Concerts

Henry Rollins @ Nat Geo

Posted on February 27, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 13th, 2011: D.C. native Henry Rollins performs his unique brand of spoken word on his 50th birthday as part of the National Geographic Live! event series. The event was videotaped for a future DVD release. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post) (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post)

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to shoot a very special event, a spoken word gig by Henry Rollins at National Geographic that just so happened to be Henry’s 50th birthday. I’ve been a Rollins fan for years so this was a big treat.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 13th, 2011: D.C. native Henry Rollins performs his unique brand of spoken word on his 50th birthday as part of the National Geographic Live! event series. The event was videotaped for a future DVD release. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post) (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 13th, 2011: D.C. native Henry Rollins performs his unique brand of spoken word on his 50th birthday as part of the National Geographic Live! event series. The event was videotaped for a future DVD release. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post) (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 13th, 2011: D.C. native Henry Rollins performs his unique brand of spoken word on his 50th birthday as part of the National Geographic Live! event series. The event was videotaped for a future DVD release. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post) (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post)

Rollins was filming this gig for a future DVD release, so I was instructed to stay low and out of the way while I was shooting so as not to interfere with the film cameras. I was allowed to shoot the first 5 minutes of the show and I spent it hunkered down in one of the aisles trying not to be too loud with my camera shutter.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 13th, 2011: D.C. native Henry Rollins performs his unique brand of spoken word on his 50th birthday as part of the National Geographic Live! event series. The event was videotaped for a future DVD release. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post) (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 13th, 2011: D.C. native Henry Rollins performs his unique brand of spoken word on his 50th birthday as part of the National Geographic Live! event series. The event was videotaped for a future DVD release. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post) (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post)

The five minutes flew by and after I was done shooting I packed up my camera and stuck around to hear Henry speak. I don’t think I’d seen him do spoken word since I moved to D.C.  As an added treat, Henry was introduced by Ian MacKaye.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 13th, 2011: Ian MacKaye introduces Henry Rollins at Rollins' 50th birthday event at National Geographic. MacKaye remarked that he had known Rollins for 38 years. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post) (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post)

Kyle Gustafson is a freelance photographer based in Washington, D.C. His work appears weekly in The Washington Post. Complex Magazine named him one of the 50 Greatest Concert Photographers Right Now.

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    Afternoon Showers: Trent Reznor Closer to the EGOT, New Releases & Reports from the Bruise Cruise « Pinna Storm
    February 28, 2011 at 4:41 pm

    […] Gustafson took some great photos at last week’s Rollins at 50 […]

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