Saturday night, Houston-raised trio Waterparks graced Baltimore on their latest stop of The Property Tour at Rams Head Live. The indie-rock group are currently on tour promoting their
new album Intellectual Property, which they released last month with instant chart success, earning the band their first ever top-10 album. Consisting of lead vocalist Awsten Knight,
guitarist Geoff Wigington, and drummer Otto Wood, the trio have been together since 2011 and have released several EPs and a handful of albums.
The first opener for this leg of the tour is Brooklyn-based Elliot Lee. Their moody-pop music bridges the gap between upbeat pop tracks and emotional deep cuts, creating anthems for
listeners who may be struggling to find music to relate to. This is Elliot’s second ever tour, after having opened for Joywave earlier in spring. When asked about their experiences on this tour, Elliot said they were surprised by “seeing people again that came just for me because they saw me the first time, which is crazy!”. Elliot added that the audiences this time around are much larger and engage with them more, coming up to their merch table to chat after their sets.
This tour hasn’t been entirely smooth-running for Elliot, who faced an unexpected challenge after their car got towed while performing in Philadelphia the night before. Managing to make
the best of a bad situation, Elliot ran into fans who also had their cars towed and said that the experience “wasn’t too bad” as a result. After getting their car back, they were able to explore
around Baltimore for a bit before the show and performed a captivating set to open the show. The second opener on the Property Tour is Hunny, an indie-rock group from California. Their setlist consisted of soft-rock blends with a handful of heavier beats mixed in. Their stage presence can only be described as “sunny”, with their performance emulating the feeling of early summer.
Waterparks took the stage shortly before 9pm, opening with the first song off their new album, “ST*RFUCKER”. Hard to miss in a bright red puffer coat, Awsten wasted no time getting the
crowd hyped up for the show. Within moments, mosh pits had opened up and crowd surfers were flying high. Mixing some of their earlier music into the setlist, there was something for
everyone, and they kept the crowd going all night. Both Otto and Geoff were incredibly energetic as well, and the trio engaged with each other and the crowd throughout the evening.
Waterparks fans are, in the best way possible, a completely unique group of people. During an acoustic performance of “Lucky People”, fans opened a pit, not to mosh, but instead to play a
quick game of Twister. They set up a mat in the middle of the pit, one concertgoer controlled the spinner, and the crowd went wild. The band was just as into it as the audience, with Awsten changing a lyric in the song to “Playing Twister on the floor”. After the completion of the song, they were back to moshing as usual. The band played 18 songs before leaving and returning for an extended three song encore.
Intellectual Property is out now, and the North American leg of The Property Tour will run through mid-June. The band will be back on the road with a handful of festival appearances at
the end of the summer and will continue the tour in Europe this fall.
Final Grade: A+
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