I had always heard about HENRY ROLLINS spoken word act, but I had never witnessed any of it until I caught one of his performances on cable a few months ago; it may have been on Comedy Central where I saw the image of Henry Rollins, the most irate man in the music business today, standing in a smokey coffee house, riffing on all the things in his daily life that he finds humor in... or finds infuriating.
The first thing that knocks you over the head when you first hear A Rollins in the Wry is how smart this guy is. He presents the image of someone who is very well-read... and I phrase it that way because he does an entire segment of how guys will read the first twenty pages or so of a really profound author's work and then quote some of it to try and impress women. For all intents and purposes, he's a bright guy...and while he might not make you laiugh hysterically like a Bill Hicks, or Carlos Mencia, his material is right on par with those guys. The disc was recorded from a series of weekly shows at the Cafe Luna club in Los Angeles, and his material ranges from touring, to lousy ways to pick up women, to former President Clinton. On the track "Clintonese," he characterizes Clinton's deposition in the Monica Lewinsky case by saying: "Basically, he had 800 spears a minute thrown at him for five hours, and dodged every one of them."
No shit, Henry...No shit.