When it comes to New York Hardcore, I was all about the old bands. For me, it was all about Kraut, Agnostic Front, Murphy's Law and the mighty Cro-Mags. Sure, there were several other notables like Token Entry, Gorilla Biscuits, Sick of It All, Quicksand, Leeway, Crumbsuckers and a few others, but my heart really belonged to the first four bands I cited. Some might argue that Kraut don't even belong under the NYHC banner, being that they were a good deal older and basically more straight-ahead punk rock than the others, but I'll let the purists debate that.
At some point towards the latter end of the 80s, though, I kinda checked out of the whole hardcore scene. As far as I was concerned, a lot of the bands just seemed to be running aground and not progressing at all. As I started turning my attention elsewhere, a whole new crop of outfits came along to carry the hardcore torch. When I hear some of them (the to-my-mind tuneless noise of outfits like 25 Ta Life and their ilk), I don't really feel like I missed out on much. But one band that I did miss the boat on who genuinely did seem like something special was H20.
The only reason I'm writing about them now is because it turns out they're playing with the afore-cited Cro-Mags in a couple of weeks at the Highline Ballroom. Inspired by same, I sought out a little by the band on ye olde internet, and came across this clip from 2008. In it, H20 lament both the state of hardcore and the gentrification of New York City. In the video -- after a slightly sanctimonious-but-still-endearing lecture from Michael Rappaport -- you'll see the band sitting on the steps of 99X on East 10th street (gone), performing at the TriBeCa Knitting Factory (gone), shopping for records at Generation (still there), singing in front of the Joe Strummer mural on East 7th Street (since touched up) and -- of course -- standing in front of the shuttered edifice of CBGB (now the John Varvatos boutique).
I can only imagine that they're even more pissed off now, which will probably make for a great show.
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