Rock Music News: HENRY ROLLINS – GOOD TO SEE YOU TOUR – Perth and Margaret River (2024)

The hardest thing about a spoken word review is not giving away the punchlines, so whilst I will do my very best to avoid that all I will say is as someone who hasn’t really [...] The post LIVE REVIEW: HENRY ROLLINS – GOOD TO SEE YOU TOUR – Perth and Margaret River appeared first on The Rockpit.

The hardest thing about a spoken word review is not giving away the punchlines, so whilst I will do my very best to avoid that all I will say is as someone who hasn’t really [...] The post LIVE REVIEW: HENRY ROLLINS – GOOD TO SEE YOU TOUR – Perth and Margaret River appeared first on The Rockpit.

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Jun 7, 2023 - 23:40
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HENRY ROLLINS – GOOD TO SEE YOU TOUR – Perth and Margaret River

The hardest thing about a spoken word review is not giving away the punchlines, so whilst I will do my very best to avoid that all I will say is as someone who hasn’t really dipped their toe into much spoken word action previously Henry is someone who is clearly born to do this kind of thing! I apologise in advance for being late to the party!

As the spot light goes on and the crowd roars, my first impression tonight is that I’ve never seen anyone with this much energy who has hit the magical age of 60. Henry bounces out on stage like he’s coming home and although tonight he will remind us more than a few times of his impending demise (it’s sometime in September if you’re interested) you feel that he has to be mistaken. Anyone with this much latent energy would just power on though any deadly event and probably come out the other side talking at the same incredible speed. After a thunderous round of applause and a more than generous nod to Perth (despite lodging complaints about the unseasonal rain) Henry proceeds to go for the world record fastest ever spoken word show. By my reckoning it was 100 words and three minutes before he took a breath, and as he himself admitted he was, after all, trying to cram 8 hours of material into a 2 and a half our show!

If you weigh such shows in W.P.M. I imagine Mr. Rollins would be in a class of his own, unable to compete with other mere mortals, however the most interesting thing about tonight’s opening night in Perth is that his overriding themes are that we should all be nicer to each other and that the new generation will actually save us rather than consign us to oblivion. He proceeds to run those threads through a series of rather remarkable stories packed full of anecdotes and a few nods to the past. It’s maybe less Rock and Roll in content than I imagined it would be, but Henry ceased to just be the godfather of L.A. Punk many moons ago, He spends a lot of time thinking, he tells us, especially during covid and based on tonight’s musings you can see that time was well spent.

 

 

The best thing about Henry is that he likes a dialogue, he likes a debate and knows when he’s wasting his breath and when he’s up against a closed mind. It’s rather ironic then that he chooses to champion the young who by and large seem to have lost the art of debate and replaced it by raising the hand if they don’t agree with you; and instead characterizes his generation as those who are fixed in their point of view. It’s all a little too broad-brush for me I’m afraid as someone who rather embraces change. Still it serves the thrust of his argument in the stories he tells.

Henry is rather engaging, and whilst his breakneck speed of delivery robs him of some crowd reaction (he pauses a little more as the evening wears on) he certainly has some stories to tell and cleverly winds his subtext between those threads. I love the story of the Finnish stalker the most I think, as it says as much about Henry as it does the points he’s firing out at us. The story of his Mom’s passing is as bizarre as it is genuinely funny, and the tale of ‘Is my wife on your Tour Bus’ is a classic.

There’s a real wonder about tonight, and Henry Rollins might have a lot to say at a great pace and you may lose all sense of space and time when he’s talking. But there’s a little sadness mixed in there too, a realization that we all age and everything comes to pass. At the end of teh show as he talks about hiding in the dark corner of venues whilst still going out to see bands you feel the joy and the sadness converge. For me it’s the most touching part of the night. You still see the joy in his face when he talks about music and that’s what I hope will never change for either us in the audience or Henry.

The only flaw I see in Henry’s argument tonight – being “that the young will make the world a better place as we, the old, have blown it” is that every generation believes that it will make things better than the previous. The problem is it’s those that we allow to make the decisions not the generation itself that tend to lead us to failure. The best thing about Henry though is that he puts it out there and hopefully opens some minds.

Seriously Australia it’s a great night, and well worth getting out of the house for. Don’t expect a night of Black Flag anecdotes, but do expect to be seriously entertained by as Henry calls himself ‘the talent’!

The post LIVE REVIEW: HENRY ROLLINS – GOOD TO SEE YOU TOUR – Perth and Margaret River appeared first on The Rockpit.

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