'99 Tour

1999 Tour Reports
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be sure to check out the 'spoken word show reviews' section of the links page too!

Here's the rest of bar sinister's report of the NYC spoken shows, sent to the Henry Rollins list on 12/21:
OK, where was I? Intermission:
He got back and told this story about being on a bill with Sheryl Crow and the Jim Rose Circus somewhere in Sandanavia. As he said, this combination would never occur in the U.S. At one point, Jim Rose grabbed him and Sheryl for a picture together: two unshaven, weird-looking males flanked this flawlessly made-up woman, rubbing their stubble into her face...meanwhile, for the whole time backstage, he had been in 'demolish the Crow' mode. During her set, the band played perfectly and every audience member knew the lyrics to her songs (his whining rendition of "Every Day Is A Winding Road" was priceless). Then Rollins takes the stage and notices significantly less audience members. This goes on every time he looks up until he sees about six people left. Then, as he and the band leave, Sheryl says "fft - yeah. Nice show." So, he said, he was really happy that we all came back after the intermission. Friday, he made some remark about crying backstage 'cause he missed us so much...
He looked like he was having so much fun - there was this huge grin on his face every time he left the stage. Even when he told some guy after that he was tired, he was quick to say it was the workout beforehand, not the show.
My best friend came to Friday's show. I've been talking this guy up since '94, but this was the year I loaned her "You Saw Me Up There" and she loved it. I've been filtering books and cds her way ever since. The coolest thing* was sitting there after the show watching her holding her face because she'd been laughing so hard.
By the way, look for Henry's voiceover work on the Discovery Channel: something to do with the evolution of man from strong hunter-gatherers into whining neurotics.
P.S. *OK. There was this amazing and unbelievable dream I had. In the dream, Rollins somehow remembered my name from somewhere Friday night. Then on Saturday, he saw me in the audience as he was leaving the stage, and, with a look of recognition, pointed right at me. And of course, I said 'hey', 'cause this happens to me all the time...(HA!)...I mean, it's a dream, right?
Well, this actually happened, folks. No one is in more disbelief than I am...

bar sinister posted this report of 2 of the NYC spoken shows to the Henry Rollins list on 12/18:
Late, I know - but:
I went two separate nights with two different friends. The Westbeth had atmosphere - tablecloths, candlelight, Japanese lantenrs - and there were no bad sight lines.
Henry was on time and on the mark. Friday's itinerary took us into familiar terrain: New York drivers; 'giraffe women' scowling under the weight of their burdensome beauty, with Henry wondering what the guy looks like who gets to be naked with them; lonely bushido boy wandering through Tower Records in the Fats Waller section when the waves of beautiful perfume hit him, and he turns to fall in love with - a man; Ratt; on beyond Bed, Bath & Beyond, where Heidi's voice has devolved into a Margaret Hamilton imitation ('not how she talks,' he says, 'but how I'm going to describe it') and now the domestic debacle not only includes a couch (where, upon purchase, you men evidently lose a ball or something, as he explains it) but soap holders (where the other one disappears, along with the first four Black Sabbath cds). He needs the soap holders to insure a longer life for the bars he steals from hotels - otherwise they turn to sludge and stick in his pubic hair. Fun! He's just trying to keep it real while out on the 'mish'; well, it would be a 'mission' if he weren't flying business class.
The tangent leaps were spectacular. The Ratt story has become a whole section where he leaves the hapless lead singer before he utters the fatal and now famous lines about Ratt shit vs. cat shit, and visits about 5 countries worth of tangled language. His favorite letters are from eastern bloc countries where English regains its flavor. He'd love to write a script with the kind of language they use; for instance, he got a letter from Boris in Prague complaining that he would have sent good pictures "but bald, fat technologist be insane!" - the developer screwed up his film! While in NY, Henry met a man from 'Soviet Union' on the street. The man ended their conversation with "you admire me!", which he insisted on repeating until Henry acknowledged it - because, he said, it's like someone in your face saying "I'm the man!"; eventually, you just go ahead and say "yeah, you are!"
He talked about the death of Quentin Crisp, what an awesome guy he was and what courage he had to go around as an openly gay man in the 40's and 50s. Saturday, he said he used to see Crisp when he lived here in this one restaurant and always wanted to buy the man lunch, but it never happened...
Having an intermission was strange. When he came back, he said he'd never done one of these things because he seriously thought no one would return. sThe people at the club assured him, though, that the bridge and tunnel crew were hard to get rid of once you had them...
more later - I'm being bounced off my system.
- snstara

Heather Aston posted this report of the 12/9 NYC spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 12/10:
Every time I see Hank do several shows in the same place, I'm more and more impressed. It must be difficult to remember what you talked about last night, so you don't just repeat yourself tonight. This show was as good as the one on Tuesday. The endings on both nights seemed kind of abrupt though.
What he talked about:
Pigeons: Human males, and male pigeons are much alike. When both see an attractive member of the opposite sex, they start preening and bobbing their heads back and forth, showing off for the ladies. This week he saw this in real life. A puffed up male pigeon was chasing a lady pigeon around a bench. She wasn't having it though. Every time the boy got close, she'd just scoot away. Exactly like women do to men. This story led into another one about the 6 foot wafer thin women of Soho. He saw two girls sitting on a bench. As he put it, their attitude is like "Yes, I know I'm beautiful, It's such a burden, my life is so hard." Anyway, this homeless guy comes up to them, comments on their stunning beauty, and begins to serenade them. I forget what song he sang, but Hank liked it. The girls weren't having it though, and just acted really cold and mean.
He talked about language and how people who speak English as a second language use it in such interesting ways. For example, when the band was in Japan, there were signs above the sinks which read "be drinkable" meaning the water there was potable. He and the band have adopted this saying, and use it to mean, be laid back and languid. Another time, the went to a restaurant in East Germany with their German road manager. The menus were all in German, and the manager went back to the kitchen to see what he could do. When he came back he said "Your choice is fish." He and the band
have also added this to their repertoire. An Estonian friend of his had told him her language really had no curses, and the worst word one could use would be "kurat" (don't know how it's spelled) which means devil. So Hank goes around yelling the word repeatedly. Speaking of unique uses of the language, he said something that struck me as terribly funny. Something (I forget what) hard to do was like "trying to pull a diamond out of Satan's ass" :) That's great.
He told the Ratt story, (the lead singer of Ratt says "Ratt shit beats cat shit, cause cat shit stinks!" and the whole crowd is like "WTF?") which some of you have heard, but which I hadn't. You know how one story is the segue way into others? This Ratt story had 2 spin off. 1) 80's hair music sucks, and the only place you see bands like Ratt now are on those "Best of the 80's" compilations you see on TV. Well, one night he's sitting on his hotel bed naked and watching TV. He flips past those crazy guys selling baseball cards, and sees one of those compilation commercials. Only this one is for 70's music. Hank is simply overcome. Weeping, barely able to speak, he grabs his Visa card and orders it, a whole set. 2) When bands like Ratt go downhill, their bimbo girlfriends become porn stars:
Bimbo: "I'm in the adult entertainment industry."
Hank: "You mean you're a porn star?"
Bimbo: "No, I'm an adult entertainer."
Hank: "You mean you have sex with strange men on film for a living."
And so on. He went on to say what a sad life that must be--"as sad as 10 Hank Williams songs at the same time." Then said how depressing it was to watch porn movies because "you're all alone, watching these two people have sex, and you end up crying as you deposit a pool of semen in front of the TV in your hotel room." Okaaay.... I feel kind of bad for the help though. It must be kind of annoying having to clean that up.
He talked again about BB&B, and briefly mentioned something he went into gross and gory detail about Tuesday. Basically, when he travels in hot and humid weather, he gets this sort of....crotch rot. What he actually said was worse than that, he was really getting into it.
I'm sure he said more, but I don't remember at the moment. Did anyone else go? After the show, I gave him a pillow I'd made. I didn't know what color his sofa was, so I did it in sort of a neutral color (ecru). I only learned how to sew this past fall, and that is the only thing I know how to make. *Everyone* is getting one for Christmas.

Heather Aston posted this report of the 12/7 NYC spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 12/9:
Boy did I feel stupid. I waited out in the cold for 45 minutes, then when the doors opened, a lot of people who'd just gotten there strolled right up in front of me. :( Oh well, now I know better than to wait out in the cold. The show seemed to start a little late. Hank is rather stylish these days, don't you think? Anyway, what he talked about was:
He started off by talking about NYC. The hotel he usually stays at was full, and he had to stay at the Soho Grand, which is where his manager usually stayed. He talked about the 6 foot, 90 pound women walking around in Soho, (is "wafer" pronounced "WA-fer" or "WAH-fer"?) how much it's changed in the past 15 years. Monday night, he was at Tower records, looking for Muddy Waters CD's. As he was browsing, he smelled someone's perfume, and began to fantasize about the beautiful woman it belonged to. Of course, it was some guy. So he went over, said hello--and got the guy's phone number.
Travel: Israel-Jerusalem Slim, seeing the site of the crucifixion, the stations of the cross, where Jesus was buried. When he saw the last, he said "that is so fucking cool" or words to that effect, and all the other people hissed at him. At this point, I wished my mother was there-I think she would have enjoyed this story, she's a minister.
Austrailia-the turtle story. He got caught in a rip tide while diving, and ended up far from the boat. Someone was about to come save him, but his ego is such that he pretended everything was fine and took half an hour to swim back to the boat, arriving back gasping for air.
Russia-really intense, he had two bodyguards with him everywhere. Someone mentioned they wondered if he was going to India. He leaves for Calcutta January 4th.
His house-strange thing. I could swear I read an interview a few years back that took place at his house. Only he said at this show he'd lived in apartments and only got this house in May. His real estate agent "dresses like Ann Rice", drives a big SUV, and wants him to do a movie with Elliot Gould, so that Hank can introduce them. The agent wants Gould to father her child-she keeps talking about her ovaries, her biological clock ticking.
What to put in the house-Heidi forced him to buy a sofa, which he was rather snobbish about, turning his nose up at many stores until finding the right one. He went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get stuff for the house. (Can I just say, their prices are too high. I never go there unless I have a coupon. He really should have gone to Marshall's and Walmart. And Pick and Save) Anyway, he goes in to BB&B, one salesclerk takes a look at him, and runs away. He hears hysterical laughter, then three salesclerks peeking out at him. Finally he got over being embarrassed, and went back 3 times.
I know he talked about other stuff, but my memory is poor. He told us that, for the very first time, at the suggestion of the staff, he was going to have an intermission. He'd never done it before because he was afraid no one would come back. :)

Olaf Hess posted a bit more on recent spoken shows in Germany and London to the Henry Rollins list on 11/30:
Hi,
as far as I can remember Rollins said the following about German directors:
- Wim Wenders: That he likes his films that run for hours and don't seem to get anywhere, like "Until the end of the world" ("Bis ans Ende der Welt"). He also commented on "Wings of desire" ("Der Himmel über Berlin"), but I cannot remember what he exactly said.
- Werner Herzog: That he loves "Aguirre: The wrath of God" ("Aguire: Der Zorn der Götter"), especially the crazy Klaus Kinski sitting at the end of the movie on a raft sourounded by monkeys. That he's also a great fan of "Fitzcarraldo". He recommended a documentary on the filming of "Fitzcarraldo". In this documentary there seems to be a scene where two
natives have just been killed when they tried to drag a big boat over a mountain. Asked about this Herzog just shrugs his shoulders in a sort of "who cares" way.
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder: That Fassbinder hated his mother. Once he had become a famous director, he got back at her: His mother needed money, and Fassbinder casted her in some of his films, always in rather humiliating roles, for example as a cleaning woman.
At the beginning of the show in London Rollins commented on the comming common European currency, the "Euro". He said that the English would like the English Pound to become the Euro, but, continuing with a German accent, he said something along the lines of "there is a more powerful nation in Europe that won't allow for this to happen".
So far from here
Olaf

Phil Wingfield posted this report of the 11/27 London spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 11/28:
Went to see Hank last night, great show but a pretty sterile venue. Uncomfortable seats and no bar. He talked for two and a half hours.
There was a piece about buying a house. He was cajoled into buying a house in May and has lived in it for a total of seven days since. " It took me 90 minutes to move in, I just put my weights in the garage". Also about being nagged into buying a couch by Heidi.
A long piece about buying household goods from a store called Bed, Bath and beyond. He was real embarassed to be in this place buying soap dishes, tea towls and shit. He got recognised and ridiculed. He had to go back several times and by the last visit he was ramming the doors open with a shopping cart shouting 'Right you muthafuckers, where's the scented candles?'
Egypt and the pyramids, boat trip on the Nile. The Leonard Nimoy theory that Aliens traversed the galaxy, landed here, built these massive edifices and then FUCKED OFF! I don't have the inflection but that was a great line. I have heard the Jerusalem, Egypt, Africa, Thailand stories several times but there is always something new or a different slant.
He also spoke about visiting Jerusalem which I had heard before but this time he talked about someones version of the crucifixion in which Jesus was referred to as' Jerusalem Slim'. I can't remember who originally wrote it.
Road rage in LA.
Spoken word shows in Russia with a translator who couldn't speak English that well. Riding on the Russian subway and being manhandled and pummelled onto trains by old women with forearm smashes to the back. Also being taken to dinner at a Russian house where the family saved two oranges for the occaision and just how much that meant. He said that we in the west should be grateful for what we have when there are countries in the world where possession of two oranges is such a massive deal. This brings to mind Mr Weddles suggestion that he may travel in India. I've been there and I think there is no other place on earth where the fact that we are so damn lucky is thrown into sharper focus. Also Russian mafia prostitutes in the hotel lobby.
Guys devolving to apes when approaching women.
Heaps of other shit that I can't remember but a friend of mine has it on DAT so I'll listen back and report.
Waited around at the end for my extra pound of flesh. Hank came out with his stage clothes and book bag and had a chat to the seven of us who hung around. I've only hung around twice. Once after the Rollins band gig two years ago in Brixton and last night. It is real strange to talk to the guy after shows. With the band and the spoken word, Hank on stage is formidable indeed, full on in different ways. But after the show he comes across as so meek and mild. He chatted to us and was cool but he never looked anyone in the eye. He stared at the floor or to the side. I don't know if he is ill at ease with strangers or just hates doing the after show signing bit and this is his way of dealing with it. No matter, he was cool, got my' Get in the Van' signed and had a photo taken. The other crowd were talking to him about an incident during the show where a guy sitting in front of them asked them to stop laughing so much. Hank thought this was strange and on the surface it is. We were sitting near these people and they were laughing with everyone else when H said something funny but the continued to laugh for two - three minutes after everyone alse had stopped and the show had moved on. It was a bit annoying but morover strange. H talked about a German girl who has been following him around Europe and managed to get in the front row at a lot of gigs and how unnerving it became. She was there that night but H got the lights all trained on him so he couldn't see her. Hank has a stalker. This will probably get into the show eventually. I meant to ask him about the India thing but forgot, what an ass.
Well, that's my two penn'orth,
Thanks for reading,
P.

