Still here, sincere, after all these crazy years

H20 in a small club. Any hardcore and punkkid in the right mind would love to see that. So it was no surprise to me that the venue was sold out on this sundaymatinee.
What did surprise me however when entering the venue together with the fine people of Shield Recordings was the absence of H20 merch.

First band Noyalty opened on time and did an impressive set of American Nightmare meets StretchArmstrong songs. Personally I didn't like the full sound of the band. On the record the melodies are way better than live.



When Noyalty was done, there was still no sign of H20. People were getting itchy and more restless by the minute (the ones who weren't drinking at least). Cindy of All For Nothing couldn't bring a better message than 'H20 are in the building'. But first All For Nothing was up to show the Netherlands why all over Europe their early Comeback Kid hardcore with a female singer is recognised as awesome. I guess the Dutch are finally learning as well since there was plenty of crowd movement and singalongs.

After 10 hours in a small van, the last day of the tour, away from family on mother's day we all got a more pissed off and aggressive H20 than I've seen in years. From song 1 the whole place exploded. Divers everywhere. Massive singalongs, fingerpointing, moshing. Sweat, bruised knees, people on the floor. Hardcore 2010 can be as excited as the first H20 shows 15 years ago.



The band played a lot of songs from their latest record as well as some old hits and covers. Their Cro-Mags intro was hard!

Ofcourse I was x-ed up and waiting for one of my favorite songs 'Still Here'. When that one came along I did my best to singalong and do some stage dives (My first in I think three years).

I sticked around up front and decided to do some more dives on the last song 'What happened'.



What a sunday. If you told me 15 years ago I would still have much fun if not more at a H20 show I might have looked a bit confused but this was definately one of the best shows of 2010, hell of everything the recent years.

pics by Live Your Heart Photography.

Here's a short clip from the show: