so of course henry was goddamn amazing.....i made my buddy nate stand outside with me super early so we ended up sitting in the very front row....if my nose wasnt stuffed i am sure i could have smelled him.....i didnt take my eyes off him the whole time and never ever ever have two and a half hours of my life gone by so quickly...
thank you henry.
you rock my world.....
thank you henry.
you rock my world.....
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
old man time: rollins was part of the first REALLY AMAZING show i ever saw -- black flag also made me deaf for like half a week.
a friend dragged me to see black flag in 1982 or 1983, at a really cool club in miami beach called flynn's which was notable for being in the same hotel that lenny bruce od'ed and died in. i'd heard 'tv party' but nothing else and wasn't sure what to expect. anyway i was like 14 or 15 but i talked my way in to the show. i'd just started to write about music and have always been a big bullshitter (and big) so i pretty much always got into clubs when i was a kid.
this band comes out with two guitarists (greg ginn and dez cadena -- not to get too music geeky here but this is my favorite and unfortunately short-lived era of the band -- inbetween damaged and my war if memory serves me) and the music was like free jazz and punk rock mixed together, a wall of furious barely controlled noise, just stupendous. the kids all reacted violently, one of the scariest and weirdest pits outside of butthole surfers shows in the mid 80s (gibby being such a sadistic fuck he'd almost always assault someone.) but i made my way to the front of the stage and was untouched the whole show. rollins was really incredible that night, just gave everything he had -- it's hard for me to describe it w/o lapsing into cliche. one of the best shows i've ever seen!
afterwards, henry had two plastic cups in his hand. he passed one around the audience to take a collection, while he slowly squeezed his sock juice -- the dirty grey sweat from his socks -- into the cup he was holding. it was pretty full. and he said 'alright you kids i've got to go eat at denny's tonight and i'm broke so i need you all to put some of mommy and daddy's money into that cup that's being passed around, and i'll drink my sock juice for you.'
i interviewed him in like 1999 for work and he vaguely remembered that show... pretty swell guy. i have other henry stories but i am not at all certain these are welcome -- so i'll shut up for now!