Turned On

Recorded live in Vienna in November 1989, Turned On captures the early Rollins Band at the peak of its powers, just before it brought all the intense conditioning of its live act to bear in its studio breakthrough, The End of Silence. In its live performances, Rollins Band merged an incredibly ambitious set of influences: the abject guitar rock of Swans, the heaving funk of Band of Gypsies, the doom metal of Saint Vitus, and the hollered death poetry of Diamanda Galas and Lydia Lunch. There are even hints of Henry Rollins’ future attempts at standup comedy. This outlandish fusion of styles would be laughable if not for Rollins, who had the focus and determination of 10 men. He's able to conduct the band’s wild machinations and turn them into a cohesive assault. Somewhere between performance art, a boxer’s training regimen, and an underground punk show is Turned On. There’s nothing else quite like it in the annals of concert albums.