Waterparks Concert Review

Written by: Izabelle Garcia

Edited by: Sophia Shull

Waterparks during their Philadelphia show, photo credits to Jawn Rocha

I have been a fan of Waterparks for around seven years now. Spotify says the first song I ever streamed was “Gloom Boys” way back in 2017 when I was a freshman in high school. Once, they were another band on my bucket list. Fast forward to now, and I’m an adult in

college who’s seen and met the band four times!

Waterparks doesn’t disappoint. The energy, especially with crowds in Philadelphia is always there and keeps me coming back for more. With a loyal fanbase of people consistently following tour dates across the country, it’s easy to see how fun and addictive a show can be. 

I first purchased a VIP pass to meet the band, and when checking in, I was greeted by fellow Setlister Kolby working there. Once everyone was settled in, the first opener, Toronto native Sophie Powers, began performing. She appeared to be younger and experienced sound difficulties, making it a rocky start, but she certainly had a fanbase, as you could hear a small group of teenage girls singing along to her lyrics despite her mic’s quiet audio. 

Sophie’s music can be described as alternative pop, her live band adding a rockier edge to her lyrics of teenage love and problems. At some point in the set, Sophie mused out loud to the audience of mostly twenty-somethings that she was nineteen and powered through her extremely short set. 

Next on the roster was Loveless, a pop rock duo with a touring drummer that I’ve vaguely heard from going viral on TikTok for their covers. It was a pleasant surprise to see a group that clearly has had experience over time with performing. They were pop rock in their purest form, fusing the genres with a similar eloquence of bands like Issues and Waterparks. 

Much like Sophie Powers, Loveless also seemed to have a strong fanbase already as crowd surfers were consistent through their much longer set. The band was truly amazing, with strong vocals and engaging crowd interactions. The lead singer, Julian, said this was the LA- based band’s first show in Philadelphia and they were loving the energy. It was a great performance and I hope to see more of the band live in the future.

At last, Waterparks were on, coming onstage with the same decor they had for the Property Tour a year prior, just in a larger venue. The stage was set up like a museum with LED screen photo frames of visuals associated with each song played. The members appeared one by one through the doorway of the set; first Geoff, then Otto, and finally Awsten, who painted on asymmetrical green cross eye-makeup and wore a sparkly cowboy hat from a fan. 

The set was divided into two main sections. The first half was focused on songs on their albums prior to the release of their latest album, Intellectual Property, and included a medley of songs from their album, Greatest Hits.

After that section was over, the band left the stage and a tarp was held up to project what is dubbed as the “Religious Guilt” interlude, a section where the projected shadow of Awsten and people in hazmat suits walking by as an automated voice of a woman monologued about society in relation to sexuality. 

The tarp was then dropped to reveal ivy overgrown on the set and mannequins dressed in hazmat suits scattered too. The band came back on stage the same way they initially did, except this time the band had a costume change and Awsten was dressed in overalls and a mesh top with nothing underneath. 

They began this section of the set with an unreleased song called “SOULSUCKER”, an interlude mirroring their track “ST*RFUCKER” with a slow interlude reminiscent of Halsey’s “Without Me”. From there, they played most of their songs from Intellectual Property and a random interlude of the song “Group Chat” three times, (it’s ten seconds of the band saying their names to a drumbeat, no joke).

By the time most of those songs were over, Awsten headed to the b-stage which was decorated as a small, gated garden complete with a piano and stool for him. Here, he played songs on piano, donning gardening gloves and earmuffs with faded sharpie text seen in their music video for the song “SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN”. 

I was moving around the crowd a lot since I was in the mosh pits and crowd surfing, so I managed to get a good spot close to the small stage as security guided Awsten through the crowd. He spent three songs at the b-stage, two on his own and the last song with Geoff and Otto playing along with him on the main stage.

Awsten came back on with the rest of the band and finished off the final songs of the set. I also caught a glimpse of some nerdy dude in his full CVS uniform going hard in the pit, so shout out to that guy. By the last song, I crowd surfed one more time to return to my sister at the barricade and was almost dropped on my head. It was epic.

After the big finale, my sister and I skipped the long lines to meet the openers and picked up our stuff at coat check. I said goodbye to some friends and headed out. As I’m typing this I’m still bruised from that show, but I keep smiling just from the memory (which is weird for me since I wear a constant frown), so I’m sure that next time Waterparks comes to town, I’ll be there once again.