The First Great Skate Video of the 2020s — Bronze’s ‘Hardware For The Masses’

They say history goes in cycles. They say those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Just the other day, someone on here was talking about how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Word is that the new Zero video feels like a tepid rehash of an old Zero video, but thanks to Peter Sidlauskas, we won’t have to watch the new Zero video.

But what if you do learn from the past and use its lessons to steer your ship forward, with a Fred Gall front shove as your guiding north star?

On first glance, Bronze’s Hardware For The Masses winks at the past. It has a fling with noseslide crooked grinds. Its production involved car rides to Staten Island’s P.S. 4 and Paterson’s Eastside High, which were most commonplace before Lil Wayne observed that he felt like dying. It includes gratuitous jump cuts into slow mo and an old half-a-Daft-Punk-song that would feel at home in a pre-Girl Ty Evans production. Dick Rizzo arrived to find larger versions of the spheres from Trust to turn into a flat gap, while McFeely is every bit goat-like as he was in the Flipmode days. Aaliyah’s swan song from Solo Jazz even pays us a visit.

But these nods to Bronze’s run as the 2010s’ most-bitten video franchise and to skateboarding’s greater story never feel like a rally against what lies ahead. Hardware For The Masses is their most expansive video — it covers three continents and a Caribbean island worth of spots — the crew is at its largest, and the skating is somehow better than ever, which is saying a lot given how good It’s Time was.

Bronze’s latest is without-a-doubt, the first video from the 2020s that we will remember, and that means we are off to a good start ♥ Can’t wait for the next reader survey in 2029 :)

13 Comments

  1. i watched the entire zero video, hosted by a facebook account called “skaters de verdad” because on thrasher, you can only watch it part-by-part. that includes the intro. i don’t remember a lot of their names. i liked the black guy’s part. i know who js lapierre is. he had a couple clips in a montage. i fell asleep before last part. didn’t even realize that i slept thru it until i saw the ender on instagram the next day. is his name james brockman? dane burman? are these guys poor or wut? like, do these guys hop train cars and busk or drive hybrids and eat poké? the zero aesthetic in this day in age hits different. like, the bro eating the bug in the intro looks like he works at the london prada store or somethin. honestly don’t remember if jamie thomas had any footage. wait he did. i don’t remember what he did but i remember thinking about how he edited his part himself. i’m thinking now about his nose ring, and about his full name: “james thomas.” sorry, it appears as though i’ve wandered off onto a little bit of a small tangent. to reel it back in, in summary, i’m glad to have watched “damn it all.”

  2. this video made me want to eat some shrooms. Watch “it’s time” on shrooms and I promise you’ll be stuck in a transient universe….or maybe it would be a multiverse – who the fuck knows. Cheers to Bronze for melting my cerebral cortex!

  3. Who’s the tall, long-haired dude who kicks off his Nike’s into the garbage to start off his part? His clips are the most banging IMO.

  4. The new Zero video doesn’t even have any Fred Gall. Why would I watch that.

  5. Hey Peter, what’s your Modus Operandi for editing? Do you have a REASON you edit like this? Is there a RHYTHM to your funky process? Watch your back man.

  6. I’m at max fish and I didn’t watch this or the zero video… I only watch supreme videos.


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