Waterparks have a good relationship with Birmingham, having recorded their 2020 live show in this very room. It’s taken them a while to return since their last visit, but it’s clear they’ve been missed.
Tonight’s show is split into 5 sections, each dedicated to a particular emotion that the songs address. The first, ‘happiness’, is an obvious choice. The cheerful pop punk vibes accentuates the sunny weather Birmingham has received today, and the announcement that some of the lesser heard tracks featuring on tonight’s setlist does a lot further this cause. Peach wins the audience vote against Telephone, resulting in a deafeningly loud sing-a-long and we commemorate the FANDOM live DVD with Dream Boy from that very album.
But the fun can’t last forever. Next up: ‘sadness’. High Definition certainly brings the tempo down, but another vote for the next song (Gloom Boys is victorious) returns the crowd to it’s previous excitable state. We take a brief break to hear about a seagull eating a rat (which later becomes a beautiful analogy for Trump dying), then back to to the sad songs, the next of which (Crybaby) ironically makes the audience anything but sad!
Next we reach the acoustic section. Perhaps these songs couldn’t be so easily categorised. Vocalist Awsten Knight burns through a medley of career-spanning favourites, even overruling the next audience vote to dedicate Lucky People to a couple he met earlier today who used it as their wedding song. The other band members make a triumphant return during I Miss Having Sex but at Least I Don’t Want to Die Anymore to bring the acoustic section to an end.
With confirmation that their next album is finished, we enter the stage of ‘anticipation’ with a sample of new tracks. Releases from 2025 have already secured places as fan favorites, but we’re also teased with upcoming release PROWLER before we reach the final stage of the set…’anger’.
The appropriately named TANTRUM kicks the segment off, and other up-beat songs from the heavier end of Waterpark’s spectrum follow. The encore of LIKE IT concludes the night nicely – we’re left wanting more, but suitably satisfied until their return – hopefully sooner than 3 years away!
Brum Shots 
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