Rollins Band
Monday 8/23/99, the Curtain Club Dallas, TX
Tuesday 8/24/99, Cain's Ballroom Tulsa, OK
Wednesday 8/25/99, The Boar's Head Pub OKC, OK
review written - 8/27/99I was fortunate enough to catch 3 shows the past 3 days: Dallas, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. 1500+ hundred miles on the car and oh, it was SO worth it. All of them were really great! I've now seen the new band 4 times total so far. They were really tight the first time (7/11 in Lawrence) but they seem to be getting even better after all these shows under their belts. Wow!
Setlist (same for all 3, probably not in exact order):
Illumination
? ("you ... can't ... break ... me!")
Let Yourself Down
What Have I Got
Hotter and Hotter
Thinking Cap
Love is So Heavy
Hard
Summer Nights
Monster
Action
Get Some Go Again
Are You Ready
Change It Up
100 Miles
Lonely
Do Itencore:
Tearing
I Go Day-Glo
Side by SideThe set clocks in at 1 hour and 25 minutes ...
The band:
Damn, what can I say? This band kicks serious ass and gives 110% every night! I love watching them play, they're so into it. Marcus "sweet and low" and Jim are often smiling and giving each other glances as they play. Jason is a monster. And Rollins. Still intense as hell. I'm so damn happy to see/hear these guys playing this style of music right now. I need to get the 3 Mother Superior cds soon (are they instrumental?) ...
The songs:
The 5 classic songs have become this band's songs, Mother Superior play them like they were the ones who wrote them and have been playing 'em for the past decade. They do "Lonely" a little differently, hard to put my finger on it, but Rollins "sings" the chorus more. I was really happy with all the new stuff after the first show, but now that I'm *really* familiar with it I just plain love it. My favorites: the 2nd song (Rollins never offers a title for this one ... everyone comes down on the beat several times as Rollins yells "you can't break me" or "you can't kill me" ... heavy!), Get Some Go Again, Are You Ready, I Go Day-Glo, Side by Side and 100 Miles. I'd say 100 Miles may just be one of the heaviest songs Rollins Band have ever done, it's incredibly dense. It and Side by Side are what I call the "slow burn" type Rollins Band songs like "Volume 4" on "Weight". I LOVE those songs. But, they do everything great: fast rock, gritty funk (Marcus' bass playing ... wow!), blues (Jim's slide guitar and solos ... wow!), etc. "Hard" is done at about 1 and 1/2 times faster than normal which is just mindblowing when you think about the bass and guitar lines in that one ...
You HAVE to hear these songs LIVE! The promo tape is cool, but the studio versions just don't capture the live vibe. I hope they're taping some of these shows ...
The crowds were really receptive at all 3 shows, getting off big time. I think Rollins was happiest with the OKC crowd, they seemed to be the most vocal after each song and managed a heavy duty chant of "Rollins, Rollins" after the set ...
Some misc tidbits:
In Dallas someone up front handed Rollins 2 tickets inbetween songs. Rollins leaned over and said, "what's this? tickets to my own gig?" as he grabbed them. He reads 'em and turns around to the other guys in the band, "hey guys, I've got 2 tickets here for Julian Lennon!" (Julian was also playing that night at a club a few streets away). Jim and Marcus both put suprised "oh wow!" looks on their faces and pretended to take off their guitars like they were leaving. It was pretty funny. Rollins then took the 2 tix and put them in his shorts, carefully and slowly placing them right under his balls. A few songs later, he took 'em out and looked at 'em, apparently they weren't sweaty enough so he tossed 'em back in the shorts. Several songs later, he took 'em out again and gave 'em back to the person up front saying something about how lucky that person was to get his ball sweat and how he'd never forget them ...
In Tulsa a woman was dancing on the side of the stage and Rollins beckoned her up on stage. She did a stripper-style dance (not very well) rubbing up against Hank and showing the crowd her thong by pulling down her tights. Rollins tolerated her for a minute or so, sort of rolling his eyes and making faces while singing, then he suddenly, gently closelined her knocking her over on stage and said "get some talent". She got up, embarassed as hell since most of the crowd were csracking up and left the stage ...
Rollins on crowd surfers in Tulsa: "why do I always get the tattoo covered punker sent up to me instead of beautiful women?"
Rollins spots a guy in the front at Tulsa drinking a Bud Light, "you're up front and you're drinking Bud Light? I must be losing it"
Rollins was his usual self, sometime joking around, sometimes deadly serious or intense, little bit of everything. There wasn't a whole lot of talk between songs at these shows, just brief intros or song titles ...
Price:
$12 - $15
Merchandise:
Long sleeve grey and black t-shirt with the sun tat on the back and "part animal part machine" on front - $25
Short sleeve black t-shirt with sun tat on back and Rollins Band (I think) on the front - $20
Bunch of Squatweiler cds and shirts
Free stuff: Mother Superior postcard, 2.13.61 postcard, 3 track promo tape (Illumination, Get Some Go Again, 100
Miles)Thanks:
Rollins Band and the very receptive crowds!
Fuck You:
Drunken assholes.
Recommendation:
See every show you can! You have to hear these songs live!
My Rollins page - The Henry Rollins News Page