Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins hasn’t met a media project he could turn down. Or, maybe he just can’t turn down his energy level. Since the 1986 breakup of Black Flag, he’s written books (including a memoir about that seminal punk band), been a publisher to other authors, hosted TV shows, acted in a David Lynch movie, blogged about politics, entertained our Iraq War soldiers with the USO, and campaigned for gay rights and other causes. But his spoken-word performances have been a constant for the last two decades. Rollins has released over 20 albums of such material—a mixture of standup, poetry, and intense, slightly frightening political and cultural rants. The famously tattooed, muscular Rollins is now 49—an elder statesman of punk. And he’s lost none of his punk outrage. In a recent performance, he bemoaned the electronic music scene and attacked its sampling DJs. “You’re a fucking thief of music!” he declared. “Where’s the balls?” The guy won’t calm down. ERIN K. THOMPSON

Thu., May 27, 8 p.m., 2010