Hank review

Last Monday my good friend Shane and I went along to the Henry Rollins (author, former Black Flag vocalist, vans sponsored cult icon) spoken word performance and were blown away yet again. This was the third time I had seen him on a spoken word performance over the years and as always it was awesome. Shane has written a review of the show for a music site but has also passed it onto CJ13 for your reading pleasure, enjoy!

Monday night. Not widely regarded as the best night of the week but, much like the Warriors, it can occasionally produce a stunner. And last Monday night was that proverbial stunner.

This was due mostly to a spoken word performance by one Mr Henry Rollins (although good company and a mean Mexican feed beforehand certainly didn’t hurt either). Here on the back of his Frequent Flyers tour, nearly two years to the day after he last graced these shores, Mr Rollins delivered a fantastic two and half hour set of spoken word mastery.

Blue collar and high school educated (even making jokes about going back to cleaning toilets when he finally runs out of words) Rollins is, by his own admission, an ordinary man. What make him extraordinary are his drive and his burning desire to know, see and do. Working a schedule that would exhaust a person half is age you have to wonder how long he can keep it up (and hope to God he finds a way to make sure he does!). You inevitably leave a Rollins show feeling both inspired and disheartened. Inspired because his ideas, enthusiasm and energy are contagious. Disheartened because tomorrow you know you’re getting up and trucking off to another day of routine while this 49 year old dynamo will be tearing life a new asshole.

If you’ve been to one of these performances before you know pretty much what to expect. Henry clad all in black and taking his attack stance (which looks like he still thinks he’s in Black Flag; ready and willing leap off the stage and attack the entire audience if they give him the slightest provocation), diatribes on war and intolerance, pot shots at well known republicans (along with some fairly hilarious impressions), travel anecdotes and touching human interest pieces.

In the hands of a less skilled speaker knowing what to expect could easily equate to boredom. Fortunately Mr Rollins is not a less skilled speaker, always finding ways to take these expected themes and personalise them, making them relevant to his audience.

Take war for example, he could easily speak on the wrongs of Iraq (and does) but heck, he’s down under, so he throws in a piece about ANZAC day. Intolerance, why not throw in something about a mongrel Aussie calling the First Lady a monkey? (This, sadly, isn’t even a blip on the radar of things she gets called in her own country). His monologues are always well researched and show some understanding of a country’s history, cultures and tradition. And it’s this sort of effort that makes the difference.

But it’s not all serious stuff. Rollins knows the value of humour and sprinkles his set liberally with it. Whether it’s a strange tour guide from Laos yelling mangled English phrases like “What’s your life!?” and “Make biologic on tree!” Or discussing his masturbation habits (in almost uncomfortable depth) he’s got the experience and stories to pull humour from almost any situation.

An overarching theme of the show, and one which really struck a chord was that we should view this decade as our child. It’s only ten at the moment and, while it has some bad habits and has been hanging with the wrong crowd, it’s young enough that with care and positive influence it can be helped to grow into something we’re proud of. Engaged effort on our part can rid it of bad habits (racism and intolerance, injustice and inequality, y’know, all the bad stuff) and make sure it’s exposed to people who are a positive influence (Obama (and shit, Henry too) being a good start).

So gone are the anger and cynicism of youth, replaced by a respect and the arms wide open world view of an elder statesman. Rather than have our differences keep us apart he wants to find out what we have in common and use those to bring us together. The passion remains, but, rather than punch you in the face, Rollins wants to assault your brain with his words. It seems strange to say it folks but Henry’s become a hippy. And damn if it isn’t good.