Olaf Hess posted this report of the 11/19 Mainz, Germany and the 11/27 London spoken shows to the Henry Rollins list on 11/28:
Hi,
I managed to go to two spoken word shows in 8 days, and just wanted to share some observations with you.
The first show was on the 19th (my 31th birthday) in Mainz near Frankfurt in Germany. The house was packed and the crowd seemd to really be into it. The Man had done a show exactly one year earlier in the same venue, which is some kind of multi purpose hall, rather bleak looking, and he made some comments on that. I'll save you from the stuff he spoke about, but what really excited me was the fact that less than 5 percent seemed to be rerun of last years show. And there was another interesting point: Once he had said good bye and left the stage the house lights didn't go on and the crowd
started clapping for an encore, and Rollins reappeard! He said that so far he had never done an encore at a spoken word show and didn't really know what to tell the crowd. He then told a story about the Ku Klux Klan marching in New York.
The show yesterday in London took place in a small lecture hall / theatre at the London School of Economics, and was the second in three. Because of "overwhelming public demand" they have scheduled a forth show in London on monday in the Shepards Bush empire. Comparing the shows in Mainz and London about one third to 50 percent of the shows were about the same topics, but even when he spoke about the same subject (like his trip to Russia and "Jerusalem Slim") he told the stories a little different the second time and sometimes did different detours.
Both times it amazed me how much he knows about the countries he's visiting. In Germany he spoke at some length about his passion for films by Rainer Werner Faßbinder and Wim Wenders, and in London he commented on Tony Blair, the coming European currency "Euro", and the Royal Family.
So far from here, both shows were excelent and I'm looking forward to seeing the band next year.
Olaf

Dwyn Inceposted this report of the 11/17 Oslo, Norway spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 11/25:
Hi there!
I thought I'd just give you a brief summary of the spoken word show I saw last week - November the 17th. in Oslo, Norway. And....: have you noticed that on the cover of Get In The Van there's a picture outside a venue where the date is also November 17th...
He talked about most of the same things as he did in Australia I guess:
Norway:
This was only his second spoken word show in Norway. The first one was like 10 years ago where he did spoken word as a support thing for an Australian band called Died Pretty (?). That show was terrible he said, noone wanted to listen to him, people got drunk and he went of stage after 20 minutes. So he told us that he was very excited to be back ij Norway to see what it would be like this time. I assure you that this show went well. People where there only to see Henry this time, about 2-300. We laughed a lot and enjoyed ourselves. No embarrasing moments a all with loud drunk Norwegians this time..
Australia, how it started there and the voting thing
Jerusalem: how amazed he was to see find out a lot about the history of Israel etc.
Moscow: how he did two spoken word shows there. noone understod English, so he performed in a theater with a translator who spoke really bad English.
Sweden: how cold it was there, how he had problems going through customs, how he thought the beautiful lady working at his hotel tryed to pick him by saying Hey.... - but she wasn't...
Scandinavia: how strange the languages are up here - he gave some pretty good impressions of our languages which were really funny.
Moving sidewalks at airports
The unsuccessfull gathering of KKK in New York recently
How men turn into apes when they try to pick up a girl.
The schooldances at the Military school he went to, and how he got his first snog with a Catholic girl who started out by giving him a cigarette and some whiskey.
How he likes to pick up new ways of saying things - especially from us people who don't have English as a first language. He told the story about when he and the band where driving from East to West Berling, and they stopped at a restaurant which has a sign: Today's choice is fish, hanging on the wall. Who's choice...??? He and the band has picked up that expression and still use it..
I think there was a lot more, but this is what I remember right now..
love, Dwyn

Kim Pengelly posted this report of an AUS spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 11/11:
Just for Jen :), Hank's last story of the night was the one (which many of you may have heard before) about him finally getting it together with a female lead singer he's lusted after for 6 years !, asking her to move in with him (much shock! horror! on Henry's part here) and then things not working out after about a week. Bummer! But the story was still inspiring! (Are there any other females on this list who would love him to hook up with the woman of his dreams? Unlucky in love or what!)
I too thought his show at Macquarie Uni was brilliant, spectacular and totally excellent - absolutely hilarious anecdotes which had me (and most of the audience) in stitches for the whole 2 hours +. God, where did that time go?! I don't wear a watch and couldn't believe it when it finally came to an end - felt like half an hour to me!
I agree with Sam, IMO his anecdotes are much more personal these days. I first caught Henry's spoken word at his first such show in Oz back in 1991. In those days he was very much the "angry young man" and his shows had quite a different flavour (eg. lots of anecdotes of touring life on the road with Black Flag & Rollins Band). He seems to be letting his audience/fans in on aspects of much more personal stuff these days.
One of my fave parts of the show was his take on how females change their attitude to sex as they mature from coy 'girls' into 'women' - "OK, it's 20 minutes before my shift starts - so get hard NOW!" LOL repeatedly!!! [What did the guys think about this one? :)]
Later!
Kimbah

"Dirty Girl"posted this report of the 11/11 Geelong, AUS spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 11/11:
Sounds like Henry did very similar material to the Macquarie gig at Geelong last night - his new age experience with the sea turtle, how slow/hot everything is up north, how much he travels and has only been home for 10 days in the last six months, buying a house and shopping at bed bath & beyond, soap holders, RATT (which went off into how much he likes when people use English in new and different ways.."be drinkable"), going to Casablanca/Morrocco & Africa (very briefly), his trip to Jerusalem and how much he admires Jesus (and how he believes "Jerusalem Slim" spoke like Jimi Hendrix!), catholics and his first kiss (which we heard when he was out in May). He also gave us his version of Australian history and what a dull country he thinks England is (went on and on about the crap food). Oh, and how you should surf life and not let it surf on you and if you don't like your job you should leave your job and if you don't like your husband, well kill him!
Favourite comment of the night was about how buying a soap holder was a symbol of adulthood and it was one step away from buying curtains, getting married and "building a cage to put the children in"!
Lori - he did mention New Zealand, what a beautiful place it is and how much he loves to tease Kiwis by referring to it as a suburb of Australia, but he didn't mention any plans to visit.
When he finished, I thought "what, he's hardly been on an hour" - turns out it was 2 hrs 20mins, without a pause. Impressive stuff.
Best of all, they were selling signed posted for only five bucks, so I got two - one for home and one for work just to confuse all the little chartered accountants at work who have no fucking idea who he is! Actually, best of all was sitting row 7 dead centre - it felt like he was talking directly at us. It's funny how when he was on "the Panel" the other night, he came across as so intense that he probably put the average joe citizen off going to see him, but with the spoken word stuff you came away thinking what a friendly, funny guy he is.
Can't wait for the next time.

Sam posted this report of the 11/10 Sydney, AUS spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 11/10:
RE: [HenryRollins] Rollins @ Macquarie Unihe talked about Australian wild life ,Australian way of life,KKK,shopping for furniture,going to see a old 80's band called rat(so funny),he talked about his trip to isarel and africa and the rupublic and his version of the founding of our nation and he also told this story about this girl he almost got serious about..right now i can't remember the rest he talked for so long it's hard to remember what he talks about...i was just glad i made it in time.

Sally Male posted this report of the 11/6 Newcastle, AUS spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 11/8:
Traveled to Newcastle over the weekend from Sydney to catch his show. It was great, very funny. The venue wasn't packed, but the crowd was really good (albeit a little subdued) and Henry seemed to be in a really great, almost silly mood. He talked for about 2 hours 20 mins. They were selling signed posters at the venue for $5 - they only had a few
and once everyone saw they were signed they went in about 10 seconds. He spoke about:
buying house stuff
the naked scene in the movie
travels, Russia, Kenya, Israel
the Australian culture and republic issue
England
and a few other things I can't remember this time in the morning.

Planet JIM posted this report of the 10/23 Lansing, MI spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 10/24:
Good morning, kids. Just back from the Rollins show at MSU's Wharton Center Passant Theater. Very good, if a little short.
1. The Wharton Center is a great theater center here. Both venues are first rate. The Passant Theater is funny though, because it's a Shakespearean theater, with the stage protruding halfway into the crowd. I can't prove it, but Rollins waxed Middle English-poetic a couple times and I think it had something to do with the stage.
2. The show was short. 2 hours 10 minutes.
3. Main points:
Funny things comparing parts of this city (Lansing) to Los Angeles. He didn't say it, but I bet he stayed at the Marriott in the capitol, judging from what he said he saw. I don't think he even made it toward the North side of the city...
RATT show. I heard it 2 years ago, and he's been refining it ever since. It took him an hour to get all the way through it.
Kid Stuff. Stories from his youth about school and girls and stuff. Those of you familiar with Smoking the Filter from Human Butt would have recognized a lot of it.
Lots of travelling to Isreal, Morrocco (?? You know, I can spell that word better in Arabic than I can in English...) and Egypt.
4. High points:
What if Jesus had been from Flint, MI. Those of you familiar with that friendly community ought to get a chuckle out of that...
Really, most of the Isreal stuff.
The girl who sat next to me. Uh...
Talking about ordering a Best of the 70's CD collection.
5. How can you hear it?
I taped it, and it fit on 1.5 90 minute cassettes. Anyone that wants to TRADE (allow me to repeat... TRADE) for it should email me privately. Don't offer me money, offer me bootlegs. It doesn't have to be Rollins, but it has to be boot.
6. I did get to meet him. It was cool. I thanked him for contributing to my point of view and he signed my friend's PalmPilot. I almost asked him
what he was thinking breaking it off with the real Rollins Band, but I didn't want him to think I didn't like him...

Sue D. posted this report of the 10/17 Seattle, WA spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 10/19:
I agree with Chris, the show was hilarious! One of the funniest stories was the description of the 80's clothes people dragged out of the closets to wear to the Ratt concert even though they REALLY don't fit anymore. And of course, how he first tried smoking, drinking whiskey and French kissing, all in the same night, thanks to a catholic girl.
The best part, however, was after the show when Henry signed autographs and answered questions. The event staff had told a couple of people that Henry was "burned out and really didn't want to sign autographs", which sounded odd to me and several others waiting outside, so we stayed. I'd heard many times that Henry will stay and talk to people as long as he can, so what did we have to lose? When he came out he said right off the bat he was leaving for Vancouver that night and had to go quickly. Everyone was cool, there were maybe 15-20 people, each handed him their books, t-shirts or whatever to sign, made quick comments about the show and moved on so others could talk to him too.   He stayed 10-15 minutes. When I left he was still there, and I got this goofy idea to drive past the group blasting the new Rollins Band music, but by the time I went around the block (damn those one way streets!) he and the last of the fans were gone.
All in all, it was a great night.

Chris Mansfield posted this report of the 10/17 Seattle, WA spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 10/18:
it was a good one. henry usually veers from serious topics to virtual stand-up comedy with his storytelling, and this was almost all the latter. i did tape it, and it came out great -- best recording i've ever made of a talking show (and thanks in part to my 2nd row center seat) -- but when i changed to the 2nd blank at the 90 minute mark the tape apparently didn't get seated properly, and subsequently the tape repeatedly dragged and then sped up. it shut itself off a couple of times and i quickly hit record again, not realizing what was happening, but it wasn't until about 20 minutes later that i noticed the inconsistant spinning of the tape and tried stopping it, ejecting, reinserting, and hitting record again. that worked. so i have 15-20 minutes of henry sounding like jabba the hutt and then the last 20-25 minutes of the show sound stellar again. f***. it just wasn't my day. but if i had to pick part of the show to miss getting on tape, fortunately that was it. it was stuff i'd heard him talk about before. i still got almost 2 hours of a 2 hour 15 minute show, so i'm happy; it's just a memento anyway. i listened to the tapes in the car today and laughed my ass off. :)
did anyone else tape last night's show? i *would* like to get the part i missed if possible. i have lots of hank spoken word to offer in trade...
it all sounded very similar to the description of the Asheville show. hank's topics last night, in rough chronological order:
Day off in Seattle on Saturday: bad Lilith Fair-type music in Starbucks
Bed, Bath and Beyond: buying household items for his new house
Ratt at Billboard Live on Sunset Strip (also Dokken! LOL!)
He interrupted the Ratt story for an 8 minute segue about broken English
in letters he gets, which led into similar story concerning East
Berlin and then women in Russia
Traveling to Moscow for the 3rd time (and to Israel) to do translated
spoken word shows
Traveling to Egypt and Jerusalem and seeing where Jesus was crucified
Women and men's inability to talk to them
His first kiss at a high school dance
Short mention of airport moving sidewalks that was hilarious: as soon as
you get off the plane, marine drill instructors from hell motivate
you onto the moving sidewalk (which now moves at henry's
preferred 50mph) and again when you get off until you get
to baggage claim :) "GO, GO, GO YOU PIGFUCKER, GO!
JUMP YOU PUSSY! PREPARE FOR IMPACT!" LOL!!!!!

