An Evening With Henry Rollins @ The GOMA, Brisbane - 16/09/2016

Henry Rollins, one inspiring and down right legend! Everything he preaches I give a million high fives to him and more, I was very excited to see and hear what he had to share at a very intimate show at GOMA. It was a well and truly sold out show, with a vast array of attendees. I wasn’t so sure what I was expecting from this show, because I had never been to anything similar but I knew I would come out of it feeling inspired and little less of a dickhead, Henry Rollins sure knows how to put things into perspective on a greater scale. This was the second show Rollins had done with displaying photographs he had taken over his one brilliant lifetime, travelling, touring, skating and more, was stoked to be one of the lucky punters to witness it.  

Throughout the evening Rollins shared travelling photos and always had an epic story to along with it, ranging from travelling to North Korea, Cambodia, Antarctica and a whole lot more. It was mind blowing to see how much life experience one man can have, a respectful and culturally respectful person who got into some of the most sacred and restricted areas all over the world, to viciously live through his photos and stories was amazing. Rollins was great friends with a retired travel agent who helped him travel to these locations, gaining a visa to North Korea when only 3 visas get granted a year through this agent. Some of the stories were insane and he shared them with such pose and humility, ‘Yeah so I was just back stage at CBGB’s with the Ramones having a chat to Joey Ramone sharing beers’, mean while I was loosing my shit in my chair, imagining myself in the same situation. Throughout the night, Rollins got quite political as that is in his nature and passions, the only thing stopping him from moving from America if Trump got elected for President would be his record collection, something he could never part with, and I can only imagine how damn epic that collection would be.

The last part of the night was my favourite, sharing images of himself and the one crazy career he’s had within the music industry. One of the stories that stuck with me is when he auditioned for the lead singer of Black Flag, Rollins was working in the icecream store Haagen Dazs at the time and literally walked as far as he could to get the next bus to New York, he shared an image of him at the audition, with a pair of keys attached to his belt, they were keys to the Haagen Dazs store and his shoebox apartment (image below). I just loved the juxtaposition of his small belongings and auditioning for one of the biggest punk bands in the world, this was one special image that I’m sure he will hold dearly for a very long time. Not only is Henry Rollins one epic photographer he’s an excellent story teller, this was a super special night that I don’t think we’ll be lucky enough to witness again.