Oct 29

Oct 29 Show Review: Waterparks Kick Off 'A Night Out On Earth' Tour in San Francisco

Waterparks
w/ Arrested Youth, Phem
The Regency Ballroom
San Francisco, CA
October 25th, 2021

Photos and Review by Jared Stossel

On a cold Monday evening in San Francisco, pop rock trio Waterparks kicked off the first night of an extensive North American tour, dubbed “A Night Out On Earth” at the city’s Regency Ballroom. Fans waited for hours outside to bear witness to the first date of a highly anticipated tour made up of vocalist/guitarist Awsten Knight, lead guitarist Geoff Wigington, and drummer Otto Wood.

The last time I saw Waterparks was on the 2018 Vans Warped Tour. By that time, the band had two studio albums (2016’s Double Dare and 2018’s Entertainment) under their belt. Since then, they’ve accumulated an even more passionate fanbase, two more albums (2019’s Fandom and 2021’s Greatest Hits), and signed with 300 Entertainment. After watching the band’s hour and a half headlining slot, I can say that I was thoroughly entertained. Knight is the leader of the trio, talking casually to the fans while traversing through a mix of pop, alternative, and pop-punk songs that have spanned the band’s fast-rising career.

The show was kicked off by Phem, an up-and-coming female vocalist within the scene, who delivered a delightfully fun half-hour set filled with pop-rock (and even a cover of “Teenage Dirtbag” that got the entire crowd singing). Her set was followed by Arrested Youth, an alternative rock/hip-hop project from the east coast. [Editor’s Note: Over the past few days, I have been made aware of several concerns being raised about the band Arrested Youth. I take things like this very seriously, so out of an abundance of caution, we have refrained from including any photos of Arrested Youth in our below photo gallery until we receive more information.]

Waterparks took the stage closer to 10 PM, and proceeded to get the entire crowd moving as they launched into “Greatest Hits”. The band pulled material from every album in their catalogue, with the majority of it coming from the Greatest Hits album released earlier this year. Between some songs, Awsten Knight would pause and talk to the crowd. At some moments, I felt like this took away from the anticipation of the next song, but no in the crowd seemed to mind; they hung onto every single word this band said (and it helped that Knight was very entertaining with his stage banter). The music never stayed in one place; one moment, electro-beats filled the room. The next, the band were flirting with pop-punk tendencies on songs like “Stupid For You”.

Amidst a stream of cryo jets, the band powered through their final song of the night, “See You in The Future” to a roar of applause. I’m pretty sure I felt the floor shaking as they powered through the final verses. But hey, that’s the power of Waterparks. They’ve got nowhere to go but up.

Waterparks Set List
Greatest Hits
Numb
Watch What Happens Next
Fuzzy
Lowkey As Hell
Dream Boy
LIKE IT
Gladiator
Magnetic
Blonde
Violet!
I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore
Lucky People
Take Her To The Moon
[Reboot]
Stupid For You
You’d Be Paranoid Too (If Everyone Was Out To Get You)
Turbulent
Snow Globe
See You In The Future