It’s been two and a half years since American pop-rock band Waterparks released their latest album, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. This has meant it’s also been just as long since the band last toured Europe. Despite no new album having been released yet, the three-piece finally decided to cross the ocean once again for the ‘PROWLER Tour’. On the 15th of March, the tour made a stop at Tilburg’s 013. Waterparks had no support with them for this show, so the night would be dedicated to just them and their expansive discography.
“One, two, three, it’s a Waterparks song,” it sounded over the speakers at 19:55, a few minutes before the show was supposed to go underway, and the crowd started cheering in anticipation. However, the show ended up not actually starting until twenty-five minutes later when the introductory video played on the screen. One by one, the band members walked on stage and took their respective places. Lead singer and guitarist Awsten Knight took center-stage behind the microphone; guitarist Geoff Wigington went to stand on his left; and drummer Otto Wood, of course, took a seat behind his drumkit, his platform surrounded by a cut-out of a skyline. Right away, the band dove into the first song on tonight’s setlist, ‘Blonde’, followed by ‘SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN’ and ‘FUCK ABOUT IT’. The first pit already opened up during the second song, with Knight hyping up both the crowd and his fellow bandmates by making the fans chant their names. When those first three songs were done, Knight apologized to the audience for it having been so long since their last tour, which led to loud booing from the crowd. It got even louder when he said they’d never been to Tilburg at all! Reminiscing about their last show in Utrecht, Knight asked the crowd to ‘U’ instead, which led to the Dutch people having to explain that that’s not a thing in any other city. “No fun sounds?” he asked – well, no, not in Tilburg!
The rest of the show would be divided into sections, as explained by a middle-aged man in a black & white video playing on the screen. Throughout the show, Waterparks would be exploring “the primary emotions” and it would start with the man’s favourite of them all. “Let’s see what Waterparks has to say about: happiness”. As soon as the video was over, the stage lights turned back on, and the band started this section with ‘Stupid for You’. During this track, the night’s first crowdsurfer was lifted into the sky, and so the tone was set. Throughout this evening, the crowd would also be allowed to make several choices about the setlist, as explained by Knight afterwards. The first choice was between FANDOM’s ‘Telephone’ and Entertainment’s ‘Peach (Lobotomy)’. The crowd, or rather, one specific fan who was asked to, picked the former. There’d be a lot of interaction between Knight and the fans throughout the entire show, and it was evident how much fun he was having. He stated how it feels like he’s missed out by not having been to this city before, and after playing ‘Dream Boy’, he said that “that was my favourite ‘Dream Boy’ I can fucking remember”. Some people lie while on stage, but Knight promised the audience that he would never. Finally, the happiness section ended with ‘FUNERAL GREY’.
Another video introduced the audience to a feeling that everyone is familiar with and that “Awsten seems incredibly acquainted with”: sadness. First up, the band played ‘High Definition’, and the fans lit up the room with their flashlights as Knight went to sit down to sing this particular song. Next, it was time for another vote, this time between ‘Gloom Boys’ and ‘Not Warriors’. He asked the fan he gave the choice to what their name was, and when they replied with “Montana”, Knight was flabbergasted. “Your name is Montana, like the place? My name is Awsten, like the place!” Montana ended up picking ‘Gloom Boys’, and so it was played. Afterwards, Knight explained to the audience that this show was very special as they did not have a new album to tour just yet, but that the upcoming album is basically done, and that they will definitely be back as soon as it’s released. It wasn’t time to play songs from the upcoming project just yet, though, as Waterparks continued with the “underrated as fuck” song ‘Crybaby’ and ‘I Felt Younger When We Met’.
Wood and Wigington left the stage for the first part of what would be the acoustic set. During this part, Knight played a few songs on a whim, as requested by fans. Tonight, the first request Knight decided to honor was ‘Mad All the Time’. As he would be trying to do as many songs as possible, he’d only do less than sixty seconds of each. He followed with ‘CALL ME BEEP ME’, which has only been released as a demo, and ‘It Follows’. As one might remember, fans got to pick between ‘Gloom Boys’ and ‘Not Warriors’ earlier on. For those who might have preferred the latter, Knight decided to play it after all. Finally, he ended the acoustic set with ‘2 BEST FRIENDS’ and ‘11:11’, before giving the fans one final choice: ‘21 Questions’ or ‘Lucky People’. Knight decided that the cheers were louder for the former and requested that the audience light up the room with their flashes once more. Halfway through the song, Wood and Wigington came back on so they could all finish it together. “You guys wanna know a secret?” Knight then asked the audience. “If I could live anywhere in Europe, it would be here!”. This led to loud cheers; another moment for Knight to question why Tilburg doesn’t use the ‘U’ sound; and a weird discussion about the current housing crisis, to which Knight declared he’d be living on a scooter and be constantly on the move instead. After this yap session, Waterparks finished the section with ‘I Miss Having Sex but At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore’.
Before the next section would kick in, Knight took a moment to once again talk about the new album. This has been the longest Waterparks have ever taken to make an album, and he thanked the audience for affording them that time. “Do you mind if we show you a little bit of what we’ve been working on?” Knight asked before the middle-aged man showed up on the screen again. It was time to introduce the emotion he was most excited for: anticipation. “Waterparks is working on the best album of their career!” he said, and so the second-to-last section kicked off with ‘IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL’, followed by ‘RED GUITAR’. Waterparks then played a part of an as-of-yet unreleased track, which was also the track the tour was named after, ‘PROWLER’. A big moshpit ensued as requested by Knight. The section ended with the way slower ‘ANY MINUTE NOW’. All four of these tracks will appear on the new album, and it was obvious that the fans cannot wait for that to be released.
The show ‘ended’ with one last emotion, namely anger. For this section, crowdsurfing and mosh pits were encouraged, as the middle-aged man stated. The fans happily obliged as Waterparks played ‘TANTRUM’, ‘REAL SUPER DARK’, and finally, ‘TURBULENT’. These three songs are among the hardest in the band’s discography, and the crowd truly went wild for them. Of course, the show wasn’t over just yet when the three men walked off the stage. One final video appeared on the screen to introduce the encore. This time, the band members themselves also showed up on the video, thanking the audience for coming. In real life, they walked back on stage to end the show with ‘LIKE IT’.
For those who were not in attendance, the advice would be to make sure to catch Waterparks on their next tour for a night filled with banging music, crowdsurfing, mosh pits, and a lot of laughter. The band truly puts effort into their graphics and stage design and does their best to give their fans all their love and attention (even if Knight sometimes shows his appreciation very sarcastically). As said earlier, it won’t be as long till Waterparks will be back this time, as the next album will be out presumably later this year. Stay tuned!
