ABORT Magazine™

Live Review: Henry Rollins, June 2nd 2012, The Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, B.C.

(Photo – Maura Lanahan)

Henry Rollins – The Long March Tour
Saturday, June 2nd 2012
The Vogue Theatre

The Vogue Theatre was host to Henry Rollins as he advanced through Vancouver on the North American leg of his Long March tour. A no-frills, spoken word endeavour that saw the punk rock icon touch on an impressive amount of material, too many topics to name, over a herculean two and a half hour set -with nary a sip of water to scatter the tide of relevant, insightful, and often humorous observations from his recent travels and, as he seems to enjoy pointing out, not so recent events from his 30+ year career.

Hitting the stage at the stroke of 8pm, Rollins bears the burden of every ticket holder’s satisfaction squarely on his own shoulders. Without an opening act or elaborate stage set to add or subtract from the experience, the performance delivers exactly as advertised. Carrying a confidence and authority that screams “I am Rollins, hear me roar!” through body language alone; the musician, poet, actor, and activist wastes no time before storming into political territory. He exclaims that he has no desire to purposefully offend anyone, but should you be offended by what he has to say, so be it. With nothing but kind words for the Canadian audience, he admits that he does preach a “hippy dippy doo da world, dipped in petiole oil”, before pointing to his native America as a glimpse into our country’s future should we tread down the path of sensationalized media and a sub-par education system. He did well to point out that he has no interest, as an outsider, in telling the crowd what is right and wrong with our country; though it’s a sure bet his opinion and insight were very much welcome to the ears of the attentive west-coast crowd. That is, after all, the appeal of Henry Rollins. He tells things as he sees them, often as they are, and his stark and honest observations can deliver where many a public figure’s would not when it comes to creating a noteworthy event.

Without missing a beat he jumps from profiling US presidential candidates to more personal matters; touching on emails he receives from fans during trying times, as well as his often uncomfortable upbringing, and relationship with his father. From here on out it’s a whirlwind of material that includes the value of a Tom Waits album when dealing with a relationship, rat hunting in India, the dangers of stage diving, and trips to North Korea and other less-traveled nations he visits simply to see what they’re like for himself. His words are endearing, his pace exhilarating, and he gives the sense that he truly does believe in the beauty of this world and of (many of) the people who occupy it. His method of impact: to travel the globe and converse with whoever will hear him out; citing that we, the audience, are his greatest fear, as he wrestles with the worrisome notion that he might let us down.

Punk rock is a genre based on the values of anti-authoritarian ideologies and do it yourself work ethic, which at it’s core can be stripped down to simply doing and saying what you feel, regardless of political or social consequences. With that in mind, it’s reassuring to know that this one man can still carry about the same amount of punk rock out with him onto the stage every night as he did back when he was crawling with parasites asleep on Joey Shithead’s floor with Black Flag in the 80′s.

Official Rollins

By: Justin Sarris

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