Google.com teaches that the geographic coordinates for Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s are 40.63 degrees north and 75.37 degrees west. Barcelona, Spain, that hotbed of accommodative architecture and lax public consumption statutes, can meanwhile be found at 41.3874 degrees north, 2.1686 degrees east — about 52 miles separating them on the ‘James W. Buffett scale.’ Few may mistake the smoke stacks, derelict structures and petroleum plants of ‘The Front Row’ for Barcelona’s tiled and technicoloured Gaudís, but squint for a little bit at the smorgasbord of banks and bars and other incredible spots that Jake Baldini and Matt Andersen dredged from the rural Midatlantic in their ripping new vid, and wonder whether those planefuls of Spain-bound ’00s pros maybe weren’t looking hard enough.
A bunch of the heads are back from the pair’s still-great 2020 ‘Rust Belt Trap,’ including clips from boss figures Jerry Mraz, John Gardner and Dave Caddo, plus certain hot shoes spanning the Midwest and East Coast — Joseph Delgado, the twisting Ray Abaza, Brett Weinstein hucking a huge backside 180, and footage pumper John Shanahan, grinding a large pipe into a highway lane and rummaging through the Lynx archives. Persons identified as Rubble Man and Jut appear, along with a mountain bike dude, and the heaviest parts come from Jake Baldini and Matt Andersen themselfs, the former hurricane grinding the fearsome Jake Johnson hubba and backside 180 5-0ing to pop out at the JFK banks, the latter spinning a couple crazy back-to-back nollie 180 5-0 180s out on some bank-to-Philly step type spots, while the guitars squall.
The supporting player and sometime scene-stealer throughout this whole video though is what is widely regarded as one of the ‘unicorns’ of street spots: the bank to ledge. Whereas curbs, ledges, rails and stairs can be dime-a-dozen common, if not always perfect, banks to ledges are much fewer and farther between, enough so that some of the more well-known versions have earned a pass for the unwritten rule against fabricated spots — IE, the benches residing atop the Lockwood banks, or the box that sat for a while on the big part of the Brooklyn Banks.
In ‘Front Row’ Jake Baldini and Matt Andersen hoard a trove of banks to ledges, of nearly every color and flavour imaginable — there are banks of diamond plate, square tile and brick to ledges; cellar doors to ledges in multiple sizes and configurations; cellar doors to window sills; bridge support pillars; a bank to ledge to gap to bank, asphalt lumps leading to cinder blocks. The range on display in Jake Baldini’s section alone leaves the viewer wondering whether such fabled spots a freely littered across Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Mary-Land, bound to draw vanfuls of VX-toting ‘Static’ disciples like how the legend of ‘El Dorado’ and its alleged gold-paved streets transfixed wealth-seeking Euros at various points in centuries past.
Might the next Baldini-Andersen joint hold the working title of ‘Bank to Ledge: Tha Video’? Does the array of amazing spots threaten to obscure the crazy tricks on more traditional stuff, like Matt Andersen’s all-the-way backside nosegrind on the Chicago post office block? Will the runaway success of the mineral-gathering video game franchise ‘Minecraft’ lead a generation of kids to embrace anthracite coal mining?
boil the ocean 