Sanjay posted this report of the 10/10 Asheville, NC spoken show to the Henry Rollins list on 10/11:
Hey, just got back from the show from last night. I've seen Henry 4 times and this has to be my favorite. To begin with Asheville is really small town and very cool place indeed. Well, about 150 people or so showed up and filled the seats, really kind of intimate. A lot of people didn't know he was in town so just kind of caught the show on the walk by. Anyway, here are some of the topics he touced:
* Talked a little about Thomas Wolfe, and tied it in to his hatred of apathy, boredom, people complaining, etc..
* Trips to Russia, Jerusalem(spelling?), Egypt
* The whole Catholic trip, and how he would certainly go to hell, and how he has them to thank for his introduction to women.
* How Donald Trump has great one liners and should run for office
* Seeing Ratt a while back
* Buying his first house in May, and how he has spent a total of 10 days there this year.
* Rips on Motely Crue here and there..
* How women can't be fooled, and stupid men are trying to say their lines to them. Also how women are better than girls (this was funny!)
* He ended with how 6 years ago he was watching one of the RB opening bands and how the women fronting the band made him want to vomit...he was in love! He saw the girl on and off and could never talk to her. He talked about how Sim Cain was the ladies man, and could get any women instantly (he did a james bond impression with Sim). He finally broke down and called her one night, and they clicked, and he was head over heels in love. Things went from there, he even rearranged his schedule for her, and he never does that. He invites her over for Christmas and she says she can't because she already promised she would spend it with her mom. He gets depressed and starts to right Philomena Lynott for help, thinking she can have Phil intervene:) The girl calls back and decides to spend it with him. He is in heaven. He then does something he never though he would do...asks her to move in with him. She says...YES. He is on cloud nine. Eventully things didn't work out. But he ended with, "you're not going to believe this coming from my mouth", but how all the macho bullshit means nothing, and he learned that love is supreme. whew!
I talked to the road manager Mike Curtis, who is always cool. He said only 1 disc is slated for release on Feb 22,2000. I asked him about the Metallica gig, and he said Henry and Hetfield go way back, so they were very cool to the band. He also mentioned sitting with Motorhead on the flight back from that gig.
I caught up with Henry after the show. He mentioned how the DC gig sucked, with Ian and all his friends there to see it too, and how he gave the owner and the crew there so much shit about it. I asked why not the 9:30, he said there was a gig amd he really doesn't like the owner, though he loves the venue. He said they were going to try like hell to get both discs out in February, but don't hold your breath. With all the Motley crue references, I asked him about the time he and Glen Danzig supposedly chased them down the sunset strip. He said this did not happen. What happened was he was on
stage with Misfits sound checking and the Vince Neil walked in. The misfits guys, very large guys, started laughing and pointing at him. He apparently got nervous and ran out. That was it.
Well, there's my not so brief take. I'm pscyhed to be seeing henry again next week in Seattle! Merchandise: They had the short and long sleeve Think Tank T-shirts. The Eric the Pilot Disc. Promo tapes.

AGENTORA69@aol.com sent me this report of the 9/18 NYC, NY Rollins Band show on 9/19:
I went to the Rollins show on sat the 18th at Irving Plaza.Feeder and a band called chevelle where on the bill as well. I did not stay for a band callled P.O.D, who was playing after him. Rollins opened the show with "Tearing", it was great to hear an old favorite. He went on to play "illumination", "Love is Heavy", "Monster", "Get some go again", and "Do it". I forget the names of the other new songs at the moment, but nonetheless it was a good show. There was a guy in the crowed who was throwing dimes at Hank and at one point Henry put the coins in his mouth and said come and get.it....it was pretty funny. Anyhow overall it was a good show.

Paul/Jennifer Everitt posted this report of the 9/15 New London CT Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 9/16:
Just a short note to say I saw Henry's new band play last nite @ the El N' Gee club, New London CT for their only Northeastern US appearance for now...
I'm here to tell you the new band rocks kicks butt, whatever other superlatives you care to mention!!
Bit of background here - I'm an expat Aussie living here now who last saw Henry August '97 at the Narabeen Sands in Sydney and then it was the old Rollins band, kickin it hard playing to a sold out crowd in a surfie bar in northern Sydney....last nite was bliss....they Played mid hurricane alert in what was a small club room 20ft x 20ft to barely a 100 people...
The band hit the stage and Henry said "Hi, here's one you might know" before launching into "Tearing" (end of Silence).....now as far as I could tell that was the only old Rollins band song played during the entire set... - the new songs are very snappy the band still kicks along in much the same vein but in a much snappier way -that is not to detract from the
old sound...henry looked invigorated and happy with the new songs...standouts included "Illumination" "Yellow blues" "Get some go again" (which will be a classic)...there was a Thin Lizzy cover also played, the name of which escapes me...the sound of the new band will shock a little but you'll warm to it verrry quickly!!
The band have one more date for now, tonite 19 Sept @ Irving Plaza, NY, and I'm informed the album is due shortly after New year
Well that's my little blurb, if ya wanna say hi or ask a question feel free to at
jeveritt@iconn.net

I posted this report of the 8/23-8/25 Dallas, Tulsa and OKC Rollins Band shows to the Rollins-talk list on 8/27:
I was fortunate enough to catch 3 shows the past 3 days: Dallas, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. 1500+ hundred miles on the car and oh, it was SO worth it. All of them were really great! I've now seen the new band 4 times total so far. They were really tight the first time (7/11 in Lawrence) but they seem to be getting even better after all these shows under their belts. Wow!
Setlist (same for all 3, probably not in exact order):
Illumination
? ("you ... can't ... break ... me!")
Let Yourself Down
What Have I Got
Hotter and Hotter
Thinking Cap
Love is So Heavy
Hard
Summer Nights
Monster
Action
Get Some Go Again
Are You Ready
Change It Up
100 Miles
Lonely
Do It
encore:
Tearing
I Go Day-Glo
Side by Side
The set clocks in at 1 hour and 25 minutes ...
The band:
Damn, what can I say? This band kicks serious ass and gives 110% every night! I love watching them play, they're so into it. Marcus "sweet and low" and Jim are often smiling and giving each other glances as they play. Jason is a monster. And Rollins. Still intense as hell. I'm so damn happy to see/hear these guys playing this style of music right now. I need to get the 3 Mother Superior cds soon (are they instrumental?) ...
The songs:
The 5 classic songs have become this band's songs, Mother Superior play them like they were the ones who wrote them and have been playing 'em for the past decade. They do "Lonely" a little differently, hard to put my finger on it, but Rollins "sings" the chorus more. I was really happy with all the new stuff after the first show, but now that I'm *really* familiar with it I just plain love it. My favorites: the 2nd song (Rollins never offers a title for this one ... everyone comes down on the beat several times as Rollins yells "you can't break me" or "you can't kill me" ... heavy!), Get Some Go Again, Are You Ready, I Go Day-Glo, Side by Side and 100 Miles. I'd say 100 Miles may just be one of the heaviest songs Rollins Band have ever done, it's incredibly dense. It and Side by Side are what I call the "slow burn" type Rollins Band songs like "Volume 4" on "Weight". I LOVE those songs. But, they do everything great: fast rock, gritty funk (Marcus' bass playing ... wow!), blues (Jim's slide guitar and solos ... wow!), etc. "Hard" is done at about 1 and 1/2 times faster than normal which is just mindblowing when you think about the bass and guitar lines in that one ...
You HAVE to hear these songs LIVE! The promo tape is cool, but the studio versions just don't capture the live vibe. I hope they're taping some of these shows ...
The crowds were really receptive at all 3 shows, getting off big time. I think Rollins was happiest with the OKC crowd, they seemed to be the most vocal after each song and managed a heavy duty chant of "Rollins, Rollins" after the set ...
Some misc tidbits:
In Dallas someone up front handed Rollins 2 tickets inbetween songs. Rollins leaned over and said, "what's this? tickets to my own gig?" as he grabbed them. He reads 'em and turns around to the other guys in the band, "hey guys, I've got 2 tickets here for Julian Lennon!" (Julian was also playing that night at a club a few streets away). Jim and Marcus both put suprised "oh wow!" looks on their faces and pretended to take off their guitars like they were leaving. It was pretty funny. Rollins then took the 2 tix and put them in his shorts, carefully and slowly placing them right under his balls. A few songs later, he took 'em out and looked at 'em, apparently they weren't sweaty enough so he tossed 'em back in the shorts. Several songs later, he took 'em out again and gave 'em back to the person up front saying something about how lucky that person was to get his ball sweat and how he'd never forget them ...
In Tulsa a woman was dancing on the side of the stage and Rollins beckoned her up on stage. She did a stripper-style dance (not very well) rubbing up against Hank and showing the crowd her thong by pulling down her tights. Rollins tolerated her for a minute or so, sort of rolling his eyes and making faces while singing, then he suddenly, gently closelined her knocking her over on stage and said "get some talent". She got up, embarassed as hell since most of the crowd were csracking up and left the stage ...
Rollins on crowd surfers in Tulsa: "why do I always get the tattoo covered punker sent up to me instead of beautiful women?"
Rollins spots a guy in the front at Tulsa drinking a Bud Light, "you're up front and you're drinking Bud Light? I must be losing it"
Rollins was his usual self, sometime joking around, sometimes deadly serious or intense, little bit of everything. There wasn't a whole lot of talk between songs at these shows, just brief intros or song titles ...
Price:
$12 - $15
Merchandise:
Long sleeve grey and black t-shirt with the sun tat on the back and "part animal part machine" on front - $25
Short sleeve black t-shirt with sun tat on back and Rollins Band (I think) on the front - $20
Bunch of Squatweiler cds and shirts
Free stuff: Mother Superior postcard, 2.13.61 postcard, 3 track promo tape (Illumination, Get Some Go Again, 100
Miles)
Thanks:
Rollins Band and the very receptive crowds!
Fuck You:
Drunken assholes.
Recommendation:
See every show you can! You have to hear these songs live!

Dan Bell sent me this review of the 8/24 Tulsa, OK Rollins Band show on 8/25:
Hi,
I was looking for Rollins info this morning, (I wanted to know the name of the band that opened for 'em last night)found your site, got the info from the review of the North Carolina gig. Since it looks like you're interested in hearing about Rollins shows- here's my impressions from last night at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa:
It was hot. Cain's is small, has a low ceiling and turns into an oven. The only relief is going outside to a little gravel alley or standing in front of one of the fans. Squatweiler came on and played, they were good and had a lot of energy, but I really felt sorry for them. I read in the Carrborro concert review that Squatweiler was inciting people to violence? Well, here they were just trying to incite people to move. I think I saw two people start to dance. It must be shitty playing your head off in front of mannequins. Squatweiler's singer could have been mic'd a bit louder. Rollins came out about 20 minutes after Squatweiler. I'd seen him before, a spoken word gig in Tulsa about 3 years ago but I'd never seen him play. Much more intense- from self-deprecating funny guy to intense soul-screaming. They opened with Illumination, and I didn't memorize the list but most of the tunes off the Carrboro gig look familiar. "Are you ready" was I think the best song of the evening. It was really cool, lots of energy, lots of sweat, slam dancing, and some crowd surfing. (Rollins- "Bring me your women...why do I always get the smelly guy with his shoes in my face crowd surfer?") One funny moment (I didn't get to see very well) when a sterotypical gorgeous blonde got on stage and started stripteasing, dancing close to Rollins, & shimmying her skirt down & showing her thong. From where I was I couldn't tell if Rollins gave her a thong wedgie, tried to pull her skirt back up, or what, but he did something to that general area then it looked like he nudged her off the stage & said something about that she should get a towel. Since this was my first time seeing Rollins play I have no idea whether this was a typical set or not, lots of energy, good music, but I though I think the show could have been a bit longer, I'm not bitchin.

