Henry Rollins – March 3rd – PAC at the University of North Texas – Denton, TX
Now, the best thing about Henry Rollins’ act is his puppy-dog sincerity mixed with his vintage 1961 adrenaline for two-and-a-half hours. It nearly annihilated this decaffeinated crowd. I kid you not about the length and intensity of his spoken word show. His newer material was more of his blend of commentary, world-weary observation, poignancy and humor, always humor. No matter how stark a picture he painted – of elderly Tibetans cowering in fear from Chinese soldiers, for example – he immediately tempered the mood with laughter: busting a gut with an amazing Vietnamese war historian, ridiculously funny anecdotes from the taping of his documentary series last year (eating rats, drinking cow piss, taunting his hot-headed Australian cameraman), and a long funny/sad ramble about his week in North Korea and the total craziness he saw there. Among it all were entreaties to his audience to fix things before they get worse.
A sobering tale of a female fan who lost an eye after being crushed by a stage diver at a Black Flag show and an amusing story about a heckler at a gig who was later stabbed and wasn’t even aware of it. These were older yarns though, thrown into his monologue like a band sprinkling the hits into a new setlist. His most biting satire was reserved for the Republican Party, mocking their apparent misogyny and homophobia in the lead up to the US election campaign. “He’s like a man trying to talk a robber into putting his gun down,” he said, then went into a caustic and gut-busting send-up of “plastic” Mitt Romney.
Rollins embodies the DIY ethic he espouses. To all the students in the audience, and this audience was, of course, full of students of many ages, he plead, in sum: Do your homework, and do it well. Don’t take his word. Go out and explore the world. Fuck fear. Experience life. But if you’re a fat ass stage-diver or a girl dancing underneath him, have fun responsibly, or you might lose an eyeball.
Saul Williams – March 2nd – Sons of Herman Hall – Dallas, TX
Ok so now we are getting birthday week started, and I’m happy to be headed back to Sons of Herman Hall. We saw Man or Astroman there in December and it had to be the first I had been there in over 10 years. Perfect venue for this too.
Saul hasn’t really done any performance in close to 5 years since he moved to Paris and the last time I saw him was in NYC in 2007 when I found his daughter’s phone and returned it to her at Irving Plaza.
He does just straight up spoken word shows but more frequently with the release of albums of music, the just talking shows are less frequent (and most likely unnecessary) as he always performs a few of his most well known poems during these musical performances.
The term “poet” really doesn’t do justice in describing the work of Saul Williams. He’s a writer, musician and actor expounds depending on mood, which is why every album he’s released since 2000 sounds a bit different.The newest one for this tour, Volcanic Sunlight, is a bit dancier than his 2007 The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!, which he worked on with Trent Reznor. He’s mining pop territory, but hip-hop is still at the core of his music and message.
I was rolling solo to this show but was meeting up someone later after at another show and when I walked in I could see Stones Throw producer CX Kidtronik opening the show with a DJ set of crazy set of everything including the kitchen sink. He has an awesome crazy look – you know those biker looking punk dudes that scare they shit out of you? – You typically don’t see too many black ones of those for some reason, and he totally had the place on edge and it was awesome.
I like this record alot more than I did the last one, but its still a far cry from the self-titled masterpiece he released in 2004. Still the show was never not fascinating and the crowd at these things usually annoy me but were actually pretty entertaining this time. He even purposefully creates weird sounds and sings out of tune to create certain effects of performance that are at times very challenging but again not less interesting.
There were many times when Saul shared some spoken word with the room. It was very interesting, and kind of moving, to see that even his backing band, who have probably now played with Saul a million times over,wore looks of frozen intensity while he spoke. There was one moment in particular when Saul was talking about time, and fear. About how we’re always so worried about doing things in a time frame that we don’t take the time to accomplish what it is that we desire. He then said that is why he doesn’t’t wear a watch, but that he does still like bling. Spoken like a true fashionista. This thankfully kind of killed the serious beatnik vibe in the room, and then continued with the set.
