There's no one quite like Henry Rollins. A mass of contradictions,
as the lead singer of Black Flag and his own Henry Rollins Band, he
managed to inject thoughtful introspection into punk rock, belying not
only the style of music, but also his meathead tattooed muscular
exterior.
Over the last few years he's spent his time honing the art of
talking. He's had a chat show, he's done voiceovers, and he's become a
modern day raconteur. A self-confessed Anglophile, tonight he found himself
bringing his spoken word shtick to the Royal Festival Hall as part of a UK tour.
Looking fit rather than bulky these days, Rollins took to the
centre of a huge bare stage with nothing but a black backdrop, a
microphone and two amps. Dressed in black trousers, black t-shirt and
a pair of trainers, the only visual colour came from the 48-year old's
ashen salt and pepper hair. It's not easy to fill a whole
evening with nothing but one's speaking voice, but he was
immediately into his role, and rattled off his thoughts with hardly a
breath for the next three hours.
The material was a series of set pieces pitched somewhere between a
stand-up comedy routine and a Mark Thomas gig. Most were based
around his recent travels to Asia. Anecdotes of hanging out with
mega-rich princes in Saudi Arabia, introducing The Stooges to
the wide-eyed teenage populace of Sri Lanka and his time spent trying
to get local first-hand knowledge of the results of the industrial
disaster in Bhopal at times felt like the self-indulgency of
someone wanting to tell people about his holiday.
It certainly wasn't a confessional. His audience was let in, but at
arm's length. Rollins was present at the scene of every story he
told, and we were alongside him, but never under his skin. We didn't
hear much about his life as a singer, and forays into his personal
life were restricted to letting us know he's found himself a
girlfriend who's able to put up with his eccentricities. But it was
all delivered with such charm, panache and eloquence that the fact
that maybe the subject matter wasnt exactly what was hoped for could
be forgiven.
His talents as an impressionist were also revealed as he
successfully took on the likes of Barack Obama, Pat Robertson and gay
cavemen. And while politics were behind most of what he said, he
didn't preach... much. He simply has opinions on everything and
wanted to convey them to us. He tells us that the older he gets, the
more pissed off he gets, and you believe him, but he seems so
even-handed and rational, that it's hard to picture him being
genuinely enraged anymore.
Rollins has smashed away the myth of punk rockers. They can be
normal just like the rest of us. He's talented and intelligent, and
comes across without any attitude or aggression. He's someone who
reacts to situations in the same way as any other open-minded liberal
person might. If he had one over-arching message, it was best summed
up in his call he once made during a speech to graduates to "rumble,
young people, rumble". Clearly Rollins is still rumbling even as he
approaches 50.
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