Went to a hockey party the night before that a friend of Josh’s was having. He’s a bartender. He likes to make people merry. He succeeded. After another kind of mediocre breakfast (is DC known for having mediocre restaurants?) Bernie and I went to the last crime scene. The brick bank area we found by the metro the day before. It wasn’t as fun this time. We skated it a bit, then crossed the street to a rough brick area that had some marble curbs and wallrides. Bernie was on point with some good wallrides and manuals. I sucked as bad as I could. Below that building we found this weird brick 3 stair with a ledge going off it that Bernie front boarded first try and then ollied onto it and off. Then he sat in good spirits while I pansied out of a boardslide for a long time. Ugh. Across the street into a parking garage for a weird yellow/black painted ledge that was creepy and not so great. I fell off some front noses. Some walking, skating later we came upon this:

Looks amazing right? Unfortunately the bricks are the rounded edge type making for some hefty cracks that even filmer wheels would have trouble with. We skated it though. There were 4 of these. Bernie did some long front 50s, front 5-0, probably some more. I got some back boardlides, back noseslides and a few back crooks that felt decent. Yeh I finally landed something. Couldn’t get front 50 though, mainly because I can’t seem to ollie anymore and also the cracks were messing with me bad. This was the end of the skating. We found a couple more ledge spots that looked good and had good ground, but we were beat and needed to eat before heading to the airport.

Surprisingly the day after seeing Pissed Jeans I was not wrecked. Bernie and I took the Metro to downtown DC with no idea what to skate other then Freedom Plaza. We didn’t want to start there though. First thing we found was this little flat bar that you didn’t have to pop out of. I was feeling really weird, maybe it was old age. I’m gonna say that at least. Bernie did a bunch of front boards and some to manny off the curb. We saw these dollar bill people walking and he asked them to pose for the money shot. Ha ha. I had a fun run of back board pop out on a different one, then crooks this one then a b/s flip to stop. Every trick landed like I was about 55 years old.

We found this a few blocks later. It was another frustrating session for me. I actually slammed pretty hard and rolled down a couple of them. Ugh. Bernie was killing it though. Manaul the low one ollie up to the 2nd still manualing and ollie the 2. Mannies, nose mannies, 180s out, kickflip out (with a sore ankle even). Bern was ripping. I got one lousy manual and a bunch of frustration. Some dude in an I Love Haters DGK shirt came up and did a heelflip on my board in some thick basketball shoes. Pretty tight.

Pretty sure we ended up here next. Bernie did this ride over the grate a few times. So sick. I struggled to ollie that high, but ended up getting a couple wallrides and a front 180 fakie one like Bernie did a bunch.

We pushed downhill through crowds of people and ended up at Freedom Plaza which was totally mobbed with people. We didn’t even try to skate. Those ledges are not short. It was cool to see such an iconic skate spot. The Suciu back tail gap out is pretty nuts.

Saw the gold rail nearby and whipped out this NBD first try.

Then we hit this fun somewhat downhill area for a bit. There was a circle of stairs. 3 or 4 down, 2 up. And some good asphalt in the street and sidewalks above it. I started with ollie up the curb, ollie down the 3, 180 up the 2. Bernie manualed the sidewalk then ollied the 4. I ended up doing my favorite line of the trip with kickflip up the curb, manual a sidewalk section, ollied up the curb then ollied the 4. Put a smile on my face. It was a narrow 4 too and my knee almost hit the ledge. It felt cool to ollie it. We moved on.

We found this little kicker in a back alley that had lots of weird traffic. I guess it was kind of an art studio area or something, but it was weird. We both had some some ollies off it. Mine didn’t pop of course. I back 180’d it with some nice tic tacs that Bernie called steezy since his phone took the photo way too late.

