|
March
1, 2001
At The Galaxy, Santa Ana, CA
Review
By: Jeana With A "J"
The
Galaxy is a great place to see a show. In fact, the last time I saw
Rollins at
the
Galaxy, he didn’t do much talking. It was
Cinco De Mayo and Henry Rollins was
touring
with Rollins band, promoting his newest release,
“Get Some Go Again” (A
great
cd by the way).
It was standing room only, to hear a guy talk I thought.
I was in great anticipation
for
this gig to get started. Those
who had enough forethought to make dinner
reservations
were stoked. Not only did
they have great seats, but the food is
pretty
yummy. It only took me a half
hour, and I was ordering food. Nachos
and
apple
martini’s, what a taste sensation for the pallet. And you'll have to
forgive the pictures we took. They wouldn't let us take any so these are
ones we had to sneak by.
I
don’t know what I was expecting from his books and his hardcore image as
front
man
for Black Flag and Rollins Band.
My mouth dropped open when I saw a
prominently
gray haired gentleman walk on the stage in a collared shirt, tucked in
with
pair of slacks??? Slacks?
Underneath his neat and tidy appearance, tattoos
covering
a majority of his body, only some visible on his fore arms and neck. A far
cry
from his skimpy uniform of only black shorts he usually wears when
touring. But it really doesn’t matter what he’s wearing, he’d look
good in a potato sack.
From
the first words out of his mouth he had our attention until he make his
exit
some
2 hours later. He was
hilarious. At times the sound of laughter was all you
could
hear. Listening to him speaking truths and
brutal honesties about the crazy
shit
you do, when you live alone. Refusing
to conform and accept what some may
consider
adult hood. Settling down,
buying a house, SUV, having some kids. Run, run
as
fast as you can, and don’t look back!
Rollins isn’t alone in his views of choosing
the
simple life of solitude. In
my personal opinion it’s better to be alone that put
up
with anyones shit.
He
told some real funny stories about his down time in between touring,
writing, ad
recording.
Just listening to him describe,
in such an animated fashion, the tales of
his
organizational obsessions. Spending
hours and days on end, alphabetizing his
collection
of vinyl. “....Got to
keep that together or the world will be in utter
chaos...”
“...If your records aren’t together, you can’t even leave the
house...” But
it
didn’t stop there. After he
knew where everything was, he realized that the
vinyl
needed protection. One of his
band members turned him on to a company that
manufactured
plastic bags in all different size and thicknesses.
I don’t remember
home
many days, weeks that took, but listening to him tell the story was some
pretty
funny shit. But this, is
definitely a guy thing.
He
got into what I thought was the highlight of the evening.. talking about
KISS
(the
band) and just how hardcore their fans are.
I can’t even get into it, but he
tells
of his adventure hooking up back stage passes from Gene Simmons himself,
for
a show at Blockbuster
Pavilion. It was so damn
funny I will just butcher it if I
try
to translate. Just the way he
described walking through the parking lot,
through
a endless sea of El Camino’s and custom painted vans.
San Bernardino was
described
as a cess pool of meth dealers with mullet haircuts adorned by their
cottage
cheese assed girlfriends in clothes they should NOT be wearing. Too
fucking
funny. I’d say that is a
pretty good summation of the 909 area code.
This
was my first spoken word experience, but it definitely wont’ be my last. Scott
and
I had a very nice evening filled with great stories, booze, food and lots
of
laughs.
Not
much more to say about that....
•
Check
out DeadOnTheWeb's interview with Henry Rollins
-
Jeana with a “J”
|