If you're gonna go and see a punk show whilst doing dry January (like me), this is a pretty good choice. H20 performed their first show of 2016, in support of their new album Use Your Voice, a 23 minute album which deals with all the things you'd expect from an H20 album, family, friends, love, positivity, and just being your-damn-self.

The Underworld in Camden is the perfect venue for a punk gig, one of those old style grimey venues that seem to be few and far between in London these days. The sound is always fantastic, and tonight was no exception, except a few feedback issues, but the engineer sure has a tough job dealing with Toby Morse's energetic stage performance, sticking his radio mic all over the freakin' place. Mostly the crowthough, actually.

Morse isn't just an inspirational performer, but an inspirational person. His energy on stage is insane, despite, as he explained, feeling sad about having to leave his family behind in America, and getting no sleep for 48 hours or whatever. He delivers the songs with all the hand gestures and moves of a Hip Hop artist, but often slipping into melodic vocals that any singer would be proud of. You can tell he was genuinely excited to see the sell out crowd in London, I'm sure the crowd's reaction (basically constant stage diving and slam dancing) helped with the jet lag.

The band are so tight, and you'd expect that from a band that's been around for 20 years. Songs from the new album such as "Skate!","Use your Voice," and "True Romance" go down really well, as do the classics "1995", "Heart on my Sleeve," "One Life One Chance," "Sunday", obviously. "5 Years Plan", and "Family Tree" from the self titled debut album still sound amazing. The encore included the anthemic "Guilty by Association."

Mixed into the gig were some good crowd interactions, including Toby complimenting the crowd for not filming the gig on phones, and living for the moment. Encouraging people to ditch social media and actually talk to friends and family “over a juice or a smoothie”. I dunno how many of the crowd tonight will be into that though... Guilty pleasures are also touched upon, with Morse revealing his love of Coldplay, which didn't get a great reception... Mid gig he also took his shirt of to reveal an Adele T-shirt underneath. I have to admit it was strange to watch a hardcore punk gig with Adele's face staring back at me for half of it but fuck it, there's no such thing as a bad music taste.

Go see H20 at any given opportunity, even if you don't fully appreciate the music, you'll leave full of optimism, you'll feel a few inches taller and walk with a spring inyour step at least for the next few days. Thanks Toby and the gang, OLOC!!