With spring break coming to an end, I waved goodbye to my parents from my car window on a sunny Monday morning as I prepared to drive back to Quinnipiac in time for my first class. Thankfully, they wouldn’t have to miss me for too long, because Waterparks — made up of Awsten Knight (lead vocalist + guitarist), Geoff Wigington (guitarist + backing vocalist), and Otto Wood (drummer + backing vocalist) — would be playing at The Fillmore Philadelphia just two days later, and of course I was going to come right back home for it.
One thing about me is that I will never miss a chance to see one of my favorite artists live, regardless of the day of the week, or if their tour is even stopping in my city or not. As a Hamden, Connecticut resident during the academic year, I had a sneaking suspicion when the band announced it would be embarking on a spring tour — that I would be putting a few extra miles on my 2004 Toyota Matrix.
Rewinding back to September of 2023, a post was made from the band’s Instagram account with the words “Sneaking Out Of Heaven”, with an acoustic snippet posted seven days later teasing the release of the newly-revealed upcoming single. The official music video was released on October 12th, with a tour announcement promptly following it the next day. The appropriately titled “Sneaking Out Of Heaven Tour” would be making 22 stops across North America, with a few gaps being left in the schedule to allow for ‘night 2’s’ if certain cities were to sell out on the original date.
Waterparks is hands down my favorite band to see live; the band’s immersive visuals, crowd engagement, and stunning vocals are above and beyond most modern stage performances. Every time the band goes on tour, I think, “How can Waterparks possibly top that?” but the band always finds a way.
During “The Property Tour” in 2023, the band introduced a massive stage set, which included multiple huge screens made to look like picture frames, that played different visuals throughout the set, unique to each song. For the “Sneaking Out Of Heaven Tour”, this stage setup was taken to the next level. The screens now looked like windows, and two doors were added, each donning a huge neon green cross — fitting for the theme of the single.
There was also a b-stage present during this tour; consisting of a small platform, a piano, shrubbery, statues, and a chain link fence surrounding it all.
When the clock struck nine, the lights went out, and a faint recording of Awsten’s vocals from “Watch What Happens Next” repeating the line “You don’t love me the same,” echoed throughout The Fillmore.
Geoff and Otto were first to enter the stage through the cross-marked doors, taking their place on each of the platform staircases near the sides of the stage. A few moments later, Awsten burst out of the center entryway, concealed by a curtain. The intro to “Watch What Happens Next” flooded the speakers as the crowd erupted upon seeing Awsten appear in a sparkly black and silver cowboy hat, with two neon green crosses painted on his face.
The opening track wasn’t even finished before crowd surfers began to pop up everywhere in the pit. Awsten was right when he said during Philadelphia’s Sad Summer Festival date in 2022 that Philly is the crowd surfing capital of the world. All I’ll say is security had their work cut out for them.
I decided during one of the opening sets to take it easy in the back of the pit for the first few songs so I could fully absorb and shamelessly record the entire “Greatest Hits” medley that was to be performed after the first two tracks. It wasn’t until after I made my choice, that I remembered the B-stage, which I was standing right next to. I quickly found an open space at the barricade and decided I was staying put until the time came for the b-stage set.
Speaking of the second track, the band threw it back to the “Entertainment” era with “Blonde,” one of my favorites from the album.
Now, the medley. I can confidently say I have never been so ecstatic to hear a set of tracks live in my entire concert career. The parents and children relaxing at the back of the pit had no idea what was coming.
As a “Greatest Hits” enthusiast I already knew I would not be the same person I was before I stepped into the venue, as a whopping 12 out of 17 tracks on the album were featured on the setlist.
I, along with the other fans huddled near the b-stage let out a collective shriek when Otto began to drum the beat to “Fuzzy,” which has not been played live since 2022. The next song in the medley, “Violet!,” is my second favorite “Greatest Hits” track, and was an absolute treat to hear live. Followed by “American Graffiti.” “The Secret Life Of Me,” “Just Kidding” (ouch), “See You in the Future,” and “Lowkey As Hell,” the medley was a hit with the entire audience.
Justice for “Fruit Roll Ups,” though. Left out but never forgotten.