Dave posted this report of the 8/15 Carrboro, NC Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 8/16:
I was rather surprised and happy when I found out that the Rollins Band was actually going to play a venue where I could actually see them this year. Now that the show has happened, I'm even happier ... I just cannot seem to get this smile off my face :-) The show was absolutely awesome and I'm not the least bit unhappy with what I saw, which was easily in the same league as what I saw at a Rollins Band performance in 1994. Now for some details:
-Squatweiler was indeed a great opening band. I'd venture to say they are the right sort of opening band for the Rollins Band: They play a reasonably compatible sort of music, they reach the right level of intensity, their musicianship is fine, and they're fun to see. I must say that I thought they talked a lot of shit this evening, trying to incite the crowd to violence (which would happen later), but was totally happy with them when they were playing. They were stoked to be playing North Carolina and delivered a great opening set.
-Out comes the Rollins Band, after a very short interval. I think it would be fair to say that the Rollins Band was playing a 'hurry up' offense this evening, probably trying to get under the Sunday night town curfew forreally loud noises. There was less talk than I might have expected between songs, but I have a lot of respect for the fact that they did everything
they could to get through their set in the available time.
-I think the setlist that the Rollins Band is playing is remaining remarkably consistent, based on comparison between this evening and the Webcast and reports of the Huntington, WV show. Here's what they played tonight:
Illumination
(Hammer in Your Hand) - I know this is not the title ... what is the title?
Let Yourself Down
What Have I Got
Hotter and Hotter
(Brother Interior) - I'm not sure this is the right title, but it is the
same song that they've been playing after Hotter and Hotter ... somebody
help me out here
Love Is So Heavy
Hard
Summer Nights
Monster
Action
Get Some Go Again
Are You Ready
Change It Up
100 Miles
Lonely
Do It
Tearing - this is a change from previous shows
I Go Day Glo
Side By Side
Rollins explained that they'd be working on Tearing, and this was the first time they were adding it to the encore. He said they'd been working on it for a while, and wanted to see if they could play it right. They did pretty well, but ironically got in trouble right around the lyric "sometimes things don't work out". There is a tricky speed change at that point which they didn't do too well on, but smoothed it out pretty well.
-Now that I've heard them in reasonable sonic fidelity, I can saw that I have no reservations about this new lineup. I thought the PA and sound were more than fine ... I was a little worried about the departure of Theo Van Rock: I thought Rollins' attitude towards Theo's role in the band and the need for good sound via a good sound man was both visionary and brilliant, and I thought perhaps the new incarnation might suffer from Theo's absence. That was not the case here, the band was well mixed and everything was clear and easy to hear. My one confusion was that if there was supposed to be a stereo image of the band on PA, it seemed to be reversed, but that's nitpicking.
- Now that I've seen Jim Wilson in action, I get a real Stevie Ray Vaughn vibe from him ... maybe it's the hat and beard and he's going for that, but it works for me. He pulls his weight on the guitar, soloing beautifully when appropriate. There was one moment that he held a single clear decaying note for about 3 or 4 seconds that was just beautiful, it was a
moment of sheer sonic ecstacy through simplicity. Awesome.
-Now I know why Marcus Blake evokes thoughts of Andrew Weiss: He uses a Hartke cabinet with aluminum drivers as Weiss did, and that has a distinct sound. It's a sound that I really like for the bass. It evokes the old Pre-Gibbs Rollins Band to me, and as far as I'm concerned that's not a bad thing. Blake holds up his end, he's not fancy but he is solid and in the groove and that's what a bassist should be.
-Jason Mackenroth fits in just fine. I guess as a non-drummer I have a hard time really understanding what I do or do not like about a drummer and his role in the sound. I can say though that I thought he was well miked and I could hear the drums really clearly without that impeding my ability to hear the rest of the band. He kept the beat just fine as far as I could detect ... nothing fancy but totally solid.
-Rollins was in fine form. As I mentioned earlier, I thought he spoke to the crowd much less than I perceive to be usual. I thought the intensity of his performance was right up there with any show I've seen. I think he and the crowd really incited each other to a higher level (along with the rest of the band). Let me say at this point that this was a highly energized crowd, they moshed violently and even crowd surfed on occassion. I could definitely see Rollins feeding off the crowd's intensity and vice versa, and this made for an exciting show. On occassion, I think I saw an expression of incredulity cross Jim and/or Marcus' face(s) upon viewing the mayhem that was taking place just below the stage. Thank heavens nobody threw anything at the stage, since this is a venue where beer bottles are quite available. Rollins of course was right at home in the madness, and I guess the band will have to get used to it.
-The Band absolutely rocked the old songs. This is a plus for me about this new lineup. Since I first got into the band in 1993 and first saw them live in 1994, I've never seen What Have I Got ,Hard, Lonely, Do It, or Tearing played live. With the exception of that moment near the end of Tearing, they handled these songs beautifully. I felt like I'd finally seen something wonderful that I'd missed those many years ago when I was tragically unaware of the Rollins Band when they were already rocking out in the late 80's and early 90's. Seeing Rollins work through the old songs was wonderful, I think he really enjoyed it.
-They hardly took any breaks, and really worked hard and fast. They scarcely paused anywhere between Illumination and Love Is So Heavy, and while Marcus and Jim looked a bit tired, they hung on okay. The pause before the encore was very short ... but what can you say or do about a crowd that chants "get the fuck back out here". It was something else,
there was a kind of supressed violence vibe in this crowd, the sort of primeval undirected hostility you might expect at a good Rollins Band show.
-The new material is starting to feel familiar to me, and is starting to feel really good. Here are some highlights from my point of view:
Illumination - to me this reminds me of CIAB as much as anything here, a good opener
(Hammer in Your Hand) - the riff is wonderful repetitive, I can really get into it and don't want the song to end
(Brother Interior) - an infectious bassline, especially for a song where I don't really know the title
Action - I've always liked the slow ones that build the tension beautifully, this is absolutely perfect for that, and that's always been a great part of Rollins Band shows
100 Miles - another one where the groove is wonderful, I want it to keep going
I Go Day Glo - a frenetic blast of energy, intense to the extreme, awesome
-No promo tapes tonight were given out tonight, bummer. I bought a couple of fairly nondescript Rollins Band shirts, I suspect they'll come up with something more distinctive for the next tour.
-All in all, I had a great time at the show. I felt totally blown away by the sheer power of the band and the intensity of the performance. It felt good, as good as when I saw the band in '94 and even better than when I saw the band in '97, when the crowd was utterly dead in a large, boxy, bad sounding venue. The Cat's Cradle is a small venue and made for a great
show ... I was within 20 feet of the band and could hear everything. I wore earplugs and was glad I did ... they're good and loud, but I like being able to hear during the following few days. The crowd has a rabid and often violent enthusiasm and the band seemed appropriately inspired by a crowd that was clearly into the music. It was one to remember, that's
all I can say about it. Go out and see this band! If even remotely like any of Rollins' musical work so far, you will like this.

Dave sent me this review of the 8/14 Philadelphia, PA Rollins Band show on 8/15:
Rollins Band played in Philadelphia at the Theatre of The Living Arts on South st. I got there around 8:50. Squatweiler, the opening act were about 3 songs away from finishing their set. At around 10:00, Rollins Band hit the stage. They really impressed me with the new material. It's more old fashioned, stripped down, basic, blues-rock, but the power and the energy were still at 110%. They actually played some older Rollins Band songs like: "What Have I Got", "Hard", "Lonely", and "Do It". They also played a Thin Lizzy song, "Are You Ready?". The rest were new songs from the up and coming R.B. album, "Get Some, Go Again". They played an awesome, ferocious, rock and roll show. They played for a total of an hour and 10/15 minutes.

bar sinister posted this report of the 8/11 NYC Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 8/15:
I arrived at 10; so I missed Squatweiler. From what the guy talking to the sound man said, it was an impressive opener...
The show was sold out. So many people were on the floor that I settled for the balcony right by the sound board. The band came on all at once, Henry introduced them, and they threw themselves into "Illumination".
They were amazing. There were moments of true perfection; one of these was when they played "Are You Ready?". You just knew they loved the song. During the whole show, *everyone* in the crowd was just hip-shakin' and head-thrashin' along. I can not wait to see them again.
Unfortunately, a few audience members could not handle the awesomeness. First came the crumpled plastic bottle that landed at Henry's feet: he gave it a wide berth, as if expecting another, then picked it up and flung it over the speakers. Then, in the middle of his intro to "Are You Ready?", some *thing* sprayed him with the contents of her water bottle. The man is trying to talk about Philomena Lynott, *Phil* Lynott's mom, and how they're playing this Thin Lizzy song as a present for her - and this girl lets fly with her funk. Needless to say, the crowd went "uhhh-ohhh". Henry just told her "my dear, can't you see: I'm wet enough, thank you. I don't need any of your help." and turned this "bath" into an extended comment on her obvious personal hygiene problem.
One of the funniest things was when some kid in front started making angry noises and Henry told him he didn't have quite enough anger in him to carry that off. He asked the boy if he still lived at home, then shook his hand and congratulated him on his third shave - and then everybody around this kid stuck their hands out, like "shake mine, too!". Which Rollins did, gingerly taking their hands, then kind of sighing and saying "I can see that 40 is going to be rough".
Nothing the band did seemed less mighty for the distractions. You're going to have a great time - wish I could go again and get some ;)

Jeremy M. Tung sent me this review of the 8/12 Boston, MA Rollins Band show on 8/13:
     Going into the show, I had no idea what to really expect from the new Rollins Band line-up. Having been seeing Rollins Band live since 1991, I've pretty much been used to hearing Sim and Chris rock out. I had heard the new single, "Get Some, Go Again" and wasn't really all that impressed. But still, I went with an open mind. For starters, the opening band, Squatweiler, was awful, - couldn't wait for them to leave the stage. They claim to be from North Carolina, but the bass player is from Atlanta, drummer from Baltimore and guitarist from New Jersey. Where they hell did they come up with NC?
     10:15 - Rollins Band walks on stage to thunderous applause and unleashes "Illumination," which happens to be on the the three-song promo tape they hand out. In typical Rollins form, he wraps the mic cord around his hand, sweats all his bodily fluid out and begins leaving everything he's got on stage. Immediately, you can tell the difference in the band styles of old Rollins Band and the new Mother Superior guys. Mackenroth, the drummer, I found to be quite capable, as were the rest of the band. However, Marcus, the new bass player, was too much of a rock star in the same fashion the Andrew Weiss was (for which Rollins hated). He was busy dancing around, doing leg kicks and the other kind of stupid shit that Andrew used to pull. And he had this stupid-ass grin on his face the whole time he was playing. Maybe he was just
psyched to playing with someone of the magnitude of Henry, but who knows. However, he could definitely rock out on bass and laid down some great rhythm. Jim, the guitar player is also very capable and had some great riffs. Kind dressed to look like Stevie Ray Vaughn.
    Set list included Illumination, Let Yourself Down Again, What Have I Got, Love is Heavy, Get Some Go Again (which sounds much better live), Lonely, Do It, Thin Lizzy's Are You Ready, 100 Miles, I Go/Day Glo, Hotter and Hotter, Summer Nights, Side By Side, Change Up.   Side By Side is about losing someone close to you but knowing they're still
right there next to you. 100 Miles is in reference to what Rollins would like to do to the three guys that dragged that African/American to his death last year in Jasper, TX. Change Up is about people who complain about their situation but are too stupid or unwilling to do anything about it. The music is certainly different musically than old school Rollins Band, but definitely worth checking out. The band is tight, seem to play well together and I'm sure will just get better as the tour progresses. When Henry left the stage, he said, "See y'all again next year." It will be interesting to see how they sound then.
     Rollins doesn't seem to talk as much in between songs anymore and doesn't seem to have that "1,000 yard stare" anymore; he doesn't seem as intense as he was in the End of Silence and Weight days. Maybe he's getting old. Even at 38 though, Henry can still kick anyone's ass on stage and really pours his guts out. The show was definitely a quality Rollins Band show, but I still wonder what the same music would sound like with Sim, Melvin and Chris backing him up. I wonder what their take on the new line-up is. I really miss the old guys not rockin' out. My take on why Henry chose the old Rollins Band songs he did is that the new guitarist probably couldn't figure out how to play the great shit that Haskett was able to. Just my $0.02. Anyone see Sim Cain on NBC's "Today" show playing with the J. Geils Band?
     Good show, not as good as old school Rollins Band, but if you get the chance, don't miss out on seeing the new Rollins Band.

Hal Deranek posted this report of the 8/10 Washington DC Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 8/10:
Well, Rollins played DC tonight, at Nation. Yes, it is I, the man who said I was too chicken to go. Well I went anyway.. with a few friends, of course. And, swollowing my pride, I must admit the neighborhood wasn't half as bad as I remember it being, which means one of two things (1) it's been "cleaned up" or (2) I've exagerated the story so much that
I started to believe my own bullshit. I'm betting on #2, but ooh well.
Anyhow, down to business. For those of you who thought the last 2 albums didn't rock enough, BUY THIS ALBUM!!! It's gonna be their best album, I think. Though I really loved Chris, Sim, and Melvin/Andrew, these guys tear it up as much as the RB used to do in the LifeTime days. I was so impressed with the energy and, well, gripping-ness (I know that's not a word) of the new band. The one bad thing about the show was that the PA guys kept handing Rollins bad mics. Before they started they had to wait onstage for about 3-5 minutes while they got Henry a working mic (ever hear of sound check?). I was lucky enough that I could hear what Hank was saying to the audience. Then, when they finally got a "working" mic, it kept cutting out for the first 3-4 songs, completely stopping in the middle of the second, which they redid later in the set. Hank was steaming mad. The first few times: "How about this. For every time the mic screws up, we (the RB) get a dollar". After that: "You lightweight, ..... motherfuckers. You may think this is ok to do with other bands, but the difference is that in other bands the singer won't come over and kick your ass and break your equipment." It was so hardcore! I must say that it made for a really interesting show. I can't wait for the new ablum to surface. It's
gonna be so good, I know it.

