Henry Rollins
So on Friday night, Jen and I drove to Toronto for our annual pilgrimage to see Henry Rollins at Convocation Hall (and in Jen's case, to worship at his feet and be all fangirly, for Henry is to Jen what Gale is to me. Hee.)
The show started at 8pm. We left at 6pm. It (normally) takes 45 minutes to drive to Toronto.
We arrived at Convocation Hall at 8:15pm.
Jen was soooo calm in the bumper-to-bumper traffic. If the situation were reversed and I were about to miss the start of Gale in something, I'd have been flipping out.
Despite missing the first fifteen minutes, we had an amazing time. Henry was as intelligent and funny and intense as ever, speaking on everything from Larry Craig and homophobia, his experiences at a charity event for some indie-punk band called The Ruts, his travels in Syria and Lebanon, and (most snort-and-hee-inducing for me) his total and complete fanboyishness over his punk idols.
He did this whole long bit about how in his head he's going, "Okay, I'll just walk up to him and I'll say 'Hi, I'm Henry. Pleasure to meet you. I love your work', and then when he actually meets the person he's all *squirms, twists shirt, can't make eye-contact, squeaky voice '...Hi'. We were laughing soooo much. Jen leaned over to me and said "THAT'S YOU WITH RANDY!" I'm not alone, LOL!
He also does a mean Christopher Walken impression.
We waited outside in the freezing cold for an hour to meet him. This is also a tradition.
Above: The only stage photo I managed to take. We were in the balcony, hence the blurriness, since I had to enlarge it. I also felt horribly guilty taking photos. My flash seemed so bright!
Above: Me having a smoke because I hadn't been able to have one for FIVE HOURS (two hours in the car plus three hours of the show.) Also, I include this because my hair? Fabulous. ;)
Above: My first time doing that hold-the-camera-in-front-and-take-own-photo thing. Included because my head? SO HUGE. Hee!
Above: Jen with Henry. The funny thing about Henry is that when he's just chatting with you, he's all relaxed and casual. And then when it's photo time, he actually sets his feet sort of soldier-like and squares his shoulders. He looks the same in every single photo ever.
Because I'm not fangirly over Henry, I have no problem talking to him. It was very very amusing to me to see JEN turn all fangirly, esp. since she's met him before. We got to the front of the line -- oh yes, I must mention the LINE. No crowding around the tour bus for us. We are Canadians, damnit. We politely lined up and waited in a patient queue.
Anyway, we got to the front and Jen... SAID NOTHING. So I'm all "Hi!" And Henry's all "Hi!". And Jen is QUIET. And then I said... something. And Henry said... something. And Jen's STILL QUIET. So then I did the sweeping hands motion, like TAKE IT AWAY JEN. And then she finally asked for his autograph on a photo that I'd taken of them in 2005. Henry mocked his seriousness in the pose, wrote "Cheer Up!" with an arrow pointing to his face, and then signed it. Then I asked if we could get another photo, and told him it was (yet another) tradition. He did the soldier stance and I took the photo. Then he asked if it was any better than the one he just signed. I told him it was pretty much the same, actually, and he made an exaggerated grimace that was very cute.
And then we drove home. The End.
The show started at 8pm. We left at 6pm. It (normally) takes 45 minutes to drive to Toronto.
We arrived at Convocation Hall at 8:15pm.
Jen was soooo calm in the bumper-to-bumper traffic. If the situation were reversed and I were about to miss the start of Gale in something, I'd have been flipping out.
Despite missing the first fifteen minutes, we had an amazing time. Henry was as intelligent and funny and intense as ever, speaking on everything from Larry Craig and homophobia, his experiences at a charity event for some indie-punk band called The Ruts, his travels in Syria and Lebanon, and (most snort-and-hee-inducing for me) his total and complete fanboyishness over his punk idols.
He did this whole long bit about how in his head he's going, "Okay, I'll just walk up to him and I'll say 'Hi, I'm Henry. Pleasure to meet you. I love your work', and then when he actually meets the person he's all *squirms, twists shirt, can't make eye-contact, squeaky voice '...Hi'. We were laughing soooo much. Jen leaned over to me and said "THAT'S YOU WITH RANDY!" I'm not alone, LOL!
He also does a mean Christopher Walken impression.
We waited outside in the freezing cold for an hour to meet him. This is also a tradition.
Above: The only stage photo I managed to take. We were in the balcony, hence the blurriness, since I had to enlarge it. I also felt horribly guilty taking photos. My flash seemed so bright!
Above: Me having a smoke because I hadn't been able to have one for FIVE HOURS (two hours in the car plus three hours of the show.) Also, I include this because my hair? Fabulous. ;)
Above: My first time doing that hold-the-camera-in-front-and-take-own-photo thing. Included because my head? SO HUGE. Hee!
Above: Jen with Henry. The funny thing about Henry is that when he's just chatting with you, he's all relaxed and casual. And then when it's photo time, he actually sets his feet sort of soldier-like and squares his shoulders. He looks the same in every single photo ever.
Because I'm not fangirly over Henry, I have no problem talking to him. It was very very amusing to me to see JEN turn all fangirly, esp. since she's met him before. We got to the front of the line -- oh yes, I must mention the LINE. No crowding around the tour bus for us. We are Canadians, damnit. We politely lined up and waited in a patient queue.
Anyway, we got to the front and Jen... SAID NOTHING. So I'm all "Hi!" And Henry's all "Hi!". And Jen is QUIET. And then I said... something. And Henry said... something. And Jen's STILL QUIET. So then I did the sweeping hands motion, like TAKE IT AWAY JEN. And then she finally asked for his autograph on a photo that I'd taken of them in 2005. Henry mocked his seriousness in the pose, wrote "Cheer Up!" with an arrow pointing to his face, and then signed it. Then I asked if we could get another photo, and told him it was (yet another) tradition. He did the soldier stance and I took the photo. Then he asked if it was any better than the one he just signed. I told him it was pretty much the same, actually, and he made an exaggerated grimace that was very cute.
And then we drove home. The End.