Search - Henry Rollins :: Live at McCabe's

Rollins Tells It Like It Is!!

Scott Sloan | Colorado Springs, Co. USA | 03/12/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don't be fooled by the limited number of tracks on this disc. Rollins rants on for 76 minutes about Love, Hate, Depression, and the lovely young Fran who got away. My favorite is I wish Someone Would have Told Me. We get to see the early Rollins growing up feeling so different from all of his peers, and finding out the mystery about woman. Love him, hate him, He will always be Rollins, and I think that this is one of his best discs. Misunderstanding starts off way dark, but finishes up with a great rant about a punker fan who has an odd way of expressing his love for his favorite singer!! Enjoy it LOUD!!!"

Henry Rollin's: Storyteller

John Nelson | North Fond du Lac, WI | 03/04/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Henry Rollin's the poetry shouting, story telling, heavy metal grinding, music and movie star is best known on two fronts, his music albums and his spoken word albums. While you may have heard that his spoken word albums are comedy CDs, that is a little exagerated (at least the earliar ones anyway). Henry's stories bring some thought to ponder of his rather hard life experiences, gigs on the road and eventually his own thoughts on everyday events, and most of them are given a humorous spin to make the experience more enjoyable and funny. LIVE AT MCCABES is one of these CD's.The first track is Hank's story about making trips across the world to various jobs and music events and the people he sees such as vagrents in the subways and stewardess's on planes. the second track called Misunderstanding is a little strange. A story about two cops shooting a young man in his apt over a misunderstnading is glossed over to get to a story about his own misunderstanding in punching out a rude fan in Yugoslavia. Henry is a guy who in several of his spoken word albums talks of his HATE of the police, and here a perfect example for him to is skipped over. Hank is probably upset about what he did to a fan and ignored it. It's a little out of character for him. I was expecting one of his outbursts about the cops, and we didn't get it. Oh well, no big deal. I Wish Someone Had Told Me is the third track and it is one of Hank's most powerful tracks and harkens back to the earliest CD's of pure storytelling and life lesson learning. Hank tells us that while in a boys school he finally finds interaction with girls and most of his encounters end in failure due to his ignorance of women. When his crazy mother throws him out of the house, he is left with no money and no where to go to get information to help himslef, he needs to scrape buy and his problems get worse. It is a great track, but it seems to end abruptly. The final track is Travel Tips. Hank as a young boy goes on a trip with his aforementioned crazy mom to Greece and is the near victim of a molester. Not Hank's most engaging track I must say, but worth listening to once. Henry Rollins has better spoken word albums such as SWEATBOX and BOXED LIFE. Both are twice as long and have more stories, which are also just as funny and at times a little more insightful (never mind the poor sound qualities at times). LIVE AT MCCABES is good but there are enough little nuonces to give it a star short of greatness. LIVE AT MCCABES though is a decent place to start if your interested in hearing some of Rollin's story telling."

More "Dynamite Hack" from Hank

sc_demandred | Irvine, CA USA | 03/14/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This record contains some of the most intense stories I have heard Rollins tell. Stories about the difficulty of dealing with sex when you're young, the vaccuum that forms for some people who find themselves with no one they can talk to on a personal level. There is some humor on this record, most notably "Misunderstanding", which describes one of Rollins' many culture-clash experiences. "Travel Tips" is another tough one; although told with humor, it makes you feel bad for the young Henry, a kid with boundless energy and no one in his family willing to help him work it out or deal with him like he was a human being.Henry came out of it OK, and we his listeners are the winners; every record he releases shares a little bit more of experience and life with us. Keep it up."