"The Talented Mr T ." posted this report of the 8/7 Los Angeles, CA Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 8/9:
Kicking my ass- review of Rollins show 8/7/99 in L.A.
Saturday night at this nice small club in West Hollywood called the Troubadour, I was blessed with seeing the Rollins Band perform. And pardon my frankness, but my penis is still fully erect from the whole encounter. I showed up at about 8:00pm when the opening band was scheduled to hit the stage. At that time the audience was way below capacity. I guess a lot of people don't like to go see the opening band. This makes no sense to me, because I figure if Henry has any say in it-- which I bet he does-- the opening act is probably at least going to be half-way decent. You may as well get your money's worth, I figure. So, since no one was there I got right up close to the stage. And waited. And waited. And...waited. An hour later, I was getting antsy and so I sat down at the bar. Around 9:15 my sicks sense told me something was about to happen, so I went up to the stage again. The chick next to me all of a sudden goes, "You have got to be fucking kidding me." And I look over to the side of the stage and there are 4 of the squirreliest looking 17 year olds you have ever seen mounting the stage.   Simon Says, the opening band. These were not bad-ass rockin-rollers, but
wirey skate-punk types. I, for one, was ready to give them a chance, and see what they had to dish out, despite their unseasoned appearance. They strapped their shit on and started to play this low kind of rumbling, simmering rhythm. And then BAM! they kicked it into gear and started rocking my world. I don't work for Rolling Stone magazine so I am not very good at describing music, like when people say, "They were like Primus with a dash of Fugazi and a hint of the Housemartins." All I can say is that they were playing fast, edgy, kick-ass rock, and jumping around like madmen. They were like crazed muppets.I really got into it and started doing that hard rock head bopping that we do. There were about 50 others there, but they all seemed content to either sit at the bar, or just stand completely motionless and stare at these guys, like they were watching tv. That must be very annoying when you're up there giving it your all and really rockin'. The only other people who seemed really into this Simon Says, were two skinheads down stage right, and right down front, a beautiful robust black-haired women with a pierced tongue, who ended up getting all the lead singer's attention as a reward for her enthusiasm.
These guys played for about 40 minutes or so, and everyone seemed to like them. But I imagine people were getting pretty eager to see Rollins.
After Simon Says, the roadies set the stage and after about a 1/2 hour, it was time to rock. The place was packed by this time, I'd say about 300 people, and everyone was getting pumped, especially the 6 or 7 drunk rednecks next to me that I knew were going to be a pain in my ass. Around 10:15 the Band filed out and without introduction kicked into a song
that may have been Illumination, but I'm not sure. I was awful distracted and a little frightened because I was watching
this..."thing"...happen on stage. I was thinking, "Christ, where'd they get that shaved, tattooed silver-backed mountain gorilla. Aren't they afraid it's going to hurt someone? And where's Rollins?" Let me digress. I am not a long-time Hank fan. I didn't really even know what a Rollins was until about a year ago when I stumbled by chance upon Solipsist. I bought other books, and saw his spoken word shows when he was in town. I did get into his music, bought some albums, rocked out. But I had never seen his music live, and have never even seen any videos. So, I was basically totally unprepared for the level of intensity he displayed when he hit the stage. I mean, I knew he was going to be intense, but he was an absolute power house. It scared me. I was like, "Faaaaaawwwwwwwwkkk." Needless to say, people were into it. I was still standing kind of slack-jawed, still a little too blown away to even get into it at this point, when a "pit" abruptly opened up right next to me. Now, I have no problem with dumb-asses who, as Henry said, can't get laid so they beat the shit out of each other instead. But you know, don't pull me me in your little shit-storm of self-loathing and self-involved, violent, angst. After getting slammed into by these assholes a few times, I decided that I should relocate, which I did.
Basically, the show was awesome awesome. Rollins was on fire and I am still reeling as I write this. I was just totally unprepared for that kind of rocking out. By far, it was the best concert I have ever seen. As for the music, it was awesome, though I wish they'd upped the vocals and downed the bass a tad, because I couldn't understand anything Hank was singing except "Do it Do it Do it" and "Get some Get some Get some". The band was tight, and the new songs were great. He didn't introduce them all, so I can't remember the song titles. In fact, he did very little between-song rapping. And when he did it was very brief. He'd say something like, "This is a song about changing things in your life that need
to change instead of complaining so fucking much..." and then he'd start rocking it again. I don't think the music was so big of a departure from his older stuff, but it is less jazzy and more rocky. A lot of it I thought was "Do it"ish. The band played for about an hour and a half, and everyone loved it. I left shaken, stirred, and feeling like I'd just been fantastically laid. It was an inspiration. I added another 40 pounds to my usual squat weight the next morning. On my way out of the gig they handed out a little promo/demo tape with Illumination, 100 Miles, and Get Some Go Again on it. That was very cool, and if the pieces on the demo-- as well as the show-- are any indication of what to expect on the upcoming album, we're all in for a real treat. I was pleased to see they added another show down here at the end of the month. I already have tickets. I got some. And I'm goin' again.

Jason R. sent me this report of the 8/6 San Diego, CA Rollins Band show on 8/7:
Saw the new Rollins Band last night at Brick by Brick in San Deigo. Wow! What a show, the headlines should have read "Small club of 300 people destroyed by Rollins Band". The new songs are awesome, with the exception of 2 slow songs (one called "Summer Nights" which IMHO wasn't that great of a tune) Henry and the new band were in perfect form.
One of the main highlights of the show was when he claimed to have a performed a new song for the first time live called "Waiting". Said they had been working on it during sound checks. "This is a song about waiting to fuck shit up" he said or something to that effect it was one of the best new songs he did, next to "Get Some, Go Again" (that MP3 dosen't do the song justice) and "Hotter and Hotter". I really hope this new song makes the cut for the new record. as with the other shows they also did the Thin Lizzy Cover "Are You Ready". Henry has said that the new music was very "Black Sabbath/Thin Lizzy" he's right on the money. The music (and i stress MUSIC) is reminiscent of those two bands, but
the lyrics and vocals are very much pure Henry. They also performed "Do It", "What Have I Got", ? "Hard" nice touch throwing in a few oldies like that.
GO SEE ROLLINS ON THIS TOUR! You will not regret it.

M.A. posted this report of the 8/3 San Francisco, CA Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 8/5:
Rollins killed last night!! From the reviews I read of the latest shows, it sounds like folks had a hard time getting into the music. I did not. Rollins was so-o-o-o into rockin out and playin' hard. I really did give 110% like he says he likes to do. Rollins and the band were in fine form. The band was tight. You can tell they put a lot of work and love into the show. I, myself, highly recommend seeing Rollins on this tour. You can't beat his intensity. I was in awe...
M.A.

Linda posted this report of the 8/3 San Francisco, CA Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 8/4:
Hi All,
First time poster here...
I saw the SF show last night.. it was excellent. I didn't know most (nearly all) the songs, apparently it was mostly new stuff, but the energy and talent was amazing, as always. And I really enjoyed the show. A band called Simon Says opened for them last night, but they had some equipment problems and they only played about 4 songs. My friends and I thought they sounded like a mix of Tool and 311.. not my cup of tea, but they were pretty tight as a band. I am mentioning this because they mentioned that they would be heading down to the Santa Barbara show.. so there's a little head's up for you people going to the show in So. Cal.
-Linda

LocalHHHHH@aol.com sent me this report of the 7/13 Chicago, IL Rollins Band show on 7/14:
Well...I just got home from the Rollins Band show tonight. It was the last night of his tour debuting the new band.
These are the points I wanted to make about halfway through the show.
a) The opening band (squatweiler) sucked ass. The highlight was the guitar player introducing a song about music, and passion, and dedicating it to "Keith Moon, and D. Boon". Their cover of "Smokin'" by Boston was a DIIIIIISTANT second.
b) I'm very upset about the line up changes. I will miss all the old players VERY much.
c) Rollins has quit yelling, for the most part. I wonder if it has something to do with the story he tells on his newest talkin' CD about going to the voice doctor.
d) this shit just isn't as good. I know I read him refer to it as a "return to rock", but I dubbed it a "return to dumb". I mean...those Texas Hotel CDs are just NOT as good. I like the maturity, and musicianship shown in the later stuff (but not come in and burn...)
ANYWAY....about halfway into the show, I did a complete 180 turnaround, and was loving it...I don't know if the songs were better, or if I was just catching up to enjoy it.
When they kicked into "Are You Ready" by Thin Lizzy, I was hooked...and when "DO IT" showed up...I was doubly hooked.
Definitely a change, and one that I'm not completely happy with, but, I'll give it some more chances.
One thing I was thinking, however, is that there are as many LIVE rollins band cds as there are studio ones, but there aren't any Melvin Gibbs era live albums. He should do one before he closes the book on that chapter.

I posted this report of the 7/11 Lawrence, KS Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 7/12:
Lesson #1: if you're going to go see a band with as big a following as Rollins Band at a place as tiny as The Bottleneck in Lawrence, KS ... buy your ticket beforehand.
Lesson #2: when you find out the show is sold out and you are left incredibly depressed, standing outside trying to watch/listen to the show through the window, resist the temptation to bash your head into the window and/or kill someone.
Lesson #3: don't give up. If you look pathetic enough and hang out near the door, you will eventually find a way in.
And that I did. Lucky for me and a few other unfortunate souls, a guy (who I often see at shows in the area, he must be a promotor or something) picked us out and helped us get in. Whoever you are, thank you!
Rollins Band was already on stage when I got in. I think they were only 1 or 2 songs into the set though. For the next hour and 1/2 they thoroughly impressed me. This band is a (welcome) return to the energy (not necessarily sound) of the late '80s Rollins Band. The music is sweaty, hard and heavy. What Rollins said you'd get is exactly what you get: Stooges/Thin Lizzy/Sabbath-style relentless rock and roll with no apologies. The new band is flawless and tight. Rollins and the band seem to be very pleased with their music and it shows. I imagine that with several more years of constant touring and writing under their belts this band may very well reach the same level as the "Turned On"-era Rollins Band (which is my personal favorite RB era) ...
The set was mostly new songs. This gave me a flashback to my first Rollins Band show at Lollapalooza in KC, MO in '91. At that show they were playing all new songs, the ones that would eventually come out in '92 on "The End of Silence". Same thing here, these songs will eventually come out on "Go Again Get Some" in January of '00. Once again, it's going to be a long, painful wait. It's only been a few hours since the show, but already most all the words/riffs have left my head. Great to hear new songs, but when will I hear them again? I *need* to hear them again to figure out just how much I like them. They were all great live, but I hope it translates at least equally to disc ...
Rollins gave a spoken intro for most every song, especially the new ones. Here's the list of songs that Rollins offered the titles for, and all the ones I can remember them playing, in no particular order (except the encore):
What Have I Got
Hotter and Hotter
Love is Heavy
Hard
Go Again Get Some
Are You Ready to Rock (Thin Lizzy)
Summer Nights
Yellow Blues
Monster
Change It Up
Do It
encore:
I Go Day-Glo
Side by Side
Three "classics" (3 of my all-time favorites!): What Have I Got was about the same as it appears on "Turned On", "Do It" was just ... intense. "Hard" was sped-up with more of a metal feel to it. Very nice. Of the new songs, I can only remember a few specifics: "Hotter and Hotter", "Go Again Get Some" and "I Go Day-Glo" are fast, hard songs. "Yellow Blues" was a slow, fat blues jam ... it was so good to hear this one. I really felt like I was watching late 80's Rollins Band during this song as everyone would come crashing down on the '1' (there were many other moments throughout the show that gave me that same feeling). A great variety of styles and tempos for these songs ... some are really slow, some are super fast, some are straight up rock and roll and some are a bit funky or a bit blues-y ...
Some of the intros, paraphrased: "Yellow Blues" - this song is about a soldier in Vietnam in 1969 who's had his arm blown off, is too tired to run and is watching as the insects eat at him. "Are You Ready to Rock" - this is a song we wish *we* would have wrote, but Thin Lizzy did. ?at this point about 1/2 of the crowd starts hollerin') Those of you who aren't hollerin' need to get your tight asses to a record store and get some of this shit (referring to Thin Lizzy). "I Go Day-Glo" - this song is pretty vigorous, if you have a lower back problem you might want to sit this one out. "Change it Up" this song is about changing your place in life. Someone always walks up to me on the street and says "why are you here? this town sucks" ... the real question is "why are *you* here?" Rollins asked the crowd how many of you hate your job to which most everyone yelled something. Then Rollins said that was like saying "yeah!" after having a heart attack. Why be happy for your own misery? Change it up. "Love is Heavy" - a love song, one week you're listening to your "Best of the Carpenters" cd and the next you're listening to Slayer ...
That's all I can remember for now ...
One thing about the band I really enjoyed ... they were into it, totally. Jim (guitar) is great, different from Haskett of course, but great. Lots of killer, non-cheesy, rock-god style solos and heavy rhythm work. He has long black hair, black goatee, black leather hat and all black clothes ... sort of a shades-less Al Jourgensen look. Marcus (bass) lays down one heavy ass groove. He didn't remind me of either Weiss or Gibbs, which is good, just a solid player. Jason (drums) was also solid, not as flashy (fills-wise) as Sim Cain, but he definitely gets the job done for this sort of music. I liked how Jim would often sing the lyrics to himself as he played and how all 3 would laugh or clap after Rollins stage raps. There's no doubt about it ... Mother Superior was a great choice for a new band ...
It was *SO* good to see Rollins Band in a small club again! This is where they belong, despite selling out the venues. Go see them now before they get too big again. This music deserves the small club atmosphere as opposed to the big arena/theater. The crowd was really into it. Rollins asked before the encores "how is it so far?" to which the crowd went nuts. "Good, we like it but we're never really sure if anyone else does. Glad to see it spreading". We all walked out of the Bottleneck drenched in sweat ...
Price:
$12.50
Merchandise:
4 RB shirts $20 each, Squatweiler stuff (cds, stickers, etc)
Thanks:
the guy that got us in, Rollins Band, the very receptive crowd!
Recommendation:
see every show you can!

Babic posted this report of the 7/9 Columbia, MO Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 7/12:
Blue Note - Columbia, MO
    Squatweiler took the stage and before they even began a song they enthusiastically promised a rock'n'roll show. It was the first time I had heard them so all the material was new to me. The highlight of their set was the metal/punk song and a Boston cover - Smokin'. The crowd wasn't very into the music and some intoxicated young college athletes kept screaming "show us your tits" to the singer/bass player (about seventy-five percent of the crowd consisted of male college frat boys who were drunk and looking to fight and a few even got kicked out) but they delivered what they promised - Rock and Roll.
    Rollins and the new band walked on stage, he introduced them and they preceded to assault the crowd with three new songs before Rollins took a break to talk to the audience. He provided a slight prequel to a few songs and took a minute out to make fun of some guy's goatee who kept flipping him off but in all he didn't talk that much. They played What Have I Got?, Hard , Do It, and a cover of Thin Lizzy's Are You Ready (To Rock), The rest was new material. I can't remember the names to all the songs but one that really caught my attention and rocked hard was Yellow Blues a song about the lead singer of Gun Club who swelled up, turned yellow and died in a hospital bed because of a life of drug
use.
    Overall it was a kick ass concert and the new band is definitely more in a rock groove. Even after the first couple songs I began to visualize that this is what Rollins Band would have sounded like if there were records preceding the early Texas Hotel recordings.