Real close was a sick ledge as a manny pad or off a 3 stair. We went around the corner just to see what it had to offer and it was this cool downhill long ledge with flat gaps in it. Bernie ollied one then ollied the next to manual. So sick. I couldn’t ollie one of the flat gaps to save my life. We got a friendly kick out and kept going. There was the same downhill ledge going the other way which was more of a frontside ollie and I was finally able to ollie a flat gap.

This was right nearby and easily the hardest I’ve laughed in awhile. Bernie would ollie onto it and when he would ride off he would fall into dirt every time. It was so funny. I had to do the lame ollie up to rock and yank it up onto the ledge to ride it. Then we spotted a weird ledge. See where Bernie is in the photo above? Click on it, blow it up, analyze it. The runway is a narrow step. If you go off into the metal grate you hang up. So no angle at all in the approach. The ledge was a bit taller to get on then it looks, but still not tall. The landing has a handrail if you get too out of control.

Bernie back 50’d it a bunch then back 5-0’d it first try.

I took a million tries to get a front 50 both hands down that would only count if you were 50 or older. Oh well. I normally take a lot of angle into front 50s so it was really weird for me. Hyped to have mostly landed it though. This was pretty much the end of downtown. We found a little granite ledge that I did a few crooked grinds on. It was not waxed and sharp and felt pretty raw to grind. It put some crazy grooves in my trucks too. I thought we were done for the day, we took the Metro back to Alexandria, but got off at a different stop to meet Josh.

We got to the stop before Josh and this was directly across from the Metro stop. WTF!!! There were 4 of these in a row and they were not even touched. We got to skate for about 30 minutes, all of which was a blast for me. I thought this spot was beyond amazing. Wallie’ing the corners ruled. Bernie did a front wallie to manual. These did not grind unfortunately. Some wax would have made them go, but we didn’t have any. I just had a blast lining out wallies and different stalls. Got front feeble, back smith, back crooks, a lot. Finally didn’t feel old. Got a wallie front 180. Then we was out.

This band was at the top of my must see list. Mainly because I love their music, but also because I’ve heard they put on one hell of a live show. So when they announced they were playing on my 40th birthday in DC where I’ve owed my homie Josh a trip for years it was on. Bernie signed up for the trip too and the three of us showed up at the Black Cat before the doors to upstairs were open. We were in high spirits and got to meet the band and chat a little. I made a song request of Dream Smotherer. The song that changed me from fan to fanatic. White Lung was the opener. Bernie liked them, but Josh and I were happy when their short set ended.

Pissed Jeans hit the stage and opened with Dream Smotherer. Oh man. And it just got better from there. They only played newer songs from Honeys and King Of Jeans. The material from Honeys was insanely intense. Romanticize Me, In Vain and Bathroom Laughter almost made my head explode. The band was giving it their all. Matt Korvette is a lunatic on the stage and it rules. Saluting flags, swinging his legs around, climbing the wall with his hands on the ground and feet on the wall, standing completely still during Cafeteria Food, rocking a hilarious mohawk, a million things that made amazing music even more enjoyable to watch. The guitarist Brad was rocking out super hard too. They seriously killed it. Their closer was False Jesii Part 2 and they seemed like they had finally ran out of energy. It was a short, but sweet set. They came back out on different instruments and messed around a bit starting off Boring Girls before bringing in a random fan from the crowd, pulled his pants down and gave him the mic. He didn’t really know the words, but the crowd did. Then the guitar switched to a fan and it just kind of fell apart into this hilarious noisy mess where the only original band member still on stage was the drummer. Then it was over. Amazing show. Not sure where it fits in my all time list, but it was pretty darn epic and I’m so glad I was able to finally see them.

After the show the band was at the merch booth again so I asked for a photo op. Sean decided it would be funny to stand right in front of me for the photo. So funny.

Once again, so funny.

“Thanks for coming to our show” – Matt Korvette. Sure thing. It’s always cool when you meet a band and they are nicer then you would think. Thanks to Pissed Jeans, Bernie and Josh for making my 40th Bday so awesome!