3 shows in a week. High On Fire, White Rabbits and Straighten The Crooked

Posted in Concert Reviews on April 28th, 2010 by corpo

My groin injury was preventing me from skating so what better time to go to some concerts and enjoy a few cold ones?  The first show was High On Fire on 4/20.  Yeap.  On the hill in Boulder on 4/20.  Zach thought the metal music would keep the hippies away.  Nope.We may have missed the opening band, but the band that was on was bad enough we went to drink tall cans in the alley. Dave, Zach, Jason and PJ.Everyone went to this show.  Jason and Gordon.  I didn’t listen to much of Priestess.  What I heard reminded me of why I didn’t make an effort to hear them.High On Fire.  I’m not going to claim I was much of a fan before this show.  I thought after how much I enjoyed Tauntaun it would be worth it to see another metal band.  To say I was let down is an understatement.  I tried to enjoy them and I think during the encore I finally saw what people like about this band, but it wasn’t what I like in metal.  Not enough chords.  Not enough sludge/grunge.  A boring ass drummer.  Seriously, how can you have a boring drummer in a metal band?  Not enough big powerful riffs, etc.  Oh well, my friends that like them said the show was good so there you go.The next night Liz and I went back to the Fox to see White Rabbits.  We arrived early enough to see the opening act Here We Go Magic.  They were decent.  At times great.  They have the potential to be a really good indie rock band, but it’s not there yet.  Good opener though.White Rabbits came on and established immediately that they were gonna put on a fantastic show.  It’s funny how the drumming in a pop/indie rock band like White Rabbits could blow away the drumming from metal heads High On Fire.  It completely did though.  At times there would be 3 Rabbits beating the hell out of the drums.  It was amazing.  I’ve only mentioned the drums, but everything was on point.  The singing was perfection as well.During the encore most of Here We go Magic joined the Rabbits on stage.  Everyone was having a blast and the music was still kicking.  Yes, that is Beaver from Leave It To Beaver on the guitar.Look at all the dudes beating up the drums!  Show of the year so far!  Not only was the show so great, but it quickly established White Rabbits as a new favorite and a band I will never pass on seeing live again.A few nights later Liz, Carleigh, John and I went to see my friend Zach’s first ever show with his new band Straighten The Crooked.  I had heard some mp3s beforehand so I knew the show would be decent, but it ended up surpassing all expectations quickly.  The music is kinda like Kyuss or something.  Grungy metal or whatever you call it.  I was impressed with the bass and how it didn’t just play along with the guitar.  The whole show was more creative and impressive then I thought it would be and I went in with somewhat high expectation.  And yes I thought they were way better than High On Fire.   Kudos Zach!Liz and Carleigh thinking about the two hot dudes moshing by themselves and running into Zach’s parents.  Or maybe they were thinking about throwing their drinks at the barricade in front of the drums.Proof that Liz actually thought I was funny that night.  Unheard of.

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skate journal: skated to/from Abo’s with Ollie (April 27, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on April 28th, 2010 by corpo

Ollies Birthday!  He’s 8.  Wow!  For his birthday he wanted pizza at Abo’s and to play a few video games.  On top of that he wanted to skate there.  Awesome.  We started off to the bikepath and I felt a weird pain in my groin.  Oh no.  It ended up not coming up again and we had fun.  Ollie stopped and hit a couple little things on the way.  We hit a bump near Abo’s and I got a kickflip and Ollie did, well, an ollie.  Ollie ollie.  After dinner we went the same way, but it’s mostly downhill.  Ollie almost did a wallride to fakie on the banked wall at 1st Bank.  It’s crazy because it’s steep and you have to wallie in.  The ride home was fun.  Ollie was having a blast and doing 10 – 15′ manuals like nothing at speed.  So sick!  I fakie ollied a bunch of cracks.  Not a long session, but I needed a bread from a long night anyway.  Happy birthday Ollie!

skate journal: Longmont with Nate, John and Jake (April 26, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on April 28th, 2010 by corpo

After a long day at work, dinner and a nap I picked up Jake and Nate and we cruised to Longmont to meet John.  He was at the checkerboard manny pad so we me him there.  John was doing nose manny 180s into the bank when we arrived.  Nate quickly manny and nose mannied it as well as manual front 180 out to straight leg landing.  Ha.  Jake went to work on some lines.  Front 180 up, frontside halfcab off.  Front 180 up, sw front 180 off.  Ollie up, nollie off. John tried nose manny slappy tail back to nose manny and got kinda close.  I never got a clean manny or nose manny.  The only thing I did I was hyped on was getting close to a front bluntslide on the parking block.  We left after some dude at a nearby apartment went on a rampage swearing at us asking us if we could read the no skateboarding signs.  Oh well.We went to the park which was more crowded than I thought it would be considering it was pretty chilly.  The four of us started off with a game of SKATE.  I haven’t skated flatground in awhile, but luckily it didn’t show as bad as I would have thought.  The elders (John and I) made quick work of the young ones (Ha).  The tricks were decent.  3 flip, fakie flip, heelflip, sw flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip and more.  John beat me in the end with the b/s flip.For awhile everyone was kinda doing their own thing.  I wasn’t skating well, but was at least skating harder than I’ve been able to lately.  I noseslid the bank to tall ledge, b/s flip on the flat bank, kickflip fakie on the bank.  After awhile a ledge session ensued.  John has such a cool bag of old guy meets young guy tricks.  Slappy sw noseslides shoves out.  Stuff like that which is awesome.  Jake did a bunch of back 50s and put down some crooks and front 5-0 front 180 out.  I got some slasher grinds (smith attempts not dipped enough), back 50s, back 5-0, halfcab noseslide, crooks and a lot of tries on front 5-0 shove out.  Nate was trying to back lip the whole darn ledge.  So sick.  he almost got it.Next up a hip ollie session went down.  John won that one.  Nate came in second and I clearly took last.  I love how I’ve been skating 20 years or something and can’t ollie over a hip and get more than a foot of air.  Oh well.  At the end of the session Nate and John ollied up and down the step up, I ollied the step up and I did 3/4 360flips before the light shut off.  I landed the last one as the lights shut off.  Felt cool and a fun way to end a fun session.

