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DVD Reviews

Henry Rollins

Shock and Awe Spoken Word Tour DVD

Cooking Vinyl

If you haven’t heard about once Black Flag/Rollins Band front man Henry Rollins’ spoken word performances, then where the hell have you been? I luckily caught one of his shows at the Barbican a few years ago, a sold out audience sat through what essentially is one man venting his spleen about a myriad of topics for over three hours. My bum may have been telling me in it’s own magical way that it had been THAT long sitting still with a dose of pins and needles, but my mind felt like it had only been 30 minutes. The man’s natural charisma is impossible to resist, he is shouting at you, yet you don’t mind the spit and bile because ultimately what he says will make you laugh, and more so, it”ll make you think! Henry Rollins is an articulate man, but he wont talk down to you, he wont dumb things down either, instead he explains things simply, directly and most importantly, interestingly. He touches on Politics, his own social commentary, music, his eternal mission to find love, his life in California and many more enticing nuggets throughout his set, all with a warmth and humbleness that is refreshing in this era when EVERYONE has an opinion.

I don’t want to do what most reviews will be doing, quoting jokes out of context and writing what is said without the presence of Rollins’ charisma, because it wont work, but what I will tell you is if you go and buy this DVD with bonus CD, you wont be disappointed, I promise you that!

By Jeremy Chick