Sanjay posted this report of the 7/6 Huntington, WV Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 7/7:
Well, Rollins and Company certainly rocked the joint in WV last night. Didn't seem as crowded as people had mentioned the other gigs were. I have to say, I dig the new stuff a whole lot. I kind of expected the style after hearing mother superiors stuff. As for what they played, I don't really remember song titles. The had some cool surprises though, as they ripped through Do It, Are You Ready (Thin LIzzy) and the big one...Rejection, though it was little less funky and a little more rock n' roll (I still think I must have been seeing things)! During a break btwn songs, the guitarist started the riff to Twist of Cain, Hank just smiled and said "No No!" Sqautweiler kicked some serious ass as always, though most people there really hadn't heard of them it seemed. After seeing the band live, if this is the direction Hank is headed, I'm completely along for the ride.

Brad posted this report of the 7/4 Chattanooga, TN Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 7/5:
I just got back from the Rollins show in Chattanooga, TN. The whole new band thing is a moot point. Rollins said that he just wanted a change, so be it. The new band ? Rollins were absolutely intense!!! The new songs were great!! I almost got my hands on a set list since they were given away at the end of the show. Similar to what I read about the Toledo show, Rollins talked a lot in between songs so that he could set them up, being all new songs. All I have to say, is the "Rollins Band" was as good as it ever was. They did play both "Lonely" ? "Do It" which was nice to hear! It was funny though, it seemed like a lot of new fans to Rollins showed up at this show. You could get a "i showed up to the show because Rollins is a familiar name, i have seen the videos, and it's 4th of july" vibe (if that makes any sense). Not hassling, just making an observation. All in all, it was one of the most intense shows I have ever seen! Rollins gave it absolutely EVERYTHING!!!

Li Elliott posted this report of the 7/2 Toledo, OH Rollins Band show to the Rollins-talk list on 7/3:
Well, I saw the Rollins Band show in Toledo last night and thought I would send off a quick review for anyone interested. First thing, to anyone who doesn't get to see the show, I feel bad for you. It rocked so hard I couldn't believe it.
But first to the opening band; Squatweiler. Sanjay was totally correct in saying that they are an excellent band. It was my first time seeing them and I loved them so much that I bought their latest CD "Horsepower". Highly recommended. Perfect opening band to the RB. However, the Toledo crowd had me a little worried. I travelled 5 hours to see the show and had to fight my way through detours and traffic jams in Detroit, Michigan. So when I showed up, I was very pumped. To my surprise, hardly anyone was dancing to Squatweiler. By the applause, I would say they enjoyed them but would have liked to see more movement. When RB came on, though, the Toledo crowd was right into it. They played mostly stuff off their new album but they did "Do It" later in the show. Right up front Rollins warned people that they were a new band and would be playing mostly new stuff so people would have to accept this change in music. He said it in sort of a "Hey, things change and that is not always bad" tone of voice. The crowd didn't seem to mind except for the drunk who kept yelling for Cheap Trick before the show started. The drunk was the only one to stroll up on stage during the show and that didn't last long. One of the roadies threw him off the stage and the crowd made sure he was disposed of a safe distance from the stage. And to the guy who threw the burning cigarette on stage right by Henry's feet- You are an asshole. Luckily some quick thinking guy threw his sweat-soaked t-shirt on it which snuffed it out.
As for the music, I must admit, I went in with a bad attitude (don't flame me for that). I really love the stuff the old RB plays and always will. But Henry is right. Change can be good. They rocked very hard and the new guys and Henry seemed to jive together well. After all, it is still Henry's singing on top of the music, so it can only change so much. He still writes straight-forward, "kick you in the ass" lyrics. Please don't ask me what the lyrics were all about. It was so loud and my hearing bad enough that I couldn't catch as much of it as I wanted to. And now its all gone out of my head. Too much adrenalin, I guess. My heart was pumping hard for quite a while after the show. Some of the songs were a little too "bluesy" for me but that is due to my own tastes, not their talent. In general, though, it was an excellent rocking show, with a very hot and humid pit. Definitely not a "sit back and put your feet up" show.
Rollins also talked more between songs than I expected. He mentioned how it pisses him off when people say their town sucks but they are doing nothing to change their present state. He told them to "move" if they don't like it, just like he did. The "take control of your own life" theme came up in his talk a few times.
Overall, it was an excellent show!

Mark Cartmill posted this report of the ? Townsville Australia show to the Rollins-talk list on 6/10:
I saw rollins show just the other day when he came to Townsville. Townsville has an army barracks here so there were about 100 drunk soldiers at the show singing their barracks drinking songs, mooning each other and generally just being fuckwits to everyone around. But fuck it was funny the way rollins shut them up. The first time he just told them to go and play with all their little drunk friends over near the alcohol (the show was in the student union bar) and then the second time he went from the middle of telling the story about billy zane's eyebrows to this intense "Yeah, army boys think their tough but I promise you, they'll be the first ones to shit their pants when the bullets start flying because all the training in the world won't prepare you for the smell of a dead body. And it smells a lot fucking worse then you can imagine. So go back to your beer and let the people here enjoy the show." Not one of them even coughed for the next hour and a half after this.
Other than that he talked about being in africa (Tattoos and a pantera cd doesn't mean shit out there),
- the black sabbath reunion (that story about geezer setting bill ward's leg on fire and Ozzy pulling bill ward's pants down in front of 5000 people everynight for 15 years was hilarious)
- how he hates models and golf pros and he pulled his pants up around his armpits like he's done at most shows, apparently.
All up it was unbelievably funny. I knew people who had received free tickets and used to actively hate him who are asking to borrow my cds now

Ulrika Erdmann posted this report of the 6/8 Sydney Australia show to the Rollins-talk list on 6/9:
Hey folks,
Managed to see Hank again at his final Sydney show last night, and of course, as always, he was in top form. Fuck...I'll never get sick of hearing him!! Anyway, it was in this small bistro type club, called The Basement. It was cool to see him in a place like that because it was more intimate, and because it was so small, wherever you sat you had a pretty good view. It was only a two hour show, due to another show being slated for 9:30pm.
Anyhoo, here's what he spoke about:
-Seeing the reunion of that old '80's band Ratt ("sometimes it's good to see something that sucks"); he mentioned how
funny it was to see these 30-something people all lined up to go inside dressed in their too-tight-80's-punker clothes.
-Seeing this guy, Don Dokken (sorry if I got the name wrong...I've never heard of him, but it got a collective groan out of the audience) performing at some club..and how he has something like 30 albums out, but can never really get there...still he keeps trying.
-The KKK setting up in Australia. This was hilarious...he said that the best way to piss these guys off was for *everyone* to join the Klan, regardless of whether they were Asian, Aborigine, gay or whatever...and not only that, but to *agree* with everything the Klan was saying, hopefully making these Klan people think that they were going crazy.
-Trying to blow Iggy Pop off stage (and failing), and how full-on Iggy is on stage, yet how different he is when he's just plain ol' Jim off-stage ("Jim Osterberg + electricity = Iggy Pop"); at this point there was some girl in the audience who kept saying shit like "Oh, he's my favourite...!!", to which Henry said "Look, this is not an interactive performance; the way it works is I talk, while you sit there". Of course, she didn't get the hint, and a few minutes later he basically had to say "Will you be quiet, my dear. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but you're killing me. See what happens when you're armed only with a
microphone? One woman can wrestle the gig away from you..." Thankfully she shut up after that.
-He talked about singing "Take My Breath Away" to Kelly McGillis on the set of Morgan's Ferry.
-Because The Basement was a jazz club, he spoke a bit about his jazz heroes, and how they really went for it, and really suffered for their music; how there used to be so much music out there that really helped you get through the bad times, but it seems there is less and less of that kind of music today.
-Falling in love with this woman and finally asking her out after 6 years; how she nearly moved in with him, but it didn't work out; and how everything he's done in the past, pales in comparison to really being in love...and that it took him 38 years to work that out.
-The infamous "banana incident" on SNL, and trashing Kathy Ireland's fitness video (hilarious!) when they appeared on
Leno together.
That's pretty much all I remember...fantastic show!! Apart from the Kelly McGillis story there was no overlap between
all three shows, so that was cool!

Dave DeBrincat posted this report of the 6/8 Sydney Australia show to the Rollins-talk list on 6/8:
Just returned from seeing Henry do the spoken word thing tonight at The Basement in Sydney. It was great, probably better then the show at the State Theatre, because it was a little more intimate with the venue only holding about 300 (I think).
The highlight for me was the story about Iggy Pop, how Henry tried to "beat" him when they played together, but Iggy always produced something special to remain "the man".
If anyone else was there, how annoying was the girl who kept interupting Henry in the middle of the stories. It got to the point where Henry had to tell her to shut up, not once but twice.

Ulrika Erdmann posted this report of the 5/29 Sydney Australia show to the Rollins-talk list on 5/30:
Well, I saw Rollins again on Saturday night....fucking fantastic. I had a pretty good view, being on the last seat of the front row (Julie, I think I saw you sitting smack-bang in the middle of the row, right in front of Hank!! Talk about good seats!!!).
Anyway, this show was *brilliant*...better than Friday night, if that's possible. Here's a bit of what he spoke about; if I missed anything, someone else should be able to fill you in:
- Being seated next to Powerman on the plane, and being "tested" on what music he knows; also Powerman flipping out when a couple of people asked Henry for his autograph. This led into him relating an experience seeing Ahmed Jamal (sp?) with Flea (I've read about this somewhere in an interview).
- Meeting all the guys from Black Sabbath (and how everyone always plays practical jokes on Bill Ward); hanging out with them at band practice, and seeing them at the show
- Having about 550,000 frequent flyer miles, hence going to a place he's been fascinated with since he was a kid: Africa (I think he went to Nairobi, and Madagascar). Wanting to meet the Masai, and having them laugh at his tattoos as soon as he stepped off the plane; getting scared by the baboons circling his tent; how all the animals in Africa are either eating, sleeping, fucking, or trying to escape from something. He also mentioned the hierarchy of animals, and how the lions just lie around unafraid of anything (same with the elephants), but how all the zebra, and antelope are just all twitchy with fear; also how we are nothing out in a place like Africa...here in the city we can talk big shit, but out there, there is nothing that we can out run. He also mentioned a bit about how people should be more humble...but not so humble that they don't achieve anything.
- Doing the TV show "Welcome to Paradox", and having to walk down 3 city blocks dressed in this futuristic garb, to get to his trailer, and how he couldn't find his "macho shit" in these balloon pants and sandals. He also mentioned the amount of make-up he had to wear for The Chase, and forgetting to wash it off before he went to the gym...thus having all these guys there just staring at him like they wanted to beat the crap out of him.
- Working on Morgan's Ferry (?) with Kelly McGillis...singing Take My Breath Away to her; having to attack her and rip her nightgown off. He talked about the nude scene, which was the most hilarious moment of the night!! This was the 10% cool factor. It took him about 40 takes to get it right...first he went scurrying out of the tub, bent over, so no-one would be able to see his goodies; then by take 30, he was so pissed off that he was so scared, that he went the other extreme...slowly getting up out the tub, facing the camera for longer than necessary, slowly turning around, slowly walking to where his pants are, and slowly putting them on....of course the director asked him what the fuck he was doing. Also, before doing the scene, he thought he'd joke around to prove that he wasn't scared, by pulling up his underwear to where his armpits were....he demonstrated this with his dress-pants which was absolutely hilarious!!! He basically said that looking like that, you could get away with anything.
- The two goals in life are to love and to inspire...life is too short for anything else
- How screwed the situation is between the Palestinians and Israel...and how these are intelligent, thinking people, but they can't seem to work it out in a civilised manner; his solution was to bomb them with Coltrane, and Electric Ladyland, and that you wouldn't be able to kill someone who liked John Coltrane.
Anyway, that's all I can remember...he went for 2 and a half hours, and like always, it flew by. He is so fucking great!

