WATERPARKS AT IRVING PLAZA IN NEW YORK CITY
Waterparks brought “The Property Tour” through New York City to Irving Plaza as part of their North American Tour. This stop was sold out, and so were many other dates on their tour! In April, they released their highly anticipated fifth studio album Intellectual Property. The band has been together for over 10 years and has a distinct sound. Frontman Awsten Knight steals the show with his comedy between each song.
First to open up was Elliot Lee, who was performing for the 5/12-5/31 dates of their tour. They came out with a fuzzy outfit and jumped all over the stage. Elliot said there wasn’t much room to move around the stage, but made the most of it. They threw their hat off and said they got to play songs the label said no to. The crowd was singing songs that just came out, which was pretty cool. Elliot said they didn’t even do a sound check today, but everything sounded great. Elliot even went into the crowd to sing to them at one point. I love when artists do that and aren’t afraid to get up close and personal with their fans.
Hunny was up next, who joined Waterparks as support for the entire length of their tour. They played some old and famous songs which I even recognized. Hunny said they wanted to see the crowd jump up and down during the songs. They explained it was the first night of the tour where they had a drumset between them, and that usually were next to each other. You couldn’t tell because they kept moving back and forth on the stage to keep it interesting. I like how they incorporated a lot of mentions of NYC in the songs and in between. The crowd was having a lot of fun and was jumping around through their entire set. I love how they talked to their fans during their songs instead of only in between them.
Then the moment all the fans were waiting for, Waterparks hit the stage. The entire venue was packed from wall to wall, with fans yelling and throwing their hands up. The lead singer Awsten said he was on vocal rest for 36 hours just for this show. He said he has a lot to tell us all the time. From the beginning of their set, I could tell he would be talking and interacting with the crowd a lot. At specific points, he would have one-on-one interactions with fans in the crowd and then would have the rest of the crowd boo them after.
The cryogenic special effects during the songs made for a very cool aesthetic. He made a lot of jokes and made me wonder if he was the band's lead singer or a comedian. Awsten made it a point to tell the crowd that someone came from England, which was excellent. He had the crowd do what he called a classic NY yeehaw. At one point, there was a large circle pit which was pretty cool to watch from the balcony at Irving Plaza. Next, he got his acoustic guitar, and the rest of the band walked off. He then called Zack on stage, and the crowd sang happy birthday to him.
Awsten thanked his fans for checking out their latest album. He said they talked about personal stuff, and it’s different to do that in the comfort of the studio and then to put it out for everyone. He said that makes it more worth it when people check it out. The next song was called “Closer”, a special one for the evening. When I entered the venue, I was handed a red heart that said to hold it up during the ending of “Closer”. The instructions said to hold it up to my phone’s flashlight so it would shine a red light. It was pretty cool to see the red lights up for that song. Overall it was a fantastic show, and I recommend checking out one of the remaining dates on tour. Make sure you buy tickets before they sell out!