Sensitive men no longer need to wear ponytails and Henry Rollins is the proof.
Rollins will roll into Albuquerque with a style that can make you weep, laugh and shout for joy all at once. For anyone who has not heard Rollins in the spoken word context, this is the chance to hear him at his finest since the hard-hitting Black Flag punk days of old.
Saturday night’s show at the Sunshine Theatre is part of Rollins’ initial 10-city solo tour to promote his newly released spoken word CD, A Rollins in the Wry. It is a compilation of two live shows recorded in the spring of 1999 when Rollins regularly performed spoken word at The CafÇ Luna club in Luna Park in Los Angeles. The 13-track CD was released Feb. 20 by Quarterstick Records.
But Rollins comes in with a reputation as a musician, author and poet. If anything, this is a chance for Albuquerque to hear a national act, and experienced listeners know that this show will include tracks of thought provoking, raw strings of words that get people laughing at society and “the system” and then leaves them quiet in contemplation.
Rollins began his music career with the punk band Black Flag. The band broke up in 1986, but Rollins continued to rock with the Rollins Band — an experiment with punk, rock, jazz, funk and screaming lyrics. 1992’s The End of Silence was heralded as one of the band’s finest CD releases.
Fans instantly took to Rollins’s honestly raw writings when he published books and spoken-word albums such as 1998’s Think Tank. His spoken-word work extends back to the late 1980s, in which he portrayed a freedom of humor that is missed in his music.
On stage, Rollins is a 40-year-old, shirtless, tattooed presence that demands the audience’s attention and awe.
When he is not on tour or writing new lyrics, books or his magazine column, Rollins appears in movies such as “Lost Highway” and “Johnny Mnemonic.” He also manages his own publishing company called 2.13.61, his birthday. He had a new book come out last October called “Smile You’re Traveling,” and has recently extended his spoken word tour into April.
Henry Rollins is not your everyday rock star, nor will he be an academic poet, but he has never claimed to be any of these, nor wants to be.
If you are not busy at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night check out what the Sunshine Theatre enticed in from California — very few will be disappointed. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster for $26.25.
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