show.
He signed my copy of "Talk is Cheap, Volume 3" ('Thanks - Henry Rollins') and I had a chance to ask him about the longtime coming "Won't Sleep, Won't Shut Up." He said he is currently working on two books, one of tour journals/articles for mags he's written and the other I won't mention the subject because he talks about it during the show. He said, "My book company has been telling me for a while to just shut up and do that book. Since there isn't much demand for my books, I publish a book every 14 months. I'll get to it sometime."It was an awesome show, funny and serious as ever.
RISE ABOVE!