A black-clad, muscled, tattooed bolt of energy bursts into a patch of white light on the otherwise darkened stage.
For the next two and a half hours (22 September) at the Thebarton Theatre, Henry Rollins talks: passionately and at a million miles per hour, no less. The audience is his. Rollins is a jack of all cultural trades: punk legend, writer, radio host, actor, speaker, often hailed as a modern day Renaissance man. He humbly dismisses this label, instead considering himself a “crass opportunist”.
*Brisbane show 14 September, 2016 - image © Lachlan DouglasThis, he explains, is how he came to find himself spending a night in an icy camp listening to The Stooges’ 'Raw Power' while surrounded by thousands of mating penguins in Antarctica. Or how he wound up running errands in West Hollywood with drag icon RuPaul (and eventually serving as a judge of sashays and pirouettes on the second season of 'Drag Race'). Or, indeed, how he landed a role as “the worst character in television history”: 'Sons Of Anarchy’s resident neo-Nazi, AJ Weston.
Despite self-confessed social anxiety and a preference for solitude, Rollins has travelled all seven continents, driven by a thirst for knowledge, experience and what comes next. This attitude is what, in 1981, drove him to leave his steady job as manager of a Haagen-Dazs ice cream franchise, joining hardcore punk outfit Black Flag as their frontman. And he hasn’t once looked back. “I think about the present and the future,” he explains. “What I’m doing now, and what I’m doing next.”
*Brisbane show 14 September, 2016 - image © Lachlan DouglasRollins regales the audience with tales from weeping, Christmas movie-loving bikers in seedy LA cafes to the time he lunched (starstruck) with David Bowie. But between these stories, he weaves a call to arms: for human beings to enact positive change in the world and to “demand an upgrade” from the outdated attitudes and ideas that have crept into the new century, from homophobia and misogyny to racism and refusal to address the threat of climate change. It’s a hard-hitting message from someone who believes that each of us, as individuals, can do better and more.
“This is Henry.” Three words, to the point: that’s how he answers his phone, he tells us. To some extent, this sums up the nature of his spoken-word show: direct, unapologetic and uniquely Henry Rollins. Yet it can’t come close to capturing the energy and warm sense of humour that drives his talk, nor the something-more-than-a-twinkle in his eye as he addresses us: it’s a fire.
