It's not often that a speaker begins an evening insulting the Sunshine Theater by saying "it's a nice change from comfortable, well-lit venues to go to a cold, dark hall with terrible acoustics."
Then again, it's not often that Henry Rollins comes around.
Henry Rollins is part of the new rock legend. The former lead singer of Black Flag can now be found in every corner of mainstream media. He writes books, is an occasional TV show host, has done countless interviews and tours year round, either on a spoken word tour or with his band, Rollins Band. He's very proud of the fact that he has done more shows than Kiss.
Rollins, who came a few years ago on his last tour, is an intelligent and well-spoken individual. His point of view is insightful and brilliant, hilarious and fascinating to listen to.
Monday night he ranted and raved on every topic that came to mind, ranging from Iraq to how much Oasis sucks, leaving no stone unturned in a constant onslaught for three straight hours. He didn't pause, didn't sit down and didn't take a drink of water the entire time he was onstage. He just talked.
Hearing Rollins, who has been an influential voice in rock for 20 years, is like reading the best book on punk rock ever. When Rollins talks he makes you feel how he felt and live what he lived. He compared seeing the Ramones to "being pounded into the ground with a sledgehammer. They did 20 songs in one hour -- after that, my life changed forever."
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He joked about how bitter and angry he's grown, saying that things he used to be able to let go, now annoy him. How could a guy, who's been pissed off for 20 years, possibly be more aggressive and angry now?
It was evident a change had occurred in Rollins between the show three years ago and now. Three years ago, a drunk in the audience began yelling at him and Rollins was tolerant for about half an hour before he politely asked the man to shut up. Now, if anyone began yelling at him, he'd stop the show and insult them until security dragged them out of the building. The audience loved this and for the two that dared scream out, a 300-plus audience was hanging on to his every word.
Rollins would rather never stop touring than slow down and wait for the paychecks to roll in. With this attitude, his spoken word show gave us our money's worth.
Rollins channels all the intensity and passion of his rock shows into his body and spews it out in the form of spoken word. After sitting for three hours at Rollins' spoken word show, you feel like you were in a mosh pit. But that's what Rollins does and will continue to do for the rest of his life.
