Henry Rollins - Get in the Van

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Music reviews of Get in the Van

Music Review: The wisdom and experiances of one man in a band
Rating: 4 Stars

It's quite a ride as Hank will tell how he as a manager schmoe in an ice cream store gets to meet and audition for the band Black Flag. Hank joins and quickly sees his life go upside down. The cops aren't always the good guys, more often or not their in his and the bands face for no reason other then to flaunt authority. When it's not the cops here in the states, it's the skinheads overseas that give them problems and fights. Food wasn't always a gaurentee (one of the roadies for a while lived on dogfood and bread). Equipment and money is stolen by junkies, cars break down or are vandalized, and even other bands hassle them. Hardly glorious at all for a band.

Hank at times gets bleak with his writings about how he doens't need anybody or anything and how cold the world is. Hearing him recite the stories of his younger self is pretty cool and he doesn't over enphasize hardly any of it.

Thats where part of the problem is in the recording. Hank for the most part of the CD's (which are nearly 2 and a half hours together) merely recites from his notes. Rarely does he emote or "get into it" here and sounds like a bland cipher and thats too bad.

Another caveat is in the way the material is presented. Both CDs have only 1 track and there both about 77 minutes. If you gotta stop it, or bump your palyer or anything, you have to start all over again and shuffle through what you've already heard. Hanks (...)discs were the same way. What this also means is that you can't go right to a particular story such as when he starts his Europian tour or a somewhat satisfying story where a skinhead gets his head blown away by a bouncer.

While the music world has changed since the early 80's, the CD is a good listen particularily for bands just starting out, maybe they can get an idea on what they could be in for. This is what I picked up anyway from listening: Being in a band isn't always going to be fun and games. It's hard work like anything else and unless your a hit right out of the box, your money comes hard and it will just survive till the next gig. You won't get handed everything just because your supposadly famous either, because that would only be.....weak.

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