Kentish Town Forum, London, March 26
We’re just under halfway through Waterparks’ set when Awsten Knight makes an admission to a packed-out O2 Forum in London’s Kentish Town.
“You guys deserve some good news,” the frontman smiles.
“The next Waterparks album is fucking done.”
Three years since the release of ‘INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY’ – the trio’s longest ever gap between albums – it’s an announcement that elicits a predictably loud response from the room. It also confirms the purpose of tonight, the final show of a run that Awsten has dubbed the ‘road to the album’ tour. It’s a chance to look back over every part of Waterparks’ weird and wonderful story so far, and a promise that the best is still yet to come.
Following a spectacular pre-show playlist that has fans shouting along to everything from Twenty One Pilots’ ‘Message Man’ and My Chemical Romance’s ‘This Is How I Disappear’ to The Hives’ ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ and Fall Out Boy’s ‘Sunshine Riptide’, the lights go down as we’re introduced to ‘The Waterparks Show’.
Divided into distinct segments, each separated by black-and-white video interludes, the central focus of the Texans’ show tonight is emotion. After the high-energy buzz of 2018 favourite ‘Blonde’ and album five cuts ‘SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN’ and ‘FUCK ABOUT IT’ serve as the opening credit scene of sorts, we’re launched into the first of the emotions we’ll be exploring – happiness.
The screen behind the band flashing with blue and yellow as the word ‘PARXBO!Z’ and the ‘Double Dare’ hand grenades bounce across it, the mosh pit is open and ready for business as they launch into ‘Stupid For You’. When the buzz settles momentarily, Awsten puts the fate of the next few minutes in the hands of one fan, offering up the choice between ‘Telephone’ and ‘Peach (Lobotomy)’. The former is picked and joyfully rattled through, with drummer Otto Wood giving a revised version of the outro’s ‘The Wedding Singer’ sample: “He’s losing his mind… and London is reaping all the benefits.”
After throwing it back to the ‘FANDOM’ tour with ‘Dream Boy’, which Awsten performs with a trans flag draped around him, we soon move into the next of our emotional segments: sadness. A feeling which the on-screen host notes the band are ‘incredibly acquainted with’, we kick off with a moment of gut-wrenching introspection thanks to ‘High Definition’ before a rare performance of criminally underrated ‘Entertainment’ cut ‘Not Warriors’.
Embracing the opportunity to bust out some deeper cuts and personal favourites, as Otto and Geoff leave the stage for the acoustic section of the show, things get truly silly. Rattling through a medley of fan requests whilst some technical issues are figured out, Awsten throws things right back to the early days with snippets of EP cuts ‘Mad All The Time’ and ‘I’m A Natural Blue’ slotted in alongside ‘Dizzy’, ‘BRAINWASHED’, ‘11:11’ and a handful of the band’s other lesser-played tracks.
With every “then what?” that comes out of Awsten’s mouth during ‘21 Questions’ echoed back twice as loud by the raucous sea of fans, we soon transition into the evening’s third segment: anticipation. A chance to showcase the next chapter of Parx, the frontman allows the crowd a five-second window to boo the trio for taking so long to complete their latest album before launching into the unapologetic swagger of ‘IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL’. Following sing-alongs aplenty on ‘RED GUITAR’, the biggest pit of the night is whipped into action for the venomous bite of unreleased cut ‘PROWLER’ before Awsten takes a moment to get real with the room.
“This is a song about feeling like you’re not quite where you’re supposed to be yet,” he says.
“Even if you feel like you’re behind in whatever you’re doing… It’s fucking fine. You’re always gonna feel that way, and this song is about accepting that.”
Rounding out our preview of Waterparks’ next era, what follows is a beautifully emotional moment, a heart-warming rendition of ‘ANY MINUTE NOW’ backdropped by a video showing moments of how far the trio have come. It’s a touching few minutes, but it’s soon time for Awsten’s favourite part of the show, and our final emotional chapter: anger.
If anyone in the room was holding out for their moment to start a pit or request a leg up for a crowd surf, now’s the time. The night’s energy reaches a whole new level during the fury of 2018 track ‘TANTRUM’, but Awsten has one last request before the crushing synth-fuelled brilliance of ‘REAL SUPER DARK’ kicks into gear: “Everything that just happened, double it.”
It’s likely that this is the last time we’ll see Waterparks on UK soil before the arrival of album six, and it seems that every single person present is desperate to make the most of it. Draining every last drop of adrenaline out of the room as they roll straight into ‘TURBULENT’, the party closes out with ‘LIKE IT’, featuring an on-screen guest appearance from Rock Sound’s own James Wilson Taylor.
Celebrating every era of Parx so far and doing an impressive amount of fan service along the way, no matter how many throwbacks we’re treated to, tonight is about one thing.
What happens next.
Journeying through the many faces of a band dedicated to evolution, giving each one its flowers before moving on, there’s no denying which emotion is most prevalent as bodies shuffle out of the room and onto the city’s streets. We’ve heard a handful of new songs, we’ve seen them live, and the anticipation is sky-high, but in true Waterparks style… We still have no idea what to truly expect from their next full-length offering. One thing’s for sure, though, they’ve never let us down before.
Parx #6, we’re ready for you.
