Congrats Fuzz! Crisis has been straight killing it for two years now. Wow, Connor rips!

Coldest night of the season so far and the grey skies all day made me dream of east coast / europe street skating. It was 41 degrees so I bundled up, drove downtown and started with a warm up at Canyon Center with some wallrides. Went pretty good and got over the chills quick. Had some fun wallrides to fakie and tried doing some front tails on the side of a low one which didn’t really work. I decided to go without earphones and I think it works better for me. I’m not coordinated enough to be able to listen to music and skate at the same time. After Canyon Center I rolled down a couple alleys and ended up in a brick alley with a mini ledge that is almost a bank to ledge behind a big parking garage. It’s pretty good and waxed now which surprised me. I did a bunch of basics on it. Lots of stalls initially that were really fun. It’s kind of downhill backside, uphill frontside. After I did backside tricks I would try f/s no comply 360 and I landed almost all of them. So I tried a line of back 50, no comply 360 and kickflip a manhole. Well of course at that point I couldn’t land the no comply 3 anymore. Doh. I did eventually get it and somehow pulled out the sketchiest kickflip ever right next to a taxi. I felt cool for a second. I tried a bunch of front tail shoves and came close, but never got it. Posed some kick back tails and front 5-0 kickflips out. I should land those tricks sometime. I moved to the white ledge in the front of the parking garage. I haven’t skated it in forever and all I could think was how many awesome sessions I had there with Jason. So anytime I was pansy footing things I would just say to myself “Jason” like the intro to his part and skate harder. Back 50s came pretty quick. Crooks though, wow, it was like I forgot how to do them completely. I finally got a few, but I was definitely frustrated. One particularly sketchy one was followed with a speedy treflip on the bricks after and then a front board on that tall/dark bench. This line really hyped me up. The treflip going fast (for me) on bricks felt so amazing. Seeing as how I hadn’t gotten kicked out somehow yet I went for the real Jason effect and tried a line including the curb cut in front of the garage. Actually I went back even further and started by ollieing the weird 3 stair (only weird because to get speed for it you have to run, drop your board, roll off a 2 stair then curve around for the 3) then would do a pathetic ollie off the kicker and back 50 the ledge. Slammed on a 3 flip after, but felt really good doing that line and just cruising that far doing tricks. Half the time when I landed the 3 stair there was traffic so I’d have to turn quick and hug the parked cars. It kinda ruled. I started heading towards the car and went through a brief total loss of coordination and bailed up a few different curbs right in front of people. Ha. I stopped at the Canyon Center to try a few flatground tricks, but wasn’t expecting much after how many curbs I couldn’t ollie up. I ended up rattling off over 10 tricks real quick. Several of which were first try like heelflip, fakie big flip, f/s halfcab flip, b/s halfcab flip. I got a good treflip. Started trying fakie tres and almost had that first try too. Was real close the next several tries and started getting further away so just went home stoked instead. It was really funny too, because when I took my jacket off (Crisis coaches jacket ballin!!!) my shirts had completely soaked through with sweat. Guess those type of jackets don’t breath too well. Ha, that’s probably the most I’ve sweat all year and it was only 40 degrees.

There were several reasons to bail on this show. First, I was on call for work. Second, the presidential debates were in Denver and they had been warning people for weeks not to come near Denver on this night. Third, I have been feeling pretty run down and fighting a cold. But the main reason to go to this show is the completely awesome and underrated Henry Clay People. I seriously love this band and their latest album Twenty-Five For The Rest Of Our Lives is their best effort yet. I really wanted to hear it live!

It seems like everyone used excuse #2 as I arrived before Chad, Dean and Fuzz and was literally the only person there while they did a sound check. Weird, but totally awesome because I got to mention a few songs I wanted to hear. An hour and a few more people later they went on stage. Even though the crowd was lacking they played a high energy set that pretty much ruled my world. All my favorites and left me with a new found respect for the song ‘Anymore/ Any Less’. I am super hyped on this show. I know it kinda sucked for them not pulling in a big crowd, but for me as a fan wow. It was like they played a personal set in my living room or something. It ruled. Please support this band!

Henry Clay People website.