Show Review: Henry Rollins 'Provoked' Spoken-Word Tour

Motivational speaker, comedian, manic street-preaching poet, all of the above?

The outspoken Henry Rollins stops off in Brooklyn, New York to deliver "Provoked" before heading to the mid-west to finish up his spoken-word tour.

Why pay $30 to hear someone talk about themselves for three hours? I’ve been doing it since I first saw Henry Rollins perform his spoken-word shtick in 2001, and like clockwork, I’m always back for more. The charming and oh-so outspoken raconteur is at it again with "Provoked: An Evening of Quintessentially American Opinionated Editorializing and Storytelling,” the title of his new spoken-word performance.

Seeing him at the Warsaw Polish National Home in the heart of Greenpoint, Brooklyn—a retro ballroom of rental chairs where “pierogis meet punk rock,” or something to that extent—was easily candid, and a drastic change from the formal concert halls I’ve seen him do.

Highlights of any Rollins performance are always his humbled and hilarious experiences as a foreigner visiting un-expecting countries, and “Provoked” certainly doesn’t fall short of this. More so than before, Rollins focuses on international issues—the Iraq War, the AIDS epidemic, and the effects of Western presence on the people of the Middle East. His humanitarian sympathies haven’t changed much from the last tour, “25 Years of Bullshit” in 2005, but his travels have. Instead of some madcap rush into the Russian tundra, this time around he decided to take his winter break in Islamabad, Pakistan, and relates his experience of being witness to the aftermath of the Benazir Bhutto assassination. Other countries he’s visited since 2005, through personal travel as well as his spoken-word performances with the USO: Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and South Africa.

Despite what some might think are dangerous or harrowing situations to be retold in all seriousness, it takes someone as anomalistic as Henry Rollins to make them both entertaining and contemplative. He interjects his sense of frank, self-deprecating humor into these stories, poking fun at himself for being a ‘crazy’ guy who walks around politically unstable countries at night, defying any concierge who might try to dissuade his ruffian-style, DIY pursuit of knowledge and justice. Rollins is something of a Gonzo journalist—his stories’ livelihood rely on something other than strictly delivering information, but we trust that his endearing ‘crazed lunatic’ self-parodying doesn’t distort the facts, only makes them interesting. And his conversational delivery makes his stories believable.

Rollins has been telling stories for a large part of his life, publishing numerous books of poetry and vignettes beginning with his days on the road with West Coast hardcore punk band Black Flag, and starting his own publishing and record company 2.13.61. Even throughout his time with the Rollins Band beginning in the late 80’s, Rollins continued to publish books, release numerous spoken-word CD’s like the jazz-backed Everything, tour, host his own radio show (Harmony in My Head), appear in various TV programs for major networks, and host and star in The Henry Rollins Show on the IFC. He’s also made appearances in various films, such as Lost Highway and Johnny Mnemonic. During the Brooklyn ‘Provoked’ performance, he talked about his upcoming role as a priest—yes, a priest, of some variety—in a film starring Cuba Gooding Jr. He admits, he’s a workaholic and can’t turn down a job opportunity. It seems like he would spontaneously self-combust if he didn’t have a variety of outlets to contain his lion’s share of energy.

He’s become something of a self-made sub-cultural icon, and for all of his fans, it’s OK to admit that we all want to be him, just a little bit. We all want to travel around and have wild experiences with his level of tenacity, gut-gravel, and conviction, whether playing the hero or the fool. “Provoked” does a good job of letting us live vicariously and retrospectively through Henry’s experiences, abroad and at home. He talks about his teenage years—his relationship with Ian Mackaye of Fugazi, his obsession with Ted Nugent and Van Halen, and his punk revelation via the Sex Pistols—and fast-forwards into his post-Black Flag years, when he’s made friends with the likes of David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, and Nick Cave.

All of the references to music’s elite might seem like inconsequential filler in between the more politically-charged content, though Rollins’ impersonations are memorable. But the man’s got a gift, and that’s his ability to run on at the mouth, and to do so like an Exacto knife — with lucid precision and a controlled delivery, and of course not without wit and some poetry. He is given to fits of severe digressions, but that’s what he does best.

Rollins continues to roll “Provoked” on through the U.S. throughout March, and then he’s off again to travel Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and possibly Southeast Asia in between hosting his radio show and finishing up some new literature.

Henry Rollin's Official site

Catch him before he splits:

4 - Rochester, NY - Harro East
5 - Pittsburgh, PA - Rex Theater
6 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room
8 - Memphis, TN - New Daisy Theatre
11 - Tulsa, OK - Cains Ballroom
12 - Lincoln, NE - Rococo
13 - Des Moines, IA - Val Air Ballroom
14 - Sioux Falls, SD - Orpheum Theatre
15 - Fargo, ND - The Venue

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Siouxsie Sioux “laughs in the face that is vulture law”: A Look at the Mantaray tour, 2007-2008

It’s common knowledge these days that not all of music’s most innovative entrepreneurs have been able to keep up performances that don’t bank on nostalgia.

But there are some musicians who have taken time’s withering effects, and given it a good spanking.

Siouxsie Sioux is one of them.

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Thirty-one years since the Banshees’ debut performance, Siouxsie Sioux has been unremitting throughout the years, performing, creating, and re-creating her bad self. The release of her solo debut Mantaray has spawned a western tour, which so far, has met with packed venues and positive reviews. Beginning in Europe in late October, she is currently seducing the US in her wardrobe of catsuits, and will return to England by March for a round of shows.

