Rollins and Morris playing Black Flag?!?

[Guest nl5xsk1]

Back in Black

Henry Rollins rallies 'round the Flag

BY MIKE MILIARD

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Under ordinary circumstances, Henry Rollins wouldn't be caught dead playing the songs of his legendary Los Angeles hardcore band Black Flag. To do so would be akin to punk-rock sacrilege, and it isn't as if Rollins had a shortage of other things to do. Since the Flag disbanded, in 1986, he's become a one-man cottage industry: when he's not on the road with his own Rollins Band, he's usually on the road with a spoken-word tour, or promoting his indie-publishing empire, or shilling for the Gap, or acting (his latest role is a part in Bad Boys II), or recording voiceovers for video games, or lending his imposing, tattoo-covered personage to the likes of the Learning Channel's Full Metal Challenge. But when Hammerin' Hank comes to Axis this Sunday, with the Rollins Band backing him, he will for the first - and, he claims, last - time since the '80s be performing an entire set drawn from the Black Flag catalogue.

 

"If I were making money on this, I wouldn't do it," he says over the phone from LA. "That would be repellent to me. But special circumstances require extraordinary measures. And why we're doing it makes it okay."

 

The "special circumstances" he's referring to concern the plight of the West Memphis Three - Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols. As teenagers in West Memphis, Arkansas, they were in 1994 found guilty of a horrific triple child murder, which the town's police department and DA immediately ascribed to a Satanic sacrifice. The case, which came to national attention via the HBO documentaries Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000), was marred by botched police work, and practically the only evidence against the accused was Misskelley's ever-changing, very possibly coerced (he has an IQ of 72), confession. Most of the trial focused on the trivial and not-quite-circumstantial: the three teens were Metallica fans and had a passing interest in wicca. Misskelley and Baldwin are now serving life sentences; Echols is on death row. "These three kids went to jail with black Pink Floyd T-shirts and Stephen King novels being held up against them," Rollins says. "Guilty or innocent, in this country it takes more than that to put someone in jail. These guys did not enjoy due process. This infuriates me."

 

So last fall, Rollins released Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs To Benefit the West Memphis Three (Sanctuary), a disc that featured Rollins, ex-Flag members Chuck Dukowski and Kira Roessler, and punk and metal luminaries including Mike Patton, Lemmy Kilmister, and Iggy Pop - all tearing the shit out of Black Flag chestnuts. And now the possibility of new DNA tests has raised hopes for a new trial. DNA testing, however, is prohibitively expensive. So Rollins is taking the Black Flag songs on the road, in the hope that the tour will eventually net the $100,000 the tests will cost. "Our interest is only in evidence. We're not saying, 'Let's send all three boys home.' I'm saying, "Let's go to court. Ring the bell, first round, let's get it on. Let's see where evidence and the truth lead us.' "

 

Ever the pragmatist, Rollins makes no bones about his role on this tour. He didn't write any of the songs in Black Flag, and so this time around, he wrote in a letter on his Web site, "We are a cover band. I should add that when I say cover, I mean you better take cover when we hit the stage, because we're not fucking around." Aiding and abetting Rollins will be Black Flag's first singer (and subsequent Circle Jerk front man), Keith Morris. "He has an eight-song set at the beginning and he just goes out and shreds it. He just rips it. It's inspiring."

 

And though "this is a one-time-only tour," Rollins says, he has been enjoying the trip down memory lane. "It's really a blast. I mean, we look forward to band practice now. Well, I always look forward to it, but this is like, 'Oh, goody!' "

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

I saw this on the second page and felt like bumping it. I don't care much about the cause, but I went to the show in Tampa, and it was in-frickin'-credible. Anyone interested in seeing one of the last standing musical icons owes it to themselves to see Rollins & co. when they come to town.

[Guest Kibagami]

I caught them at the 9:30 Club last Thursday, and the show was well worth the $20 I spent on it. It's a worthwhile cause as well -- like that's the reason people are going to go to the show, I know, but it's a nice bonus, I suppose.

 

K.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

Thanks for bumping it, no one had responded to the original post so I didn't think anyone cared about the show or the reason it went on.

 

Personally, I'm torn if I think the WM3 are guilty or not, but I think everyone is entitled to a fair trial so am supportive of that. If they're found guilty again I have no issues with them staying behind bars for life (or death penalty, as is the case for the one)

 

And I agree that the show was awesome. Keith Morris puts on an amazing show for someone that was so sick just a few years ago, and I still prefer his work to Rollins'. But Henry absolutey rocked, no complaints. I'd have switched a few songs that they did (why Morris played Revenge is a mystery to me, and Henry played one that I thought Keith should have played but can't remember which song)

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

Did you guys get Ramones covers to finish out the set too? We got "Rockaway Beach" and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," which was an astonishingly fun end. "Jealous Again" and "TV Party" probably went over best with the crowd, as far as I saw it.

 

I agree that Keith was pretty damn impressive. He looked dead in body, but boy did he go. It was a bit disappointing that they didn't share the stage at all, but that might have been a little too cheesy.

[Guest Kibagami]

"Six Pack" and "TV Party" were big, but this show was in DC..."Rise Above" rocked the fucking house. Rollins came out and did that song first...I've never been in such a pit before.

 

Oh, yeah, there were Ramones covers. I was looking for water right then, so I'm not really clear on what song it was.

 

K.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

Yeah, they played the Ramones songs as the encores in Boston, too. I was actually pretty pissed they did, for a few reasons (I'm not that huge of a Ramones fan and had heard that they had covered those in previous shows so it was pretty predictable, but mostly because I'd hoped to have both Henry and Keith onstage at the same time for the encore. My guess for the song would have been Louie Louie.)

 

My only complaint about the show was that it was pretty predictable. Me and my friend predicted about 95% of the show while walking to the train, up to guessing both opening songs (Nervous Breakdown and Rise Above) and who would be singing which songs.

 

BTW, Kibagami, does Rollins get any shit in DC for leaving the scene and joining Black Flag? I think that the way he left SOA was crap, but I don't know if the feelings remain still. Just curious if anyone thinks he screwed over SOA.

[Guest Kibagami]

I've never heard anybody mention it, mainly because most of the kids don't remember SOA, much less what happened to them. I look at it this way -- as far as I know, Ian never took issue with Rollins leaving, at least not publicly. Why should we?

 

And I do agree with you about the set being predictable, but that's just something you have to accept when 90% of the current DC audience knows 'Damaged' and nothing else. All in all, I think it was worthwhile -- I never expected to get to see Henry Rollins sing "Rise Above" in DC. That two minutes alone made the show, as far as I'm concerned.

 

K.