skate journal: Downtown Boulder with TF (April 25, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on April 26th, 2010 by corpo

After a late night and long morning celebrating 12 years of marriage to the greatest woman ever I met up with Brian, Neil, Fuzz and eventually Jake downtown.  We started near Canyon center and kinda cruised around everyone having troubles warming up and doing some pretty funny ollies and whatnot.  After awhile Brian and I eyed up a frontside wallride and Brian put it down second try.  So sick.  I kept trying them and Brian and I were goofing off in between talking about how we should call the next old man video “Off The Couch 2 With a Vengeance” or something.  I was totally dorking out lining up all fast then dragging my foot to a halt and doing a stationary kickflip then trying the frontside wallride.  I never got the wallride, but came really close and for the first time ever put two feet down and feel like I could land it there sometime.  It helped being able to grab the top of the wall.  Ha.Then we went into the Canyon Center area where Brian and Fuzz did some insanely sick wallies before Jake joined us and we skated the shorter banks trying tricks.  I had gone back to sucking, but Fuzz and Brian put down some cool tricks.  Fuzz had switch pivot fakie.  Brian did feeble lunchbreak to fakie.  Then we rolled down the alley just kinda skating whatever.  We hit a little manny pad for a minute.  Fuzz put down front 180 nose man and did it switch too.  Jake tried manny front 180 out.  I sucked.  Brian almost nose mannied it.  We ended up at Wells Fargo.  Jake almost got a back shove out of the little qpipe.  I sucked.  Neil sat.  Brian did a blunt to fakie.  Fuzz tail dropped from afar into the qpipe.  A cop came and we left.  On the way out I tried a few half assed attempts at nosesliding the brick ledge out of the top part of the Canyon Center.  Felt good to try it even though I didn’t get close.

skate journal: Ollie’s birthday party session at Southern Hills (April 24, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on April 26th, 2010 by corpo

Went to Southern Hills with Ollie and 5 of his buddies.  Most of which were cool, but there was a loud one in the group that was kinda driving me nuts.  Oh well.  Ollie was having fun and so were his friends.  Lots of ollies down the two stair and off the benches, manuals down the handicap ramp and some funny, intentional falls.  I was completely sucking.  Sucking sucking sucking.  The only things I felt decent about were my noseslides.  Everything else sucked.  Ollies, kickflips, basically anything requiring coordination.  It was so embarrassing.  I could barely olllie up the two stair and it took me like 8 tries to ollie down it (from the crack).  Ugh.  I’m glad Ollie had fun at his party, but man I sucked and it was depressing.

skate journal: I guess I can kinda skate again (April 23, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on April 24th, 2010 by corpo

Got home after work and felt really good.  I could not suppress the urge to skate.  I went out to the street and tried one kickflip. BOLTS.  I went to go back inside, but some kids skating at the school came over so Ollie and I went over with them and skated.  This little 5th grade kid was ripping.  180s the four stair both ways and kickflips and other tricks on flat.  Cool.  Ollie was a bit shy at first but busted out the video trick part a few times.  He even did a front board pop out on accident this time.  I was skating pretty cautious again, but not as cautious as the day before.  I played on the curb at the top of the stairs for awhile just kinda testing different moves like 180s in and out of stuff.  Nothing hurt.  I started hucking kick back tails and got 3 of them.  Rad!  I did a couple flippers on flat, but nothing serious.   I guess I’m skating again, but still gonna be cautious for a bit.

skate journal!!! 2 foot qpipe session with John (April 22, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on April 23rd, 2010 by corpo

Was in Denver all day with John spreading the Null and John wanted to skate.  I was hesitant but willing to skate a small qpipe so we hit the Zuni park and it ended up being a blast.  I skated ridiculously cautious and managed not to hurt myself.  I tried a couple ollies on flat and that wasn’t a good idea.  The tricks I had fun were a long for me back feeble grind, back tail on the no coping section and some front tails.  John was killing it.  Proper back smiths. back lip revert, tall backside ollies, front shove into the bank, alley oop fakie grinds, a lot more.  Fun time.  My groin definitely started to feel weird by the end of the session.  Not really hurt, but didn’t feel good.  I think I’ll be able to skate for real in a few days.  Prolly wont skate again before then, but who knows.OH AND THIS SESSION WAS MY 100TH DAY OF SKATING SO FAR THIS YEAR!!!

White Rabbits were insanely good live

Posted in Music News on April 23rd, 2010 by corpo

Show of the year so far.   Pictures to come soon.

sick days 7 – 12

Posted in sick day on April 23rd, 2010 by corpo

Basically didn’t do anything the first few days after the Dr said no skating or other activity.  It’s getting better and harder to not skate ..

Still one of the best clips on the internet ..

Posted in Random Funniness on April 19th, 2010 by corpo