Rollins at the Grand

Initally, my Sunday was going to be used to recuperate from the NIN/JA show if I needed to. Hey, I'm not as young as I used to be, so i figured it was a distinct possibility. That was, until my friend Mike asked me if I wanted to see Henry Rollins at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington. I was, to borrow a baseball term, being asked to pitch hit for the previous holder of the ticket, who decided they did not want to go.

The Grand is a very non-descript looking venue in the heart of downtown Wilmington. When we walked up to the building I realized how many times I had driven past it before while in the city.

Special thanks to the poseurs behind me for making me remember all of this, but Rollins is one of those people who has done pretty much everything. He started out as the singer of influential punk band, and through a "sure, I can do that" sort of attitude, moved into acting, spoken word performances, hosting his own show, documentary making and writing and publishing his own works.

After being fashionably late, Rollins performed for over two hours without even a break for so much as a drink of water. During that time, he touched on a wide variety of topics, including the recent shooting of abortion doctor David Teller, the state of the GOP, traveling to Iran, Syria and other hot button countries, seeing the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Marilyn Manson and his relation to the shootings in Columbine, the Transportation Safety Administration, acting with Cuba Gooding, and what is the most unlikely one of all to me, being a commencement speaker at Sonoma State University in California.

Rollins is a contradiction. Let me clarify. His buffed up, tattoed physique is not the kind you would expect to hide such a brilliant intellect like the one on display tonight. The talk was thought provoking, and due in part to his dry sense of humor, extremely funny. And, like any truly good speaker, he made the time fly.

To be honest, he threw enough stuff at the audience that I am still processing, and the show ended about three hours ago. But, I will say that I was blown away.