henry rollins in sac

my second punk show, at the tender age of 15, was a gig with Black Flag as the headliner circa their Damage LP era.  this was the first album with henry rollins as their lead vocalist.  rollins was - is - known for his intensity & at that show when he was i think 21 was a massive force of energy, emotion, & screams.  this gig was at a soon to be defunct disco called the Galactica 2000.  the mirror ball was still hanging from the ceiling.  

rollins is a punk rock grandad.  at the tender age of 61 he does a great many things.  being the lead vocalist is no longer one of them.  in addition to acting & hosting a podcast & authoring a number of books - including poetry - he travels the world as a spoken word artist.  part lecture, part stand-up comedy, part social & political commentary this is where rollins shines the brightest. 

b. & i have seen him four times now the past 20 years.  twice in SF.  & now twice here in our beloved burg of Sac.  

rollins rolled into The Crest theater tonight.  i don't know if he performed at this venue with Black Flag or with Rollins Band.  he might have.  after all, rollins is no stranger to touring & he's been here many times.  

even so, b. & i saw him perform about a year before the Pandemic.  his range of topics is always prefaced, & underscored, by a common humility & humanity that is shared by us all.  tonight was no different.  & because rollins has been doing his spoken word tours for a few decades he has honed his storytelling skills hard & sharp.  he's a great storyteller.

The Crest is a wonderful ol' skool theater.

there are few of these treasures left to us.  i've seen more movies, first run, second & third run, & midnight movies, than i can count at this theater.  i've seen many bands.  & the wonderful early 2000s Trash Film Orgy, that paean to horror & exploitation cinema, was done at The Crest too. 

we must've been obvious in our enjoyment because a woman walked up to b., in mid-performance, to tell him so.  i don't know why she did that.  maybe she doesn't know why either.  she was from a back row so perhaps our being doubled up in laughter was infectious?  who knows!

we tried to get a good pic of the master at work.  but the lights washed out rollins.  still, when the set was done & rollins started to walk off stage right i snapped this pic.

it was time to leave.  downtown Sac on a monday night is a pretty quiet place.  not much happening.  b. & i walked the length of K st mall all the way down to the Golden 1 Arena & back.  we noticed rollins tour bus parked beside The Crest.  we got all fanboyed out & debated to wait beside it to get a selfie with the venerable punk & to shake his hand.  Black Flag was - is - seminal in my life as a human being.  so is rollins the spoken word artist.  rather, we opted to take a few selfies in front of his bus & leave the dude alone.

with that we walked to the parking garage, got into b.'s vehicle, pointed it to our respective homes & bade the evening adieu.