Henry Rollins Spoken Word Redux

It was hard to imagine that over a year had passed since I had last seen Rollins, time seems to fly by these days. Once again, Henry was performing a spoken word show at La Zona Rosa. (BTW, going to La Zona Rosa made me realize how little this venue is used now. I wish I knew why this was the case). The show was better attended this year, which was surprising given it was on a Sunday night.

Henry started the show announcing that it was a celebration of the end of the Bush Administration. I understand the sentiment, however since abandoning my Libertarian party membership and adopting the Voluntaryist moniker, I can honestly say that I don't share his optimism about the coming change. In fact I dread it, since I have no faith in the political process or any politician. I was impressed that he didn't dwell too long on partisan politics, and went fairly quickly, into personal anecdotes.

The rest of the show covered familiar ground. How boring he finds his own life now that he is in his 40's, his workaholic tendencies, traveling to verboten places (this year it was Islamabad, Pakistan), and getting tickets to the Van Halen reunion from David Lee Roth. He was also introspective about his childhood and his relationships with his mother (good) and his father (bad).

I enjoyed myself for the duration, which was probably just shy of 2 hours, and will probably go see him again next year, when he returns to Austin agin.

Henry Rollins: Provoked - Spoken Word Show at La Zona Rosa

Last night I went with a friend to see famed musician, Henry Rollins, do his one man, spoken word show at La Zona Rosa, Provoked. I had seen Henry perform live on TV, caught a few of his shows on the Independent Film Channel, and watched a Punk Rock documentary, that he had hosted. I can't really say I was a big fan of his music, but he always left me with the impression that he was an articulate and a deep thinker. His viewpoints were often anti-authoritarian and contrarian.

We arrived around 7:15 or so and there was already a respectable crowd of approximately 200 people. It was surprising to see a merch-table with multiple books for sale, rather than just the normal fare of T-shirts and CDs. I picked up one of his books and realized that we were exactly the same age, both from the Baltimore/Washington area, and listened to a lot of the same music in the late 70's (such as Devo). My expectations for the night had been elevated.

Henry walked out promptly near the advertised 8PM start time, and launched into his monologue which lasted close to 3 hours. He spent the first few of minutes talking to the crowd like his friends, and about his great love of Austin with its unique quirkiness and the number of kindred spirits. This praise seemed very genuine, and he claimed that he didn't hand this type praise out very often or lightly.

He covered a lot of politics and the action in Iraq, his invitation to fill-in as leader singer for a reunion of the Ruts in London, his USO tours, and travels in the Middle East to Iran, Syria, and Lebanon (He seems to target places he's not supposed to go to). In all the 3 hours went by way too fast, and nobody left early. He is very engaging, sometimes self deprecating, and extremely humorous.

Great show. I will gladly go see him perform Music or Spoken Word again, when the opportunity presents itself. Will also have to look and see if his IFC show is available on DVD, from Netflix.