Henry Rollins – Live (Nov. 15th, 2005)

The one and only Henry Rollins was in town last night – and in all honesty, it was phenomenal. That is all you need to know. It was spectacular.

Now, he wasn’t doing a Black Flag revival tour or anything of the like, instead he was doing a spoken word tour cleverly titled 25 Years of Bullshit. His stop in Edmonton took him to the absolutely amazing Sir Francis Winspear Centre, which, for those of you who don’t know, has one of the best acoustics in all of Canada. While its normally used for operas, choirs, and more laid back music, it has also seen visits from the likes of Alice Cooper. So it has seen its fair share of patrons – so it was fitting to see a wide range of spectators at this event too. Everyone there, from teens with Bad Religion hoodies, Dry Kill Logic T-shirts and mohawks, to middle aged, balding men in suits; but the one thing everyone had in common was the tears of laughter as they left the venue three hours later.

When I first heard about this spoken word tour, I had no idea what to expect. Would it be a political sermon? A poetry reading? Or what? I had no ideas or pre-conceptions, but knew it would be interesting to see no matter what. So we got there a few minutes before he went on stage, found our seats, and were immediately blown away.

Rollins had complete control over the audience and had each and every spectator mesmerized with his clever little anecdotes. Because as it turns out, that’s what the show was. A bunch of stories of his life, observations and adventures, inexplicably woven together, making everybody think and laugh. He was able to take every day actions, like riding a taxi to a hotel, and turn it into an half hour of adventure, touching on hundreds of little tangents that you would never imagine happening in a simple conversation with a taxi driver.

He started with the story of a day off in Oklahoma City and ended up remembering old meetings with Ted Nugent and having adventures in a giant hunting store called Bass Pro. He made the crowd feel sympathy for the animal kingdom while keeping a giant smile on their face – and I’m sure no one will ever look at a deer or a squirrel the same way again.

He told us of his idea of fun and how he feels he needs pain to learn something new – so what’s a better way to feel pain than a seven day trip on the Trans siberian Express with the horrible “angry woman of the people’s hallway” and “The Voice.” Despite his cynical outlook on life, Rollins was still able to make everyone believe that they are in fact “hot” and somehow brought everything back to his “utilitarian Hubble.” Of course, no evening with Henry Rollins would be complete without a few political rants thrown in there about the election, propaganda, Bush and the war as he compared Canadian and American headlines, talked about his trips with the USO and his visits to wounded soldiers in hospitals.

As he walked off the Winspear Centre stage to a standing ovation, my friend and I both agreed if he ever came back to town we would go, and drag all our friends along with us. So I leave you with the same advice. If he ever comes to your town, particularly on this tour (25 Years of Bullshit), make sure to go with all your friends in tow – because you won’t regret it.