Henry Rollins--Live At Luna Park
Packaging--
The good:
A goofy photo of Rollins graces the cover. The back has another silly looking photo with a brief bio and explanation of what is on the disc.
The bad:
There's no booklet inside, which isn't that unusual, but they're nice to have.
The content:
The good:
So this is clips of Rollins from when he did talking shows four Wednesdays in a row at the same club. It should be noted this, by and large, is NOT the same content as "A Rollins in the Wry." The beginning is the same clip, but after five minutes it's different. SO if you were holding off buying this because you figured you had the audio, you don't. And vice versa.
Rollins talks about doing a voice in a Batman cartoon, growing up with Ian Mackeye, doing a talking show in Moscow, receiving a letter from a Czech guy named Boris, among other things. There is a bonus 20 minute clip of him talking about trying to outdo Iggy Pop. His style is entertaining, funny, fast paced, and thoroughly enjoyable. I've seen him several times and his shows average three hours, yet the time flys by.
The production on here is good. The audio sounds nice and clear, the video is crisp with appropriate cuts and angles. No real problems.
The bad--
Well, Rollins shows tend to be around three hours long. This is just over an hour. DVDs hold a lot more than this, so that's a shame. Another problem is that when you're at a Rollins show his stories lead to others and they usually flow very nicely...he'll go off on some radical tangent and come back to his point thirty minutes later. When you have a compilation like this, you don't really get that...the beginning of the disc is frustrating because he's talking like he's about to read a page from his journal and then the video cuts to him talking about traffic...on the CD, he actually reads the journal. So, it's frustrating because you're missing a lot.
The last Rollins DVD released had this same problem. I'd like to know why he doesn't seem to be comfortable enough putting out a full show on DVD, as he does this on occassion with CDs.
I do realize that some people who are more casual fans would probably be put off by the idea of watching a three hour DVD of a guy talking. So, I see why it's been done.
The Iggy Pop segment is an "extra"...I don't quite see why this wasn't just advertised as a 90 minute feature, instead of a 70 minute feature with a 20 minute bonus. The Iggy piece would've fit in nicely at just about any point.
I'm also a completist...the only way I would've been "really" happy with this release would be if it was a four disc DVD box set with each show having its own disc.
Recap�
This is a good product for the casual fan who may want a nice introduction to Rollins' spoken word schtick. More particular fans may be put off by the choppiness, but so be it. The point is the content has not been released before, the delivery is excellent, and production is great.
If you want to get a full show on DVD then pick up the "Talking From The Box/HR Goes To London" DVD.
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2.13.61
Review by Chris