The Used was scheduled to play this show at the Promo West Pavikion in addition to the two bands mentioned. For some reason they didn't play, but it was for the best. While my only exposure to H2O was a video I saw on 120 Minutes a few years ago, I was still psyched about seeing them play, because this was my first real punk rock show. H2O filled an hour slot and rocked the house. In addition to playing an amazingly energetic set, they integrated a few mini covers and a break dance contest into their show. The mini covers included the begining of U2's song "With or Without You" and short bursts of James Brown's "I Feel Good" and a Clash song I wasn't familiar with. They also did a full punk version of Madonna's "Like a Prayer." The break dance contest was probably the most entertaining part of the show though. Right after mentioning that they were going to play for an hour, Toby stopped the band and said, "who wants to have a break dance contest." Two members of the audience went up on stage, the first sucked, the second was actually good. All in all H2O kicked ass.
As most of you know, Boxcar Racer contains two thirds of Blink 182: Tom and Travis. The reason Thom formed BCR was to write more introspective songs. Well, I can say that he did that succesfully. The show was short, but full of true punk rock energy. The high point for me, though, was when they did a cover of Barry Manilowe's "Mandy." If there's one thing that I love about punk rock, it's the fact that the musicians aren't affraid to cover songs like this. Anyway, the Boxcar Racer show was a little disapointing. I've heard of hilarious interludes during Blink shows, but there was nothing like that here. Tom also seemed either really nervous or really out of breath. Regarless, the show was fun and H2O kicked enough ass to cancel out the lack of banter from Boxcar Racer.
