Formed in the lower East side of Manhattan, H2O opened for almost every hardcore band, including Rancid, No Doubt, Social Distortion and was included in the lineup for Warped Tour 1998 and 1999.  Bassist Adam Blake joined the band in 1996 and never looked back.

It can’t be 20 years already for H2O, can it? How time flies in between stage dives and microphone grabs. Nobody could have predicted that the smilin’ New York hardcore band would still be pumping out the breakdowns two decades later back when the group was just a one-song experiment by Sick of it All roadie Toby Morse and friends. But H2O quickly built a reputation for high-intensity live shows that would eventually take the group around the world. This Sunday, the group struts into Walters on their 20th anniversary tour, their place in the NYHC pantheon long since secured.

The core group consists of Toby Morse (lead vocals), Rusty Pistachio (guitar/vocals), Todd Friend (drums/percussion) and Adam Blake (bass). Three other members came and went: Todd Morse, Max Capshaw and Eric Rice.

Bassist Adam Blake is the new guy in the group — he’s only been in the band for a paltry 19 years. But he was around from the very beginning, and right from the start, he says, there was something different about H2O.

“I had finished with my previous band, which was a band called Shelter, and I remember I would watch H2O because we would play shows with them,” Blake says. “I just loved the vibe of it. It was so positive and so fun.

Positive vibe and fun made for a successful combination.  H2O did what few bands could do – they mixed the New York rage sound with punk and did it well. Adam Blake left Shelter and joined H2O.

“At that point, there was really a lot of ‘tough-guy’ bands, you know?” he continues. “It was all about who could be the meanest, who could be the hardest, and I never really connected with any of that. That stuff was never something I really liked. I liked metal, but I didn’t like that in hardcore. It was great to see a band that wasn’t in any way, shape or form influenced by that.”

20 years later, H2O is now a touring machine and weathered the many changes of hardcore/punk rock.  They managed to stay true to themselves and their music.  Read on to see what their success stems from at Houston Press.  Have you been lucky enough to see H2O live?  Let us know!

Photo courtesy of Adam Blake