Based on J's interesting post on the Henry Rollins Show, I decided to check it out myself. I'll admit I had some misgivings at first. I'm a libertarian with a fair amount of Mill and Friedman in my library. Rollins's contemporary message is about as hardcore left-wing as Black Flag was in the 1980s and Rollins Band was in the 1990s. We will probably agree on some issues, but I doubt we'd ever get along -- even after spending an hour or two around the beer pong table.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed most of the show. Sure, sometimes his critiques degrade to him jumping up and down yelling 'Bush and Cheney are dicks!' Most of the time, however, he is incredibly witty and demonstrates that he is a master of satire. The interviews can be real misses. Rollins rants about consumerism, but fails to take Penelope Spheeris to task about her filmography and his interview with Ozzy Osbourne was barely intelligible. The interviews with Patton Oswalt, Eddie Izzard and Michael Chiklis were really fantastic though.
I'm not 'so underground that I haven't heard of myself,' but I did recognize most of Rollins's musical guests. Like the interviews, some are great (Jurassic 5 and the original lineup of Dinosaur Jr. stick out in my mind) and while others prove the old adage that even the greatest musician can have terrible taste in music.
All in all, the show is pretty entertaining, even for someone who doesn't agree with Rollins's politics.
3 comments:
Mike Ryan says:
Thanks for turning me onto this. I have since watched some stuff on-line and really dig the show too. He has had so many wonderful guests and bands. I'm hooked.
Did the RobotEconomist have a TV party tonight! and not invite the rest of us? hmm?
Heh. No. Ironically, my girlfriend also idolizes Henry Rollins from his time back in Black Flag and she insisted upon Netflixin' the DVDs as soon as I mentioned J's post on it.
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