Henry Rollins talked your ear off. And you liked it.

There are plenty of people in the world that can talk for hours on end on any subject. Most lawyers, teachers, and politicians seem to have this talent.

The trick though, is to be able to talk about that subject and at the same time keep your audience interested. Henry Rollins has mastered that part splendidly, and this past Friday night at The Music Farm downtown the former lead singer for the punk band Black Flag proved why he is a master at holding an audience’s attention during a spoken word performance. In addition to his vocal duties with Black Flag and The Rollins Band, Rollins tours the world giving spoken word performances where he talks about just about any subject he deems worthy.

The Music Farm stage was bare except for a microphone stand and two sound monitors. When Rollins strolled onto the stage shortly after 8pm, he was greeted by a thunderous applause from the packed house. Wearing a black t-shirt, black pants, and sneakers, the artist grabbed the microphone, opened his mouth, and basically didn’t shut it for almost three hours. He never paused, took a drink of water, or stopped being relevant. “I am like the proverbial shook-up can of Coke,” he said at one point, “and the tab has just been pulled.”

It was true, because while he didn’t exactly bounce around the stage physically, one could sense the speed of Rollins thoughts as they emerged from his brain on a crash course for his mouth. Subject matter for the spoken word performance included American history, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. One of the funnier lines of the first half of the show featured Rollins comparing Obama’s speaking voice to “perfect, uppercase Helvetica script,” while also telling the story of crying tears of joy when Obama won the Electoral College last fall. From there talk turned to why Rollins didn’t like Thanksgiving, to spending that very day with William “Captain Kirk” Shatner, to seeing the punk band Bad Brains in concert for the first time, to playing a character on a TV series.

One rant poked fun at America’s growing addiction to text messaging, and had Rollins imagining a text message exchange by two people as the world was ending (“Dude, a flaming meteor just hit my house.” “LOL U have a fire house). Yet another tangent discussed a recent trip Rollins had taken him to Iran, Jakarta, Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal. Finally, after nearly three hours of observation and criticism, Rollins left the stage, but not before imploring the crowd, “Make as much trouble as you can before it’s all over.” Throughout the performance Rollins held the audience’s attention and didn’t talk down to them.

I had listened to other Rollins spoken word albums before, but until he was actually up on the stage and live in front of me, I apparently had not truly experienced the full force of Rollins’ ability.

The man is well read and well traveled, and definitely tries to look at both sides of the coin. The more than two and a half hours that passed between the time he stepped onstage and the time he bid the crowd goodnight seemed to streak by. I had been waiting several years to see Rollins do spoken word, and he definitely did not disappoint.

Contact Devin Grant at chucktowncritic@yahoo.com