As time went on, the excitement and freezing temperatures rose higher and higher outside of MGM Music Hall at Fenway. Fans were eager to get inside the venue, to warm up, and to see a collective favorite band- Waterparks (otherwise known as ‘Parx’).
Waterparks is a lesser known pop-punk band from Houston, most commonly known for their song “I Miss Having S-x But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore” which blew up on TikTok a few years back. Along with this, an iconic part and well known part of the band’s discography is that all of their releases have album titles in alphabetical order- Airplane Conversations, Black Light, Cluster, Double Dare, Entertainment, Fandom, Greatest Hits, and Intellectual Property.
Before going on this tour, lead singer Awsten Knight went on Instagram to announce that this tour would NOT be like any other they’ve ever done- “You know Waterparks will never do the same thing twice,” he said, continuing to state he was even learning piano for this tour to make it new for the fans.
Back at Fenway, there were 2 openers- Sophie Powers, a singer from Toronto, and LOVELESS, a band from Los Angeles. Both were entertaining and kept the energy high.
As for Waterparks, their set start off with a complete blackout, an intro where the band members are seen walking through the doors of the backdrop, and starting off with their song “Watch What Happens Next.” The first roughly 10 minutes of the show is full of mashups and smaller performances of various songs, with one tiktok user even saying “I wish I had gotten a recording of their microperformance of Fuzzy.”
Circling back to him “learning piano for this tour,” Towards the end of the show, Knight went backstage and was escorted behind the crowd to a piano just behind everybody. He played a few songs there, including High Definition and Crying Over It All (both of which shattered me emotionally), before coming back onstage to perform 21 Questions on acoustic guitar (which ALSO shattered me emotionally.)
Their last 3 songs were high energy hardcore songs, where they had the crowd open a mosh pit (which seemed scary, but at this point I had moved to the balcony.) Above all, they chose good songs for the setlist and kept the energy high throughout the show.
I enjoyed my time there, but I will say it was NOT the best concert I’ve ever been to. As much as I enjoy Waterparks, that night they encouraged crowdsurfing, and it’s hard to enjoy the concert when you also have to focus on not getting crushed.
The fans are quite an interesting group of people, some of which are mean, push and shove, and get all up in your space- and all of that can kind of ruin the first half of your concert experience, before you move to the balcony. I’d give this show a 7.5/10.
