Vertical skateboarding legend Tony Hawk’s talents know no bounds. Today (May 15), he’s revealed himself as a completely competent hardcore frontman, leading a band of seasoned punk vets in a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ 1992 industrial standard “Wish” as part of Toronto rocker Mike Mikey Hawdon’s “Mikey And His Uke” YouTube series. The rendition features Ben Weinman (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Suicidal Tendencies) on guitar, Brad Magers (The Bronx) on bass, Kat Lucas (stormylovechild) on keys, and Ryan ‘Legs’ Leger (Every Time I Die) on the kit, as well as Hawdon (Fairmounts) on rhythm guitar, backing vocals, and auxiliary percussion.
The cover comes with a video that starts with a clip of Hawdon playing the NIИ track’s central guitar riff on his eponymous instrument before the band starts up in earnest, clips of their remote recordings spliced into the main event: Hawk riding (horizontally) down a beach-side trail, high-fiving passersby as he delivers Trent Reznor’s emphatically nihilistic lyrics. During the song’s most quotable passage — “Gotta listen to your big-time, hard-line, bad luck, fist-fuck” — Hawk almost crashes into the real Reznor, who waves an angry fist at the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 creator at the appropriate moment. Watch the clip above.