On Sunday night, Erik and I went and saw Henry Rollins in his Spoken Word Tour. We saw him at the Warfield in San Francisco.
It was amazing.
I first learned of Rollins in college. I'm not a hard-core punk rock fan, but I do own one Rollins Band CD, Weight. I thought it was really cool that this hard core punk rocker, with muscles galore and tattoos everywhere, spoke against drugs and drinking, promoted women's rights, social justice, the environment, and wrote poetry. Pretty cool if you ask me.
So when my friend Jen posted on her blog that she had seen him in January, I said "I have to go when he comes to San Francisco." I'm so glad that I did.
Henry stood alone on the stage for almost 3 hours just talking. I didn't see him take a drink of water until he was almost done. The man is incredible. He is well read. Well spoken. He's funny as hell. And highly intelligent.
He spoke a lot about what is going on politically in the country right now. From the Iraq war to the upcoming election to same-sex marriage and more. He'd move from one topic to another, weaving stories and comments together. He'd go off on seemingly unrelated tangents, but bring them back to underline his original point.
He covered so much it's impossible for me to remember exact quotes of what he said, but there are a few things that stuck with me. One was his plea for the audience to vote this November. He said you're never going to love the president like you do your favorite rock band. That doesn't matter. You vote for the least of two evils. You vote in protest. You vote so the guy you really hate doesn't win again. And if you don't vote, then you loose your right to bitch about the outcome later. Looking at it that way (I hope) will bring more folks to the polls this year.
He talked about the State of the Union address that Bush made this year. He pulled out specific quotes to look at, like "unleashing the compassion of America's religious institutions" and just what the hell does that mean? How things that need to be "unleashed" are usually not good things - like the beast, the hounds. And how "institution" is just a scary word unless it is of Higher Education.
He also discussed Bush's plead to "defend the sanctity of marriage." He raised the point of just how exactly do you do that? Stop couples on the street and make sure they are married? It's rhetorical bullshit and means nothing except in a passing sound bite.
Bush's comment on doubling "federal funding for abstinence programs" also was a big topic of discussion. Henry pointed out that abstinence-only programs encourage and support ignorance. He made jokes about his own adolescence, which were quite funny ("my future is in that Skirt"), but he had an important point. That being a teenager is hard enough without being in the dark about the changes and feelings and desires that are going on within you. Young folks need to be presented with options and to see the possible consequences of different behaviors. If you don't explain all the options and situations, then how can one make informed decisions?
If you get a chance to see Henry on one of his Spoken Words tours, do yourself a favor and go. I'm going to be there next year when he comes back for sure.
