HENRY ROLLINS @ THE ENMORE

Last night we went to see Hank do his spoken word thing (as part of his "Frequent Flyer" tour) at The Enmore Theatre in Newtown. It was the first time we've seen him in person and it was an impressive experience. 

Firstly, the guy can TALK. He strode onto the stage and once he opened his mouth that was it -- for approximately 2.5 hours. Pausing for water only during the regular enforced lulls due to audience applause, he powered on like a one man conversational juggernaut. His energy and sheer intensity were unwavering, and you got the feeling that he could have just kept going for another couple of hours if he thought the audience could take it.

Topically, his rants were basically a random walk through what's been on his mind and what he's been up to lately. The feel was spontaneous and unrehearsed --- kind of like an extremely the one-sided conversation you might have in a pub with a very articulate, opiniated and -- above all -- extremely voluble friend that you haven't seen in about a year, during which time he has been on the round-the-world trip of a lifetime.

In no particular order, some of the grist for his furiously grinding mill included: the issue of freedom of speech in the US and its hijacking by right-wing nutcases; seeing punk-rock band Bad Brains in his home town of Washington DC on the night of Obama's election (needless to say, Hank voted for Obama); the US politician John Boehner and his fake tan; his recent role in Season Two of "Sons of Anarchy" (he was casted by writer Kurt Sutter of "The Shield" fame); his appearance on reality show "RuPaul's Drag Races" where he judged drag queen contestants.

He claims (and certainly seems) to be becoming less cynical as he "hurtles towards 50" (he's currently 49). He's clearly a very interested and concerned global citizen, and a significant part of his motivation in giving these talks seems to be a desire to impart some of this to his audience.

All in all it was a pretty inspirational effort. And if he swings by in a year's time I'd probably be happy to hear more.