Henry Rollins Live in Town

I don't know how many die hard music people read this blog (or for that matter how many people read because hardly anyone ever comments) but last night Mike and I got to go see Henry Rollins on his spoken word tour here in town. I know he said everybody says this when they meet him, but I figured he'd be bigger. Anyway, I like some of his spoken word stuff as it is pretty funny. I think I'm a little like him in a sense that I don't make up huge stories or jokes, I just tell about my life and typically yes I only tell the amusing parts. But life can be amusing and some days it seems like some of the stuff that I post here is made up but it's really not. If you get the chance, look up him up on You Tube and look for Drawing Conclusions. He has a really funny bit about Wal-Mart and some about dating. As far as the dating goes, this one is pretty good...



So, seeing him live is pretty cool. Until he starts to preach his Anti-Bush propaganda and stupid hippies cheer every time he mentions it. That gets kind of old. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of pro and anti-presidential people out there and everyone has a right to their own opinion. Henry has at least gone out of his way to do some of his own research, but still bends the truth I think. A while ago Mike sent me a link to a blog he wrote about his visit to Iran. He said that it was a peaceful place and that President Bush should back off them because they don't hate America. Oh yeah...he also had to have five armed guards with him every where he went and wasn't allowed to tell anyone he met that he was a celebrity for fear of abduction and ransom. Does this sound like a stable place to anyone here? Not so much. I'm sure there are genuinely good people in Iran, but anywhere I go if I have to have five armed guards to make sure I'm not abducted and ransomed to my home countrys government is not exactly a place I'd like to go for spring break. You know? Mike and I discussed this a bit today and both had a few interesting thoughts for Mr. Rollins.

He talked about how our invasion of Iraq was wrong and we should get out because we wouldn't like it if some other country came here and invaded us. You get the idea. Speaking from history here, how happy do you think France, Italy, and Germany were that we invaded them? Do you think Hitler would still be in power today slaughtering races of people if we hadn't? Do you think Germany now thinks that was totally not our business and we fucked up their chi by going in? Yeah...the french and italians might be a little grateful that we "invaded" their countries as well and "liberated" them from their oppressors. Wait...liberated from oppression...that sounds familiar...but then again, we attempted to keep the oppression from happening in the first place in south vietnam, but we "brought the troops home" and just let that silly old communism thing just happen to all those nice, previously democratic Vietnamese. These are the things I discuss with Mike (actually, those last two lines are his) while on IM at work.

In short it wasn't bad, and was probably worth the $20 to see him. I'm not sure it'd be worth it to see him twice but he has done a lot, seen a lot, and has some interesting stories to tell from his 47 years.