Live Review: Waterparks - Roundhouse, London 31/10/2023

As well as being Halloween — and National Knock Knock Joke Day — it also served as the first night of Waterparks’ ‘The Property’ tour, supported by Stand Atlantic, over at Camden’s Roundhouse. With a host of both wholesome and horrifying costumes adorning the fanatic crowd, along with some festively dressed performers, the night served as both trick and treat for the Londoners.

Preceded by the song of the Summer, Barbie’s ‘I’m Just Ken’, being blasted from the speakers, the Australian pop-punk favourites were greeted by an already inordinately packed Roundhouse. Dressed in a vivid mix of black and neon pink for Halloween — Barbenheimer, anyone? — the quartet seemed to revel in the room’s roars, the two thousand plus hands of the crowd laid out before them cascading in unison testament to their contagiously catchy tunes. The chorus of voices screaming along to the entire set — particularly for ‘pity party’, and fan favourite ‘Lavender Bones’ — showed a swathe of the room already intimately familiar with their tracks, while a delightfully diverse blend of sounds — from the live debut of ‘sex on the beach’, a more electronically minded track, full of pounding bass and dubstep-like sonic flourishes, or the acerbically anthemic ‘Blurry’, complete with a crowd surfing and surging over the barrier, to the emotional ‘bloodclot’, gradually growing smatterings of swaying flashlights held aloft by the adoring crowd, and the acerbic ‘molotov (ok)’, circle pits hurtling throngs of people in place— helped sway the uninitiated. An impromptu fashion show amidst a crevice formed in the crowd — The Lorax versus a Lobster, Shrek versus a quickly formed, abyss spanning rowboat — didn’t hurt either! A great start to the night.

It wasn’t long until the Texan trio of Waterparks appeared, reverentially bedecked in cassocks; flying straight into the technicolour tones of opener ‘ST*RFUCKER’, fractured rainbow lights illuminating the screaming crowd, it didn’t take much for them to come alight — though the flames and sparks roaring free from the stage during second song ‘Numb’ sure didn’t hurt either.

‘Mind if we do stuff from all the albums, catch you up to speed?’ Awsten asked, the crowd chomping at the bit, as a host of tracks from the band’s past — ‘Stupid For You’, ‘Crave’, ‘Cluster’ — competed with the new; particularly the recently released ‘SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN’, which also saw cries for ‘Otto Parks!’ rising from those in the know. “Only on my deathbed”, Awsten pledged — only then could drummer Otto Wood finally take the helm.

What followed was an evening of unadulterated fun. From the jaunty ‘2 Best Friends’ or ‘BRAINWASHED’ to the sanguine soaked ‘FUCK ABOUT IT’, the entire-crowd-pitting ‘RITUAL’ or the blisteringly bass-heavy ‘[Reboot]’, the band never seemed to fall into a pattern; everything felt new and exciting. The trio even took time to sneak an acoustic medley into the set, Awsten taking to the stage with his trusty guitar to play ‘Violet!’, ‘21 Questions’, ‘High Definition’, and even a short, beloved, unpracticed, and ever-so-slightly painful rendition of the UK anthem ‘Wonderwall’, the crowd screaming out the chords as he went — all collectively noted down on the setlist as ‘Whatever Awsten Is Doing’.

And then who can forget the brilliant ‘I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore’ — somehow sounding both unwittingly upbeat and oppressively nihilistic at the same time?

Final track ‘Funeral Grey’ — a bubbly and bright way to end the night — left the crowd with the nicely saccharine sweetness of a gig well done.

A colourful, vibrant and vivacious night.

Words by James O’Sullivan
Photography by Abigail Shii