Henry Rollins – September 23rd – Scottish Rite Theater – Austin,TX
This felt like deja vu, not just interviewing old Hank again, but just earlier this year the week of my birthday, I saw back to back Henry Rollins/Saul Williams shows and now just six months later that same schedule was happening.
I got to interview Rollins earlier in the day briefly as a freelance assignment that was really excited about for NPR.org.
The interview went well, it was brief and all business as usual.
Later that night he was performing his spoken word at what turned out to be a really great and somewhat perfect venue of The Scottish Rite Theater.
Somewhere as his popularity or his maturity grew (or he just got a better booking agent) Rollins seems to have taken much greater measures that his shows are held in more appropriate/comfortable settings as the two shows I saw this year were held in places more coming of his intellectual aesthetic but not too stuffy to be out of place for his to his DIY roots.
He bounded onto the stage efficiently and with little fanfare Sunday night. Two and a half hours later, he was still there, his black T-shirt soaked through with sweat, smiling sheepishly as a sold-out crowd thanked him with a standing ovation.
The time in between covered a lot of territory, including but not limited to: politics, travel, punk rock, more politics, race, current events and childhood. Oh, and a heavy dose of tough love for Texas, but we’ll get to that later.
First off, a quick explanation. Although the tour poster says Capitalism and sports a world-weary Uncle Sam, it isn’t necessarily a politically themed performance, or a rant about economic systems. It’s so named because the tour hits fifty state capitals (get it?) and ended on election eve in (fittingly) Washington, DC.
Of course, politics was a big part of the night. Rollins made no secret of his allegiances, calling the current officeholder “amazing,” Michelle Obama “extraordinary” and challenger Mitt Romney “the most laundered man in America.”
Texas’ own Rick Perry earned plenty of derision, including the title of “dumbest motherfucker” in the country. He also earned an open invitation to join Rollins on stage for a rebuttal someday — safety not guaranteed.
The journey from Jimi Hendrix records through arena rock concerts like Aerosmith and into the wild beyond with The Cramps and the Ramones was worth the price of admission alone. The fact that Rollins never had to mention Mr. MacKaye’s surname, or his punk rock bona fides (Minor Threat, Fugazi, Dischord Records and, for many at least, the straight edge movement) tells you a lot about the crowd. It’s that kind of shared history, and the punk movement in general, that Rollins says made him who he is.
Extra notes for superfans:
Rollins pinpoints McKaye’s decision not to drink to an epiphany gained at a Led Zeppelin concert. The two saw a man passed out, missing the whole spectacle, and decided they would never do the same.
A big part of the night was comprised of travel stories, including tips on North Korea (Kim Il Sung is still dead), Tibet (there’s some real merit behind the whole “Free Tibet” movement that we should probably look into) and the earthquake-ravaged parts of Haiti (bring soap and soccer balls). Also, drinking cow urine is much less pleasant than you’d expect.
More bon mots about getting old: “I’m not at the halfway point. I’m now in field goal range of death.” “We took many, many drummers on tours because the snows would come and we would have to eat the drummers.”
Saul Williams (Spoken Word) – Sept 25th – Sons of Hermann Hall – Dallas, TX
Saul Williams played performance MC from the onset. His tour was promoting his new book, Chorus: A literary mixtape, a collection billed as “one hundred voices [of other artists] woven through testimony and new testament.” With him on stage were four poets asked by Saul to share their work, which at its best brought rapturous howls from the audience.
Saul’s own work followed in all its full-throated, percussive wonder. His words exploded from the page—or from a thick stack of note cards in the case of his found poem made from words, lines, sentences, and sections from each pieces in Chorus.
If Saul’s poetry is music, then he is the musicians, the instruments, and the amplifier, maxing on gain.
Saul’s rush of words, often betraying frustration and a man beside himself with a country and its history, swirled over the crowd. You could almost see it. The thought cloud of a man trying to work out the contradictions and struggles of his—and our—lives under the stage lights.
Photos –
Roy Turner
Daniel Driensky
Jana Birchum
Logan Adams
