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On Tuesday night, folks in Ottawa had a choice to which well known American speaker they could see. I’ll stick my neck out and say Henry Rollins won that night, simply because he actually showed up. Rollins was on the Canadian leg of his Frequent Flyer Tour and appeared to a packed house at the Bronson Centre. I bragged to several co-workers during the day that I had Henry  Rollins tickets for that night, but a surprising number replied with “Henry Who?” So, in case you aren’t up to speed on middle-aged punk rock icons, I’ll give a brief history of one of America’s most interesting people.

Henry Rollins was managing a Häagen-Dazs shop in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. when he started hanging around with various early eighties punk rock bands. Rollins attracted attention with his intense personality and high energy and soon found himself fronting bands like State of Alert and later, Black Flag. He became legendary for pacing the stage, growling and spitting angry lyrics at even angrier audiences. Often members of the audience would scratch and grab at him, and he replied in kind, once physically assaulting an audience member during a show. Today, more than 25 years after laying the ground work for his fearsome reputation, Rollins is no less energetic. He has, however, acquired much wisdom and experience and he delivers this wisdom during his 3 hour, non-stop, spoken word show.

Henry Rollins appears as a contradiction. His muscular body is covered in faded tattoos of skulls and snakes, all capped off with close cropped salt and pepper hair. At first glance, someone might mistake him for a potentially violent white supremacist, which might explain why he was cast as a neo Nazi killing machine in the FX network series Sons of Anarchy. But what Henry Rollins really is, is curious. And he wants all of us to be curious too. His curiosity has taken him all over the world, and I mean ALL over. When George W. Bush told America that Iran hates their freedom, Henry secured a visa into Iran through channels in the Middle East, walked the streets of Tehran and asked them if it was true. He was in Islamabad, Pakistan the day Benazir Bhutto was assassinated and witnessed the country’s agony first hand. He spent a week as a house guest of a Saudi Arabian prince who’s wives each had a mansion on his property and tore through the streets of Riyadh in a Hamann Volcano. Rollins delivers his stories to the audience much like a shaken can of Coke going through a straw straight into your mind.

Henry Rollins is also funny as hell, but more often than not, he is laughing at himself. He tells the story of how he was asked to judge a drag queen competition for longtime friend Rupaul. Now, Rollins is heterosexual, but one of the models had certain attributes that Henry couldn’t take his eyes off. His description of the private confusion he faced at home when he couldn’t stop thinking about the “lady-boy” and how he finally “resolved” his frustration had audience members blushing, hiding their faces and busting a gut, all at the same time.

If stories of traveling to some of the world’s most exotic and troubled places just to see what happens isn’t enough, then Henry has a serious message to give to everyone who will listen. Be curious. Be curious about the world. Don’t let newspapers, reporters or politicians tell you what to think, go out and find out for yourself. Whether it is in your own hometown or whether it is in the  mountains of Sri Lanka, go there and ask questions of anyone who will answer, and make up your own mind. Why, says Henry, is the most powerful word in the English language. Both Rollins and I are members of the generation that grew up in the ’70s and ’80s and he says our generation should take this new century for ourselves. He advocates leaving racism, conflict, waste and  homophobia to the past. He promotes free speech, free thought and feels rock and roll is GOOD for kids.

After living through the decade of 9/11, Iraq, George W. Bush, worldwide economic crisis, deadly hurricanes, tsunamis and Swine Flu, how ironic that Henry Rollins is emerging as the voice of reason?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Theatre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.