Waterparks packed out the O2 Academy in Birmingham on Thursday night; their fans filling the room before support from the Aussie quartet, Stand Atlantic, took to the stage. The energy was already high, and you would think it was a headline set with how engaged and enthused the crowd were. Songs such as ‘deathwish’ and ‘bloodclot’.
It was safe to say they were fully warmed up by the time the Houston trio took to the stage, opening with ‘STARF*CKER’ from their latest album, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. The stage was flooded with rainbow lighting before they went straight into older songs ‘Numb’ and ‘Rare’.
“This is already beating Glasgow and we’ll be sad when we leave,” excited frontman Awsten Knight declared, in admiration of the crowd’s volume and energy. He went on to mention that the last time they were in Birmingham, they were in a room half the size and couldn’t believe the current capacity; a visual reminder of their propelling success.
The electric set was a satisfying mixture of old and new songs, featuring crowd favourite ‘BRAINWASHED’, earnest track ‘CLOSER’ and throwback single ‘Royal’ from 2016’s Double Dare. Their heaviest track ‘RITUAL’ was next and we witnessed Awsten killing the vocals, Geoff Wigington shred his guitar, and Otto Wood perfectly adding to the blend with his drums; their energy unrelenting.
Powerful ‘A NIGHT OUT ON EARTH’ was the last song before the trio left the stage one-by-one, leaving the crowd wanting more and chanting, “TURBULENT!”. It wasn’t long before the whole room was bouncing again and the band were back on stage with ‘REAL SUPER DARK’, ‘Turbulent’ and epic finisher ‘FUNERAL GREY’ which took the volume and atmosphere to another level, everybody loving the catchy anthem and screaming the lyrics back to the band.
Waterparks have always been captivating with both their artistry and their charismatic presence; they define entertainment and we can’t wait to see what they do next.