Ulrika Erdmann posted this report of the 5/28 Sydney Australia show to the Rollins-talk list on 5/28:
Awesome, awesome, *fucking* awesome!!!! That pretty much sums it up!!!! He came out at about a quarter past 8 and went till quarter to 11.
Here's what he spoke about:
- This was the 11th time he's been here in the last 10 years (I don't know if he meant with the band as well, or just speaking gigs).
- The bluntness of Australian people, and how they tell it like it is; he used an example that he'd seen on TV...some morning news program. The two hosts were interviewing some woman who'd had plastic surgery done to every possible bit of her face. This woman was saying that the reason she'd done it was for the Millenium! Since it represents change, this was her "art" contribution. Henry said that in America, the hosts would have been really respectful, and pretending to be interested, whereas here, one of the co-hosts just said something along the lines of "Aren't you just a woman unsatisfied with her looks, and doing anything to change them?" Also, apparently when the show had ended, the camera's were still on the co-hosts, and you could see them obviously speaking about Plastic Surgery Woman, and trying not to laugh.
- He also said that the strange thing about TV here is that they'll do 5 seconds on Kosovo, and then go into thirty minutes on football and cricket. He did a very funny bit about what a fucked up game cricket is, and how he just doesn't "get it".
- The word "root", and how it means "to fuck" in Australia
- The beer drinking habits of Australians, and his first encounter with the VB can at one of his first tours with the band ('89 or '90).
- Seeing an ad for next week's 60 Minutes that said that 20% of Australians are insane; seeing a wildlife show in America with an Australian guy in it (I guess this would be that Troy Dann(?) guy), and how any American who saw it must think that Australians are psycho.
- The simplicity of the English language, and how everyone can speak it perfectly, except for those who have it as their native language; how the language of a country seems to suit the type of people who speak it (eg. German sounding really harsh, and like orders are being given; and how anything in Italian just sounds like sex)
- Travelling to Israel, and learning the history of the country; seeing the last place where Jesus was seen walking; the relative youth of America and Australia, and how people are blown away to see a building that's over 100 years old...yet that being nothing compared to seeing where Jesus walked thousands of years ago.
- Seeing the full sized painting of Jesus on the cross, with the guys standing under him stabbing him with the spear. That made him see that it's really the mediocre people who try to put you down, or tell you that you're stupid for trying something.
- The irrelevance of whether the religious stories are true or not...after all, that's what faith is; and as long as there's a lesson to be learned, it really doesn't matter.
- The shitty English weather, and how having the weather forecasted everyday is redundant as it's always the same...it never fully rains, it's more like mist, like you've been "licked by a cat" or sprayed with an "Evian atomiser" ;how the convicts got a good deal being shipped to Australia, while the "good guys" got left in England with the shitty weather; he said that's probably why England had so many colonies...not because they were bad people, but becuase they were trying to get some sun. He also mentioned doing his gig in Perth, and the rain being so loud he couldn't talk.
- Being on Craig (?) Kilbourne, and hoping to meet some interesting people, but instead being stuck with a model and a professional golfer. He also mentioned being on Jay Leno with Kathy Ireland.
- Travelling in Egypt, and seeing the pyramids at Giza; the incredibly fucked up Cairo traffic; his driver/tour guide, Samir; the theory that beings came from another planet and built the pyramids being a crock of shit.
- His first kiss being with a Catholic girl, (he also closed the show with the line "...and thanks to all the Catholic girls for getting me laid...") after she got him loaded on bourbon ("...Jack Daniels in one hand, a Marlboro in the other; I looked like a poster child for Motley Crue."; how the Catholic religion is like hell; and how all religions are very misogynistic.
- Looking up about the white power guys on the internet, and being disappointed that there were like 50 pages, instead of just 2; looking at the Aryan Dating Page, and thinking about "seducing" some Aryan babe back to racial equality with the likes of Sam Cooke and Al Green.
- He did a few imitations of his high school teachers (he's such a great mimic!!!)
- Disappointment at so much wimpy music being played, and how becuase it's all done on computer it has no passion and does nothing for him. It's more a case of "yeah, nice computer"
- How pathetic it is that these Hollywood junkies these days say they're sorry for everything; how hardcore junkies shouldn't apologise, they should just shut up and do it.
- How it's so easy to be cynical; it's so rare that you ask someone how their day was, and have them say "It's fucking great!!"...most people are like:"...?sigh>...yeah...I'm OK....I guess...?sigh>..."
- No excuse for boredom...you have a mind, you have an imagination...you can keep yourself going on that alone for days.
- Loving travel, and how he see's LA as just a holding tank.
- That we all have limitless potential, and we are all here to rock in our own unique way.
- Goth music being blamed for the recent massacre in Littleton, and how they never blame the people who should be blamed, namely parents...parents aren't taking the time to raise their kids properly; how goths are so lazy and laid back, there's no way they could ever motivate anyone to go on a killing spree
- How it's unfortunate that the male orgasm is 101% guaranteed, but with women it's only like 35 - 65%; how women let men off the hook when they say it's OK that they "didn't cum, but it was nice anyway", and how men could never be so calm about it if the shoe were on the other foot.
So, there you have it... I'm seeing him again tonight...front row seats this time...YAY!!!

Ben Galamaga posted this report of the 5/25 and 5/26 Brisbane Australia shows to the Rollins-talk list on 5/26:
Ok these next stuff is from the two shows in Brisbane(where some of Think Tank was recorded)
1st show
England/Australia
"Powerman"
Casablanca Baboons and the Naughty monkeys(mmm blue balls)
The new bed(the old bed was the cum stained/encrusted futon)
Rollins playing with sabbath!
Reasons why females won't go out with Henry(30min adlib)
2nd show
Henry in Egypt
The goth movement
Russia(doing spoken word with a translator)
Going to dances
The films(Frost, Suicide Kings[does anybody heard of this? if not just yell
out and i'll tell you about the nude scene] and i can't remember the third
one) also a small note henry auditioned for Armageddon.
yeah thats about all i can remember, later Ben

Beryl Matheson posted this report of the 5/23 Perth Australia show to the Rollins-talk list on 5/24:
Henry did his spoken word show last night (Sunday May 23, 1999) at the Perth Concert Hall. He was incredibly funny.
I saw Henry last time he was in Perth. That time he was at the Octagon Theatre which is at the University of Western Australia. It is a smallish venue seating about 800 people. This time he was at our Concert Hall which is very posh and seats about 2000 from memory. Having a look round it must have been fairly close to being sold out. Anyway, the last time he was here he was a bit more serious about things. He had been to Poland that year with the Rollins Band he spoke a bit about his visit to Auschwitz. He also covered homophobia and racism. This show was very different. He was really funny. He basically spent a lot of the show taking this piss out of himself which goes down really well with the Australian audience.
He started off by talking briefly about being in a venue like the Concert Hall and about orchestras's that play at these venues. He talked about the Berlin Symphony walking into a venue, assessing the acoustics and walking out if they were not suitable. He also discussed music snobs and their attitude to modern music. Anyway his conclusion was that these orchestras were basically cover bands playing music that was 150 years old.
He then discussed his trip to Australia and the fact that he had been in London. He questioned the reason for having a weather man on the news cause the weather is always so bad in England. It always has this little drizzle rain and is always overcast and awful. He explained this as the reason for the existence of Morrissey. This got big laughs. He thought it was very funny that the English had sent convicts to Australia as punishment and that the convicts had obviously got the best deal. It goes down well with our Australian audience to rip into the English. He also discussed the Australian term 'rooting' which is one of the less delightful terms for sex here. It usually goes ' Do you wanna root?'. Henry felt that was enough to put him off sex.
He then slagged off cricket and netball which are sports here. He did it in the guise of his 'women are the superior sex' bit (God bless the boy). He thinks netball is a big let down for women. This got pretty medioca laughs because I reckon every women in the hall had at some stage in their lives played netball. Cricket is a sport you either love of hate and if you don't understand it you are stuffed. He had a go at all the pads the guys were but if you had a ball that is twice as hard as a base ball thrown at you at 100 miles an hour you'd bloody were pads too.
He continued on to talk about how women are stronger than men and then apologised for the fact that once puberty hits men are a slave to their hormones and then went on to describe how it goes. This was really funny. He talked about the evolution time table that shows a monkey at the beginning and about 26 steps later modern man. He then said that when a guy is walking towards a women the closer he gets the further back he regresses. Henry was bouncing around the stage and doing a whole sound effects show. It was hilarious.
He talked about Russia and the shows that he did there. He did a bit about airport etiquette and how desperately he needs to get to the front of lines at any cost. He also talked about moving sidewalks and how they need to be a lot faster and more like a personal challenge thing. He described his experience in the subway in Moscow and how he was herded and harassed by the little old Russian ladies with lots of facial hair.
Henry also spoke about his trip to Israel and Egypt. He was impressed with the history of Israel and especially the story of Jesus and his crucifixion. He talked about how wild the driving in Egypt is and his awe of the pyramids.
There was discussions about his beliefs - no drugs, no alcohol, no bullshit in your life sort of stuff. His analogy with regard to the drugs and alcohol was your first car. It goes along the lines that your first car costs $100.00. You have to punch the radio to get it to work. You have to turn it on a certain way to get it started. Every time you go up a hill you talk to it, name it give it encouragement. You dream of torching it, you dream of rolling it off a cliff but you would never poor sugar in the gas tank. No matter how bad it might be its all you got and this is how he feels about his/our body. He preached to look after it.
He then went on to talk about his love for Catholic girls. He told this wild story about the sad school dances he would go to where boys would be on one side, girls on the other and no-one ever danced. He goes to a Catholic Girls School dance and gets asked to dance by one of the girls. She proceeds to get him wasted on cigarettes and bourbon and then they dance. Last dance is a slow dance and this girl sticks her tongue in Henry's mouth and that is the end of him. He latches onto the young lady and thinks he's found heaven. At the end of the song the poor girl just about has to hit him to get him off but he is convinced he is the 'Kissmaster'. The way he told this had me on my friends crying with laughter.
His final bit was about the nude scene he does in a movie and how he discovered that he is only about as 10% cool as he thinks he was. He thought he'd do it in one take and it took something like 30. He realised that he doesn't feel comfortable walking across a hotel room naked so he should have realised he was going to have a hard time in front of a film crew.
Henry told his stories with full actions and sound effects. It was just hilarious. I haven't laughed like that at a show or film or anything for a long time. This is just the bare bones of what happened. If you've been to his shows you know he kind of meanders through other stuff as well. This does not do him justice. Henry spoke for 3 hours and had everyone in the audience laughing.
The nicest bit was at the end when he told everyone that it just blew him away that we still came to see him and how grateful he was.

SubList e-mailed me this report of the April/March '99 Los Angeles shows on 4/29:
i went to 8 of the 9. he was great at all of them. i think that the last three were the best. he spoke about his trips to russia and israel and how excited he was because he's going to autralia, morocco, java, etc. he also spoke of how he fell in love and almost moved in with the woman and how difficult it really is to surrender yourself to love. he spoke about his trip to africa (i forgot which countries),but he spoke of the masai and how they laughed at him for being afraid of the baboons that were circling his tent. i had never seen him before these shows and it was pretty awesome. i hope to go to the upcoming shows before his next trip.

Mike Magnuson wrote this article about the 3/3 LA, CA show for Music Boulevard's allstar News
Henry Rollins Rips On Sheryl Crow, Ally McBeal, Republicans In Spoken Word Show
At a Henry Rollins spoken-word show, you always know what you'll be getting, but at the same time you aren't quite sure of what to expect. On Wednesday (March 3) night Rollins performed the first gig of his month-long residency at Luna Park in West Hollywood, Calif.
He touched on the familiar themes of traveling and experiencing life to its fullest, the foolishness of racism and homophobia, and, of course, girls. It was as evident as ever that he is not a Republican and that his American heroes are the great artists of jazz and soul. He even brought up some of the same experiences he spoke of last time he passed through L.A. (Nov. 3, 1998 at the House of Blues) -- the mafia prostitutes and deep subways of Moscow, moving sidewalks at airports, and the Ratt show he attended at West Hollywood's Key Club -- but as a man who savors every detail of his existence (or at least has an active enough mouth to talk about it), he managed to find new stories in old material.
The intimacy of the setting led him to wax nostalgic about his early days as a spoken-word performer. He is never shy about going off on a tangent, though (how else could he captivate an audience for a two-hour plus monologue?), so this quickly led to a discussion of languages which found English the clear winner: "Nothing sounds like 'Shut the fuck up.' And it works in any language. If you've ever been to other countries, when people start getting hot and bothered they default to English to curse each other... because it just rocks."
"If you tell people they're stupid generation after generation, they stop being insulted and they start going like, 'OK,'" he said later in the night while talking about the extreme safeguards and warnings unique to America. "Hence shows like Ally McBeal."
Displaying an ego as big as his neck, Rollins wasn't afraid to compare himself to Jesus (whom he referred to offhandedly as J.C. throughout the night) when describing his first trip to Israel. "I never knew much about J.C., but I dig him now. So I said, 'Michael [his tour guide], man, why did he get killed?' He said, 'Well he was saying some stuff that was really not ready for Prime Time'... So I said, 'Who took him out?' He goes, 'His own people.' Isn't that always the way? Goddammit. It's always people on the inside."
No star was safe from Rollins' tongue, either: "Bruce Willis, now that's acting." Describing winning a Grammy (Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album in 1994 for Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag) he said, "When I saw Sheryl Crow walk away with three of those, it lost all meaning." He justified the barbs aimed at the rich and famous with an analogy between himself and a lion's pathetic attempt to attack an elephant. "That's why I can take potshots at guys like Michael Bolton and Bono," he said. "They know they can kill me any day of the week."
His harshest words were directed at the "moral monitor" that is the Republican Party. "I want to see a lamb on the end of his dick," he said of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. "Even if I have to [use] Adobe Photoshop to do it."
It's easy enough to accuse Rollins of being derivative with his material and approach to it. It isn't difficult to question his sincerity when he rails against the mindlessness of pop culture then turns up in films like Jack Frost and The Chase. The criticisms don't hold much weight, though, when he routinely keeps audiences both laughing and thinking while enthusiastically espousing a much more proactive approach to life than any of his critics.

Gregory Paye e-mailed me this report of the 2/28 Fredericksburg, VA show on 3/1:
Henry Rollins practically donated his time last night (on 2/28/99, at $2 a head) to come and speak at Mary Washington College. While I don't go to school there, I was lucky enough to be there visiting a friend and noticed the flyers. Admittedly, I am not familiar with his spoken word stuff previous to this, so I don't even know if he was doing that, or just improvising. He spoke a lot about his world travels, specifically his most recent trip to Moscow, Israel, and Cairo, his recent adventures in Hollywood, seeing Ratt in LA where "the old bands go to die", his reactions to the racist-motivated dragging-murder in Texas, and the media's reaction to it, as compared to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. He emphasized the need to be free of chemical influences, to not just be a good person (tolerant, fair minded, intelligently questioning authority) in a bubble, but to go out into the world and act on it, and to go out and test one's mettle out in the real world, not just live one's life in the same area code - pontificating and theorizing. As one of the mid-80's DC-Baltimore punk graduates, who has always looked to Henry's 'generation' for guidance, it was a really inspiring and thought-provoking performance. I wish he'd been on his current level of awareness and maturity when I was 14-15 years old... it probably would have had a much more profound and timely effect on me. Still, I hope his wisdom and insight was not lost on the college age crowd. Thank you Henry.

