Rollins Band
Saturday 5/13/00, The Granada Lawrence, KS
review written - 5/14/00Wow. They're getting tighter and heavier everytime I see them, this being my 5th time with the new band. This is a band you *have* to see live to 'get it', same with the past line-ups (I've seen all 3, so I know) ...
I thankfully missed every single second of Apartment 26. I had no desire to see/hear them. Good sized crowd but I don't think it was sold out. Rollins Band hit the stage at 8:10 and wrapped up by 9:30. I was up in the balcony which turned out to have great sound. Besides, I'm not a pit person. The set list was the usual: most of Get Some Go Again, 3 new songs, 4 old songs and the 3 covers (this may not be in exact order):
Illumination
On The Day
You Let Yourself Down
What Have I Got
Hotter And Hotter
Thinking Cap
Love's So Heavy
Hard
Tearing
Monster
Summer Nights
Frozen Man
Get Some Go Again
Are You Ready
Rocker
Change It Up
Your Number Is One
Do It
Hello
I Go Day GloI think that's it. I really like the new songs ... they seem to be more complicated/fleshed out and heavier. I bet the next album will blow GSGA away. I'd heard "Summer Nights" done live a few times last year too. It's got a great riff by Jim during the verses. Frozen Man and Hello have some really interesting breaks, short bass solos and guitar sounds. Hello also has some slo-mo blues groove bits to it which I really dig. He introduced it with a humorous rap about how this was a sensitive song that he was going to try to 'sing' on and then it came slamming in starting with his yelled "hello hello hello!!!" Their ultra fast version of Hard is just plain amazing! They've added a quiet break to it where everyone drops out for a few seconds except Henry and some quiet drums by Jason. I still don't like how this band does Tearing ... they really slow it down and it doesn't sound right. I'm so glad that Rollins loves Do It, What Have I Got and Hard as much as I do because those are 3 of my all time favorites. I missed 100 Miles and Side by Side. I'd love to hear Lonely and Out There too, but that's ok ... hearing new songs is just as important to me. Moving forward is good. And doing Think Lizzy's "Rocker" means 2 things: 1) Phil Lynott is smiling somewhere, 2) I can die now ...
They all seemed to be in good spirits as usual, having a lot of fun with this music. Jim (in Hendrix at Monterrey shirt) was jumping around a lot and doing his headnods. Jason was solid as ever. Marcus (in Sun Studios shirt ... does he own any other shirts?) was doing his usual headbang/hip shake thing, which I admit is a bit goofy at times but at least he's into it and more importantly, plays great. Rollins dissed crowd surfers several times and told a girl in the front row that was tugging at his shorts "madam, if you're going to continue to tug at my shirts you're going to have to prove something. And judging from the zits on your face, you don't have what it takes." The whole crowd sort of gasped then laughed after that. Rollins grabbed the back of this one guy's pants and held onto him for a good 30 seconds during one song so he couldn't jump off stage. It was funny ... he was just swinging him back and forth and the guy wasn't sure what to do. Rollins just laughed at him, as did I. The guy crowdsurfed all night, along with several others. Rollins said "you guys are a really tolerant crowd to be putting up with all these crowdsurfers. If it was me down there, the first time I got hit in the head with a boot I'd start wailing on someone." Yeah, they had fun last night and so did I. I'm really looking forward to the next one in a couple weeks.
Merchandise:
Free post cards
The 3 Mother Superior cds for $10 apiece or $25 for all 3
2 short sleeve t-shirts (L and XL) for $20 apiece:
1) black with "Rollins Band" in orange and close-up pic of Rollins eye on front. Back has the giant 'G' GSGA logo in orange with the tour dates printed in it and "Get Some Go Again Tour" above that in pastel green and blue like in the cd insert
2) white with "Rollins Band" in red in a small black box on front left breast and the standard full color 'Search and Destroy' logo on the back with "Search and Destroy" above it in black
My Rollins page - The Henry Rollins News Page