Alien Workshop Mind Field Premiere

Ben Kelly

• January 30 2009
• 19,037 views
• 26 comments

WARNING: If you don’t want anything spoiled from this video, don’t read below the gallery, especially since this video should be out next week, so you don’t have to wait long for the complete amazingly shocking experience.

We were all pretty psyched for this premiere, so we rolled up from SD five deep in the Civic, stopped at the Podium park for a quick sesh, and jammed over to Melrose in LA, where Alien was holding a rooftop pre-party atop the rooftop of the Burton store. All the Alien dudes were out and everybody was enjoying a couple of beers and Pinks hotdogs before the video. (Mind Field premiere story continued below).

The video was showing at the same theater <i>Fully Flared</i> premiered, Royce Hall on UCLA’s campus. It’s a pretty classy establishment with a no drinks inside policy, ushers enforcing a no photo policy, and other classy things like that. It’s a great place to watch and real quality vid, which was what we were there for.

As the lights start dimming and video began to play, the first thing I remember hearings was that J Mascis guitar riff that Alien has become synonymous for from back in the day. And then Omar’s part. Amazing. His last trick is the monstrous 50-50 from his Analog ad, but he had to pop out mid-ledge and then ollie the last set of stairs. Skating to a Dinosuar Jr. song, and some incidental appearances of J Mascis, made for the perfect intro to what we were about to witness.

Here’s a little more of what I can remember for last night and what made for some good Civic talk on the way home. In no particular order…

The ams literally killed it. I must have heard Jake Johnson’s name mentioned a hundred times while walking out the theater. Tyler Bledsoe’s gap to back tail kickflip out a second gap from his Fourstar ad was in there too as well as some over seriously solid and all-bolts skating. And Grant Taylor is skating bumps to the top of chain link fence doors. Wow.

Arto Saari got one of the heaviest crowd reactions when his name appeared on screen. He took one of the gnarliest slams I’ve seen in a long time right at the beginning of his part and then just straight bangers from there on out, including that back lip down the double set kinker.

It’s always good to see Steve Berra and Rob Dyrdek putting out parts with everything else they’ve been doing for skateboarding off the board. They were a tad short, but they still got it. They really do.

Josh Kalis was another still putting out a solid part. Pushing to a hip hop song, it was a good mix up from the Dinosaur Jr./Animal Collective-ish sounds. Still with one of the best 360 flips you’ll ever witness, Kalis came through once again. A nollie big-spin back noseblunt anybody? A switch big-spin back tail? Anybody?

Mikey Taylor had a lot of footage. A lot of good footage. He only gets better with time, still holds on to his style of skateboarding, but the spots are bigger and the tricks are harder. I still love how he sits on his grinds. Like a crooks. Like in this video. You’ll see what I mean.

Dylan Rieder. So much style, obviously, and so much talent. The way to catches and puts down his last trick is unreal. I coulda had that one on repeat for hours.

Almost forgot to mention Dill. And yes, he has ollies in his part. You know what you’re getting here. Just read his interview coming out in the next issue and you know he puts more thought into his video parts than most. If you’re a Dill fan, you’re gonna like what you’re gonna get. And his never been done manual trick for an ender will make you like it even more.

So who’s left? AVE and Heath. Both completely annihilate everything and anything. I felt like a 12 year old boy after getting slapped in the face by these two. Words can’t even do these two parts justice. AVE skating and doing tricks with some Guy Mariano influence, but still doing them like a beast on big ass ledges and rails. And Heath, skating to Morrissey I might add, kept it classic Heath in all the right ways. Everything he does just gets gnarlier and gnarlier as the part goes on and how does he end it? Well, I’ll let you wait and see what he gets towed into yourself.

And yes. Heath has last part.