Tom Luffman posted this report of the 1/30 Cincinnati, OH show to the Rollins-talk list on 2/3:
The funniest bit for me was the bit he spoke on about going to Israel. He brought up Christianity and how here in America there are professed followers of Jesus Christ, a Jew, who are white power. He said if Jesus was to come back today you know what he would say to these people? "I'm Jewish motherfucker!" It was hilarious. He also talked about waking up in Cairo and hearing an intercom wake him up about 5am. It was a PA system on the telephone poles with someone reading the Koran.

J posted this report of the 2/1 Anchorage, AK show to the Rollins-talk list on 2/2:
Saw Rollins for the first time last night. Was intense. He talked about alaska, driving in cairo, his russian tango friend, ozzy helping him push tony's truck out of a hole in the rain on a dark night which was hillarious. Talked about his movie coming up with billy zane and his "nude" scene. Told us about his first kiss, and then how he is no longer a rock n roll samuri warrior becasue he bought a comfort item!!! anyway i dig the whole show it was exactly 3 hours.
He made fun of the northern states of the continental us. And how we would laugh and say Fuck you when they complain. Told us about how he decided to go for a walk last night and his face froze into one pose. Its like -50 outside. And some misc things about the city that were pretty funny(ie anchorage and fairbanks, fairbanks being the "OTHER PLACE TO GO" and the rest is just a lot of space to fuck around lol. Also went off about how we are americans but still not part of the lower 48 (what we call the continental us) and how we must look down there and go damn what a bunch of stupid mf's. But how the red Satan cloud of doom (originating out of LA) is slowly making its way up toward us. Said he totally dig alaska and wants to see the summers here and will def be back.

Kev posted a link to his report of the 1/30 Cincinnati, OH show to the Rollins-talk list on 2/2:
(be sure to visit KevWorld in the future for pictures from the show)
Rollins Has Left The Building: My Rollins Experience (1/30/99: Bogart's, Cincinnati OH)
Okay, here it is. My Rollins experience. I have waited quite a while to see Hank live, and his appearance Sat, Jan 30 was my chance. I have 4 kids, so of course, I was late getting to the show which started at 8:40pm. I got there at 10pm. Parking was a bitch, but I finally got in. I could hear him outside. So I went inside, gave up my ticket, my camera in my pants, my copy of "One From None" in hand. I was allowed to bring the camera, but didn't want to go through the hassle of dealing with someone who did not know I was allowed to bring it, hence, down the pants.
Upon my arrival INSIDE, I saw tons of people, most standing, all watching the bare stage where Henry was standing and speaking. It was a little hard to hear in the back. I went to the balcony restroom to load up the camera. After a quick film load in the stall, off we go to the floor to get as close as we can.
I moved through the crowd, down the left side of the venue, and had no problem getting in the front third of the hall. I listened and picked up the action where it was, with Hank telling a story about how he saw part of the Black Sabbath reunion. His impression of Ozzy Osbourne was dead on. I took a few pictures, and then started really getting sucked into the stories.
I missed quite a bit, but the story of how Henry helped Ozzy get Tony Iommi's truck pushed out of a ditch was hilarious. He even went into a whole bit about how he got VIP admission to hell for helping Tony. In his story, he asked the dark angel,
"If I am in hell, how did I get here?"
The dark angel replied, "Remember when you helped Tony Iommi get his truck out of the ditch?"
"Yes. But what does that have to do with - "
The dark angel interrupted, "Tony, Satan, Tony, Satan, you see the connection."
This whole bit was hilarious. He went on to describe his dream process, and how he was awakened by a woman at his hotel door at 3:15am calling him softly. He had had a dream about a woman stabbing him with a knife so he didn't answer the door. Turns out she was naked and waiting for him. Fido got the pleasure instead of Hank. He described Fido in detail, a Scottish guy who was helping with his tour.
This lead into details of his "acting career" including "The Chase and "Jack Frost". This begat how he had to shoot a nude scene in a movie with Billy Zane. The whole story took about 45 minutes, but was really great.
I looked at my watch, it was 11:25pm. Knowing he usually finishes on this tour about 11:30, I decided to go wait for him out back. Every artist I have ever seen at Bogart's comes out that back door, and I was determined to meet Henry. I was the only one there for a while. Security people walked by, and said it would be a while. More people showed up. Soon, there were about 75 people out there. It was really cold. I talked to a few, and most thought the show was great.
I waited.
And waited….
And waited….
And….
Two hours later…
Nothing.
He must have gone out the front, because I didn't meet him. This really disappointed me at first, but made me realize how stupid doing that is, how concerts for the most part are overrated, and if I just would have stayed inside and seen the rest of the show, I would have had a much better time. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the show. It was my stupid choices that messed things up.
So, I have about 15 pictures, which I am sure will not be very good, but I will post them here in KevWorld when I get them developed.

I posted this report of the 1/29 Kansas City, MO show to the Rollins-talk list on 2/1:
Saw Rollins on 1/29 in Kansas City. Great show, very funny 2 hours and 40 minutes in a church with about 750-800 people. No, I didn't tape it due to lack of decent equipment, but I should have because I was in a balcony within 25 ft or so of him. The crowd was very receptive with no heckling ...
The show could be broken down into 4 main topics: travel, acting, men and women, growing up. Some of it I've heard before, but as usual it doesn't matter because it's told a little differently each time. Here's all the bits and pieces I can remember:
Travel
- Talked about how sad it is that everywhere he goes in the world everyone speaks perfect English whereas in the US most people cannot.
- Moscow - he did a few spoken shows there last year. It was weird because there was like a 7 second delay between him and the translation that the audience received via headphones. He re-visited Alexander, a Moscow dj who is the one and only source of 'underground' music. He gave Rollins a cd of his polka music (Rollins - "is it any good?", Alexander - "no, but I'm trying", Rollins - "right on man!"). The underground subway system there is fast, he talked about fighting your way on to trains through gangs of short, stocky Russian women with bags of onions ("you never see tall, thin, old Russian women ... what happens to these women?)
- Israel - he went all over the place visiting the sites like the Wailing Wall and the last place Jesus was seen walking. He talked about how that really puts the American 400 year history in perspective when you're looking at something that is 2000 years or older. Tangents - the Martin Luther King Jr. hotel in Memphis, a building in Washington DC that Ian and Rollins used to see shows, the site of JFK jr's shooting in Dallas (places of a historic nature, but nothing compared to the history and vibe in Israel).
- Talked about customs in Moscow and Israel. In Moscow the employees seemed pissed off that Rollins had been to so many places (from looking at his passport/visa) that they will never see. In Isreal heavily armed soldiers looked through everything.
- Cairo - somewhere he's wanted to go since childhood, so he called the agent and said "make it happen" (same with Israel). Checked out the sphinxes, ruins, pyramids, etc. He talked about how lazy Americans are in comparison to people who gave their entire lives to build a pyramind or wall. His tour guide that drove them around told Rollins that he'd never seen driving/traffic anywhere in the world like Cairo. He was right. Rollins explained how in Cairo there would be 7 lanes worth of cars packed into a 3 lane space, how they were all right next to each other ("you could reach over and slap the driver next to you") and red lights were pretty meaningless there.
Acting
- He changed his attitude for trying to get movie parts, instead of going all out at the auditions he goes in with an indifferent attitude (like they're wasting his time) and that gets him more parts than before.
- Briefly talked about his part as the coach in "Frost".
- "Desperate But Not Serious" - someone asked him if he wanted to meet Claudia Schiffer and he said no because he had nothing to say to her.
- "Welcome to Paradox" tv show - re-told how he was dressed up as a future doctor (sandals, robes, etc) and had to walk on the streets of downtown Vancouver to get to his trailer.
- "Morgan's Ferry" - Hank was recommended by Billy Zane (who as it turns out is a big fan). It's a big part and everyone thought he was going to fuck up the movie (the casting guy went ahead and gave him the part as kind of a joke) but it turns out he does a great job. He talked for a long time about his first nude scene and how it took many takes for him to do it right (the funniest part of the show!)
Men and Women
- Women seem to just suddenly become women effortlessly while guys have a much more difficult time becoming men ("what? I have to get up at 8:00 am now?") Men regress into primate stages the closer they get to a beautiful woman (he did a great wild monkey impression to illustrate this point). Much more that I can't recall ...
Growing Up
- Rollins will be 38 on 2.13.99. He talked about how a female friend visited his place and 'graded' it. Every room got an F. She made him go out and buy a bed to replace his ancient futon and sheets. The bed is so comfortable that he hallucinated that it was talking to him demaning real shelves and curtains. He once again thoroughly explained how his place is set up, how simple it is. Talked about stealing toilet paper because he refuses to buy it (as well as dress socks which he has 1 pair that a fan sent him).
Misc tidbits that were in the above sections (he went off on many different tangents within each story that I lost track of where a lot of the pieces fit):
- Religion - covered the Buddhas in Thailand again breifly, discussed Catholic girls and re-told the junior high school dance story, when he first came out on the church stage he said something like "lets just take in this atomsphere for a bit" and then talked about how he doesn't believe in religion himself but he thinks that if there is God that God digs him.
- Rollins would like to have a B-52 to bomb Iraq with Coletrane and Hendrix cds ("how could you hate people who liked Coltrane?")
- He dissed Republicans at one point, but also mentioned that he wasn't a Democrat and how they were all bastards. He also dissed the Cure at one point (as usual).
- He talked about what he called the "10% cool factor", how you're really only about 10% as cool as you think you are.
- It's funny how Larry Flint (head of Hustler magazine) has become the moral meter for the US.
- The 70's was his generation and he's proud of that (which led into making fun of most of the 80's bands and a story about him and Ian going to really bad new wave clubs in DC).
- A couple of very short drugs/alcohol/racism sucks statements and stories.
- Talked about the gorgeous airline attendants on Germany's airline. They seemed to mock all the men because they knew that none of the men would ever have them.
- If Rollins ever had a kid, he wouldn't let people talk baby talk to him/her. He'd read books and play Coletrane to the baby instead.
- Talked about how people like Jerry Lee Lewis were what rock and roll was all about ... crazy motherfuckers.
Well, that's about all I can dig out of my crusty brain cells. Very funny stuff, it gets more comedic every time. Go to the shows!

Paul Wester posted this report of the 1/26 Laramie, WY show to the Rollins-talk list on 1/27:
Hello everyone,
The show last night was an incredible one. This was my first time seeing Rollins, so it was that much more special for me. Seeing that I live in live in a very isolated part of the country, I was afraid very few people would show up to a free talk by a person who is a relativly unknown here. However, I was shocked to see 1500 people crammed into our small venue.
He began by talking about a recent trip to Russia, in which he tried to do two spoken word shows. He continued to segway into other journies to Israel and Africa. Within these topics he talked about the importance of sacred sites, such
as the last site where Jesus was seen.
Two of the funnier moments was when he began to speak of hanging out with Black Sabbath during their reunion. In his eyes he saw Tony Iommi as satan and life in hell after helping Tony get his van unstuck led him to becoming a member of the Rat Pack in the after life. The other moment was when he spoke of his first nude scene in the upcoming Morgan's Ferry movie. He said it took many takes to get the scene right and going into the scene he wanted to show he was cool and had no fear but he came of as very frightened and embarassed.
After the show there were about ten fans, including myself, that were fortunate enough to meet him. I told him not to grow old mentally and hold on to the immaturity. He agreed, we shoke hands, and I said keep on listening to Coltrane. He replied, "He is my favorite artist."

David and Wendy Hoyt posted this report of the 1/22 Memphis, TN show to the Rollins-talk list on 1/23:
Well, went to see ol' Hank last night in Memphis. Was anyone else from this list there? It was really cool. He has such a stage presense (sp?). It takes me a few minuettes to process that he is actually standing right there in front of me. The first thing he did was appologize for not coming to memphis for about three years. He seemed a little uncomfortable right at first, as did everyone in attendance. It seems to me that that is natural though. Since there is no opening act, or even a pre-recorded thing played over the pa, like"Ladies and Gentlemen... Henry Rollins", that when he just walks out, there were still people talking and standing in the aisles and then all of a sudden he's standing there talking and everybody kind of hurry's to their seat, and then it is a little weird, him and a mike and thats it. Everybody is wondering what to expect, so it took about five minuetes before everyone started to understand what was happening. Henry was great and the crowd was pretty cool I thought. There was, of course, one drunk red-neck that started talking in the middle of it and Henry tried to handle it quickly at first, but then when the guy started up again, Henry shifted all of his focous to him and that was something this guy didn't plan on I guess. Shortly there after the guy was stumbling up the aisle and I never saw him come back. I guess he didn't know what he was buying a ticket to. But in a strange way, I was hoping someone would start
a little shit so we could see Henry go off on somebody. That's as entertaining as his rehearsed stuff. He spoke from a little after eight and left a little before eleven to a full house standing ovation. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, except for one guy I overheard on the way out. Here's the conversation I walked by: "What do you mean it wasn't what you thought it'd be?" "I thought he was going to read poetry." I looked at the guy and just kept walking. I should have told him to hang
out and meet Henry and that he should ask him why he didn't read any poetry. That'd have been fun to see. It seemed like he only told like three story's but each story went into fifteen different directions and then somehow he always worked his way back to the point. Crazy! He talked about making the movie with Billy Zane and Kelly Mcgillis, Going to Russia for a third time, this time spoken word, playing different festivals with Sherryl Crow, Marilyn Manson and Bush, hanging out with Sabbath,and about a thousand other things i can't recall right this moment. All in all I had a great time as always and he is just the greatest. I understand he is becoming an "aging alternative icon" and if he just wants to focous on spoken word right now, that is just as entertaining as the band in my book.

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