Shortly after, “You’d Be Paranoid Too (If Everyone Was Out to Get You)” was played in full, and I felt the part of me that missed out on the “A Night Out On Earth” tour slowly being healed with every passing “Greatest Hits” track.
The lights suddenly went out, and a large white curtain was stretched across the length of the stage, with a spotlight shining directly at the center. The spotlight revealed the seated silhouette of Awsten, with frogs hopping around on the ground, and hazmat suit-wearing individuals walking in the background, all while a recorded interlude played over the speakers. Appropriately dubbed the “Religious Guilt Interlude,” the lengthy scene touched upon- you guessed it- the topic of religious guilt, ending with the statement “Everybody is a god, once you make it out of the property,” a direct callback to the previous tour. Moments later the curtain dropped to reveal the message “Welcome to the show, please watch closely” plastered on the screens, before the band made their way back to the stage.
A short new track titled “SOULSUCKER,” the counterpart to “ST*RF**KER,” was up next, before transitioning into the tour title track, “SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN.” The following portion of the set focused heavily on Intellectual Property, with “RITUAL,” fan-favorite “SELF-SABOTAGE,” “BRAINWASHED,” and “F**K ABOUT IT,” all stirring up the biggest circle pit of the night.
Snuck into the “Intellectual Property” set was a “Greatest Hits” favorite, “Magnetic,” and the tour debut of “Group Chat,” played three times in a row, with Awsten prompting the crowd to sing in a Pterodactyl voice on the last go around.
Sixteen tracks later, finally, it’s b-stage time. I could feel the inevitable push towards the tiny barricade as Awsten made his way toward the stage through the pit. The crowd was eerily quiet as we all braced ourselves to have our hearts shattered in the next ten minutes.
Personally, I was done for the moment Awsten’s fingers hit the keys and played the first notes of “High Definition.” “High Definition” was one of the songs that got me through a pretty rough patch in my life, and hearing songs live that have been with me through my lowest points has always felt so surreal to me.
During “The Property Tour,” “High Definition” was one of the acoustic surprise songs for the Philadelphia show — played right after “RITUAL” might I add — and I was in such a state of shock I didn’t even think to record any of it. Not this time around though!
“Snow Globe” and “Crying Over It All” followed next, two more tracks off of “Greatest Hits” which have barely been played live over the past few years.
Looking back I can laugh the way I, along with the girls I was standing at the barricade with, all just stood there staring at each other for a few minutes, processing what we just heard, as Awsten rejoined Geoff and Otto on stage for “21 Questions,” a Waterparks cult-classic.
Getting right back into the swing of things, “FUNERAL GREY” wrapped up the 22-track regular set with a huge circle pit before the band left the stage and left the crowd in anticipation of the fiery encore.
Starting off strong with “Numb,” yet another “Greatest Hits” sensation, and one of my personal favorites, it was obvious that Philadelphia did not come to play — I genuinely don’t know how the circle pit continued to get bigger, but it did!
Now I’ll be honest, up until this night I had never crowd surfed before, even though it had been on my concert bucket list for so long. I don’t think people talk enough about how nerve-racking it can be to approach someone in the crowd for the first time to ask to be put up, especially toward the end of the show when the people at the barricade usually don’t want to hold up any more surfers. But, as “Numb” came to an end, and “Turbulent” began, I knew if I was going to surf, this was the moment.
So, I ran straight through the open pit and found a group of four guys who were lifting anyone and everyone who wanted to surf, and I asked if they could put me up. When I say I was airborne I mean I was airborne. Those fellas tossed me into the air and left me with nothing but a dream and a prayer that nobody else would drop me. But I lived to write this review thanks to the lovely crowd at the barricade that refused to let anyone be dropped.
The moral of the story is if you want to crowd surf for the first time, or just in general, Philly is the place to do it.
Ending the encore with “REAL SUPER DARK,” the audience’s unwavering enthusiasm for the band was made clear as the unanimous singing in the crowd drowned out the stage vocals. Upon exiting the venue, I immediately wished that I could turn right back around and experience the night all over again.
The neon green face paint running down my face, smudged eyeliner, and sore throat only serve as a testament that nobody does it like Waterparks does it.