Monday, January 24, 2005
Henry Rollins: Shocked I'm Yawning
I returned to the Paradise City yesterday, arriving early to indulge in the nobel art of record shopping, spending £40 on the Dresden dolls (Including a nice promo CD+ DVD set), a Mike Patton Vs. X-ecutioners promo, two albums by The Triffids (Rare finds each) and a Julian Cope single (Seeing him tonight, hurra!) and visited the lands finest record stores (The mighty Vinyl Exchange , the expensive Piccadilly Records and the ever reliable Polar Bear Records).
It wasn't all fun and games, I was there as a man on a mission, to see Henry Rollins do two hours of stand up for the third time (That's six hours of my life he's talked at me for). This time he was very upmarket, playing in The Lowry, on the largest UK stage outside of London, a promising sign of his rise, but from where I'm sitting I can spy a few empty seats, and I know people who didn't buy tickets till the day before the event and still managed to get onto Row E of the circle.
Maybe for the best, it definitely took some time for him to warm up and move onto more original material (Perhaps my fault as I've heard every spoken word CD of his), but top my utter horror I find myself yawning! I'm struggling to keep awake in the presence of a latter day Bill Hicks, a man who has never failed to amaze me, hope this changes soon....
But, thankfully its not long till he's in better shape and the Rock ''N' Roll anecdotes start to come thing and fast, along with a human interest story for good measure. The funniest stories where about working on William Shatners new album "Has Been". Ben Fold asked him to stop in Tennessee to help out after returning from a USO Show tour and was perfectly honest about the fact they had nothing at all planned, he was confident they would just hit if off, and it seems they did, producing the excellent track, "I Can't Get Behind That". We where given a great tale about the sessions recording, the drafting in of a guest guitarist, and a brilliant William Shatner impression (Later descending into tales about scallops and Ben Stiller).
Sadder stories where the mandatory report on the last Ramone to die, this time it being Johnny, and he said how he had to explain to him, just weeks before he died, the amazing influence The Ramones had on the world (A great one it was to).
Back on the funny side, he had been an MC at a pro-gay wedding music festival organized by the bloke from Husker Du (Where he was propositioned by many a fine drunk young man), attended the premier of Kill Bill Vol. 1 with the guy who wrote The Chase and Mousetrap and had a slightly worrying chat with Ike Turner and got a part in a movie with Steve Coogan (Opting to voice a liking of a local star, as opposed to his usual dis and dismissal of Oasis).
So all in all he struck his usual balance, praising what we like (The Ramones) while also mocking some of our Sacred Cows (The use of "Top 5" to measure people up), and although it was a good show, it just seemed like he wasn't as into it as other show he's put on in Manchester (Probably something to do with the empty seats, and as he said himself at the end, people looking keen for him to stop talking).
It wasn't all fun and games, I was there as a man on a mission, to see Henry Rollins do two hours of stand up for the third time (That's six hours of my life he's talked at me for). This time he was very upmarket, playing in The Lowry, on the largest UK stage outside of London, a promising sign of his rise, but from where I'm sitting I can spy a few empty seats, and I know people who didn't buy tickets till the day before the event and still managed to get onto Row E of the circle.
Maybe for the best, it definitely took some time for him to warm up and move onto more original material (Perhaps my fault as I've heard every spoken word CD of his), but top my utter horror I find myself yawning! I'm struggling to keep awake in the presence of a latter day Bill Hicks, a man who has never failed to amaze me, hope this changes soon....
But, thankfully its not long till he's in better shape and the Rock ''N' Roll anecdotes start to come thing and fast, along with a human interest story for good measure. The funniest stories where about working on William Shatners new album "Has Been". Ben Fold asked him to stop in Tennessee to help out after returning from a USO Show tour and was perfectly honest about the fact they had nothing at all planned, he was confident they would just hit if off, and it seems they did, producing the excellent track, "I Can't Get Behind That". We where given a great tale about the sessions recording, the drafting in of a guest guitarist, and a brilliant William Shatner impression (Later descending into tales about scallops and Ben Stiller).
Sadder stories where the mandatory report on the last Ramone to die, this time it being Johnny, and he said how he had to explain to him, just weeks before he died, the amazing influence The Ramones had on the world (A great one it was to).
Back on the funny side, he had been an MC at a pro-gay wedding music festival organized by the bloke from Husker Du (Where he was propositioned by many a fine drunk young man), attended the premier of Kill Bill Vol. 1 with the guy who wrote The Chase and Mousetrap and had a slightly worrying chat with Ike Turner and got a part in a movie with Steve Coogan (Opting to voice a liking of a local star, as opposed to his usual dis and dismissal of Oasis).
So all in all he struck his usual balance, praising what we like (The Ramones) while also mocking some of our Sacred Cows (The use of "Top 5" to measure people up), and although it was a good show, it just seemed like he wasn't as into it as other show he's put on in Manchester (Probably something to do with the empty seats, and as he said himself at the end, people looking keen for him to stop talking).
