So I went and saw Henry Rollins on his Provoked tour a few days ago at the Crest Theatre. I know that a lot of people view Rollins as an angry old punk rocker with very strong social and political views, but I don't think people really understand him. First off, he may be angry, but at his spoken word show (at least this tour), he wasn't yelling and screaming into the mic the whole night. He was just talking, like a guy telling interesting stories at the bar. His show was surprisingly funny, and his stories are unlike any others I have heard.
He talked about how he met David Lee Roth and touched on a few music points, but most of his show was about him traveling to places. He stated that he was tired of people judging what it's like to be in Iraq and Iran when they haven't been there, so he just went there. He told the story about how he plotted a trip to numerous countries deemed "dangerous" and met interesting people, and the most amazing thing was that he asked every single person he met what they thought about American's, and they all said they love America. He said he did not once run into a situation where someone treated him bad because he was American, and that includes Iraq and Iran.
It was interesting to hear somebody tell about how, instead of getting their opinions second hand, he just went and discovered it for himself, which I have a lot of respect for him for doing. He is a very interesting character, and is incredibly smart, much smarter than his critics give him credit for. There are some video clips at his website (linked above) if you want to check out a little bit of what I saw, but if you ever get the chance to see him, whether you like him or hate him, take it. It was definitely more interesting (in my opinion) than seeing Jello Biafra doing spoken word (I should be honest, I am a Dead Kennedys fan, not a Biafra fan. I think he is a hypocrite and forms opinions based off biased reporting without doing his homework, despite his fight against censorship).
Last but not least, he told the story of how he was asked to sing for the last show by the Ruts, a band whose music he plays constantly on his show. There are some YouTube clips of the show if you are interested, and definitely check out their music. There will also be a DVD of the concert released in a couple months. Anyway, here is a short YouTube clip of one of Rollins' Provoked dates (bad quality), and I am sure you can find more if you look hard enough. That's about it, good night and stay classy.
-B
try to stop us, it's no use.
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