Hailing from the Brit punk explosion of ’76, Sioux was first seen with a group of early Sex Pistols fans, titled the Bromley Contingent, and was noted for her outlandish punk stylings, bedecked in bondage and cabaret-style makeup. She is seen with the Pistols on the infamous episode of the Bill Grundy TV Show when the boys insulted the perplexed host and made front-page history. Notable among other members were Tony James and Billy Idol, and Banshees co-founder Steve Severin. Together, Sioux and Severin, (with Sid Vicious moonlighting on drums), created a make-shift band whose lineup didn’t last past the night—The Banshees— for a spot at the 100 Club in London, a gig arranged by Pistol’s manager Malcolm McLaren. Inherently instigative, renditions of “The Lords Prayer,” Led Zeppelin, and the German national anthem were heard.

From that point forward, Siouxsie Sioux would continue to harness that contentious punk ethos, and alongside musicians Severin and later collaborating husband Budgie, ingeniously fuse that early punk-i-ness with a noted penchant for poetic tendencies, creating anything that ranged from artsy pop-esque hits like “Kiss Them for Me” to haunting socio-political beauties like “Israel,” and of course dark, synth-layered ditties like “Face to Face.” Thus she became supreme of a variety of deities, sometimes called Queen of the New Wave and Queen of Goth. Her music and style, give or take, have influenced the likes of The Cure, Morrissey, U2, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Tricky, Shirley Manson, Jeff Buckley, P.J. Harvey, LCD Soundsystem, and of course decades of aspiring musicians and club-goers. It’s safe to say, if Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, and the Ramones influenced anything that lays claim to punk, for better or worse, Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees remain a stimulating force in a lot of post-punk that aims to avoid sticky labels.

And now, Siouxsie Sioux, solo? Judging from the performance she gave at Irving Plaza in New York in early February, two things are certain: she continues to deliver knock-out performances, and her voice and her trademarked hair are still intact, if not better and bigger. Yet Mantaray content has met with mixed reviews, some regarding the album as Sioux showing her true pop-leaning colors, and straying from the Banshees and the Creatures more chaotic energy. This reception seems to hail from some kind of minority purist contingent, chastising the lyrics and music for being too glammy, and so soon lost to Banshees lore.

Perhaps the Banshees purists didn’t venture to the New York show, but it would have been hard to tell. The overcrowded building can attest to that, with the audience bottlenecked at the doorways leading into the auditorium. Not to mention the three encores. Alongside Steve Evans and Charlie Jones on guitars and synths, Sioux played nearly the entire new album, plus Banshee classics like “Hong Kong Garden,” and the notorious cover of Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger,” which blended well stylistically with the Mantaray lineup.

Highlights were the mantra-esque “Into a Swan,” “Here Comes that Day,” the atmospheric “Heaven and Alchemy,” and the danceable “Cish Cash,” from her collaboration with Basement Jaxx. Even as a solo artist, Sioux has held onto her passion for taking certain hits and making them her own, with a very intelligent cabaret-sense that sometimes comes off as deliciously tongue-and-cheek. Adding to her repertoire, she covered “Hello I, Love You” by the Doors, as well as the Banshees cover-classic “Dear Prudence.”

Apart from the stylistic polemics of Solo Sioux, even if certain dyspeptic critics are liable to demote the tracks to the “pop-rock” bin due in part to their stylistic variance and ambiguity, Mantaray does attest to Sioux’s creative prowess. Tracks like “Loveless” resonate with a Creatures feel, with plenty of drone and marimba, but also rendered with distorted industrial-fed guitars—heaviness not toyed with, to my knowledge, until now.

And while the more overt intimate lyrics of certain songs like “Into a Swan” may cause some to be uncomfortably reminded of Madonna-goes-brunette phase, in the art world—“Ive felt a force I’ve never felt before…feeling so strong, can’t be ignored”—one only has to actually listen to the lyrics to uncover Sioux’s well-oiled employ of her poetic license. She pokes the audience with a few coy questions in the song’s entrance, unabashedly answers them in crescendo, shuts up any town-crying, and backs the whole thing by stating that public opinion is irrelevant—“laugh in the face that is vulture law”— and in fact, finds it amusing either way. Daring for a first solo album? More like Sioux is confidently laying claim to her status and abilities, and it ain’t nothing to fuck wit’. So love her or leave her, until the next go-round.

But honestly, that raw but expertly controlled voice of hers and her knack for covers could make most any old song sound worthwhile, even conventional-unconventional Disney songs and French Christmas carols, which she has done. And so far her Mantaray performances are testament to her viable force in the music community. She should be as house-hold as Bowie, but I’m glad she still has something of a cult-following, at least in New York. Otherwise she’d be playing those awful arena shows.

Visit her official website for tour info, dates, and more.

Photos and fan comments from the NYC show, courtesy of Prefix Mag

Siouxsie Sioux, Live @ Irving Plaza 2008.02.09


Early live footage of Siouxsie & the Banshees


Siouxsie Sioux - Into a Swan music video


Siouxsie interview with the Bromley Contingent



--Danielle Commisso

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BAM! BAM!

BAM (also known as Brooklyn Academy of Music) is holding their 2nd annual Brooklyn Next Fest from February 15-24. The festival is tasked with the unenviable job of celebrating that stagnant music scene up in Brooklyn (sarcasm).

Notable performers include the excellent White Rabbits, Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, epic heartbreakers the National, My Brightest Diamond, country-folk artist Laura Cantrell and a healthy dose of electronica from Excepter.

Check the official site here for more info.

And as usual, some vids/tunes after the jump for your perusal.

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Excepter - "Rock Stepper"

The National - "Fake Empire"

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