H2O - What Happened

I met a guy at work today. He came into the gym wearing a sleeveless t-shirt that said H2O on the front. On the back was the NYHC - New York Hardcore - logo. I didn't get a chance to speak to him at first, but then I saw him on his way out.

I said, "H2O, as in the band?"

Yep.

I mean, I knew that, but I didn't feel like leading with, "I love your shirt!" - I wanted to talk to the man, not just hear, "Thanks! Bye!"

We talked hardcore, punk, and so on for a few minutes about H2O, Rancid, The Offspring, and even The Criminals. A co-worker that I'm pretty tight with heard us, and it turns out he's a big fan of bands like Face-to-Face, Lagwagon, NOFX, and so on. I told him about seeing them on the second show ever at the Roseland and not again until they opened for Rancid again at Terminal 5.

He had to run, but I can't wait to talk to him more. I'm not a huge hardcore fan, but H2O puts on a great show.

Rancid, H2O, and The Interrupters at Terminal 5

Last night my wife and I went to see Rancid at Terminal 5 - her second show, my, uhm, I don't remember.

It was a typical Rancid setup - they headline, they have one band they're touring with (in this case, LA's The Interrupters), and one local band. The local band was H2O.

I was pretty happy when I saw that, because I had not seen them in a long, long time. I'm certain the first time I saw them was opening for the Rancid 1995 And Out Come The Wolves tour.

Turns out this is the band's 20th anniversary - and those shows they did opening for Rancid at The Roseland Ballroom were some of their first ever shows. In fact, if I went the third of three shows, which I think I did, I saw their third show ever. Pretty cool.

H2O was really good, and I enjoyed The Interrupters even though I'm not such a big ska fan (I like ska-infused punk, but not as much as straight-up punk.) I did enjoy their cover of Sound System by Operation Ivy (that's the old band of Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman of Rancid)!

There is a setlist up, but it's got a duplication (they didn't do Junkie Man twice, I can't spot the missing song offhand.) Speaking of Junkie Man, they did that with Lars doing the Jim Carroll (Basketball Diaries, The Jim Carroll band) poem during the bridge.

It was a tight set - much less stage chatter than in the past. And their drummer (who I still think of as "the new guy" despite having been in the band longer than the original drummer) was very animated, standing on his kit a few times during the show. Very cool.

It was an interesting show, since it was the first full non-festival set I saw since Let's Go in late 1994/early 1995 that didn't feature "The War is Over" and the first show in years that didn't feature one of my favorites, "Black Derby Jacket." But I'll live - I like every one of their songs and they always choose good ones to play live. Really oddly, they only did one track off their excellent new CD, and that as an encore! But they played my wife's favorite, Olympia WA, so that's the most important part.

Here is a taste of all three bands live:
Rancid, "Last One To Die"


H2O, "Guilt by Association"


The Interrupters, "Take Back the Power"


Great show, I'm glad we went.