Entertainment For Lively Minds
Henry Rollins
Posted by backwards7 on 21 January 2012 - 3:22pm.
When:
20/01/2012
Where:
The Royal Festival Hall/London/England
Comments:
When Henry Rollins turned 50 last year, his squawking assistant, Heidi (“The Demon”) marked the occasion with the gift of a four-foot rubber shark – something to put on the floor of his office and remind him of the state of his career every time he jumped over it. In reality, Henry’s longevity as a performer is sustained by a work ethic that goes back to his days of being “indie-band poor” where “if you didn’t play, you didn’t eat.” His shows are low on pacing and more about how many anecdotes he can cram into an evening. Tonight's monologue stretches from 1980s America to contemporary India: A girl at a Black Flag gig, flattened under the body of a stage diver, loses an eye; In North Korea, the relative of sizes of public squares in Pyongyang and Beijing are hotly debated; Pentecostal snake handlers are filmed for National Geographic; A small ladder is purchased at Costco! It’s a mentally exhausting experience but it broadens the mind and warms the soul.
The Audience:
An appreciative crowd, consisting of old punks who remember Black Flag; people my age who immersed themselves in The Rollins Band and those classic spoken-word albums released on Quarterstick records, and a sizeable contingent of bright-eyed teens.
Food & Drink:
Like an air plant, I absorbed nutrients and moisture from the Royal Festival Hall’s balmy micro-climate.
It Made Me Think...:
I emerged onto London’s South Bank older and wiser - schooled in the correct etiquette for eating barbecued rats (legs and tail first) and briefed in the most-efficient procedure for distributing footballs and bars of soap in Haitian tent cities.
