Waterparks and the Property: The strangest dream of all

WATERPARKS AND THE PROPERTY: THE STRANGEST DREAM OF ALL

Waterparks 3.27.2024 - Night 2 Orlando

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN AT HOUSE OF BLUES ORLANDO 

Photos by Caitlin Tuel for Dual Muse Magazine

Written by Caitlin Tuel for Dual Muse Magazine

A special thank you to Becky Moore for Awsten Knight’s TEI Video!

5-7 Minute Read

If you had told me “They’ll blow up. Exponentially.” when I saw Waterparks open on the Full Sail Stage at Warped Tour 2016, I would’ve believed you, but never to this degree. It’s been an incredible ride for the Houston-based artists, and surely incredibly gratifying watching your efforts and dedication grow into what is arguably one of the most dedicated fan bases I have seen in my lifetime. Truly unlike any other group I have ever seen, the affectionately dubbed “Parxies” truly hold the band down, and continue to lift them up in the same bated breaths that await them at a show. A trio consisting of vocalist Awsten Knight, guitarist Geoff Wigington, and drummer Otto Wood, they have been on the rise for the last twelve years, and show no signs of stopping - especially not after adding a second sold-out show in Orlando.

I must note that I am incredibly fortunate to be writing this piece from the viewpoint of a long-time listener who has somehow managed to be present for at least one show every album cycle for the last eight years. I’ve had the opportunity to follow the band and grow with them, as I found them at the formative age of fifteen. Watching them grow from the opening 2016 Cyclops stage to the Journey’s Left/Foot Right Foot stage after the group’s fifth release Entertainment in 2018. Of course, not to be forgotten, the infamous Kyle Fletchers era of Warped, as well as the TEI Classes every day where Awsten did “Whatever the hell I want”. (The final day of the last Van’s Warped Tour TEI looked a lot like this.)

And “whatever the hell” he wanted, he did, publishing his Autobiography “You’d Be Paranoid Too (If Everyone Was Out To Get You)” in June of 2019. In true Waterparks fashion, the title of which would also become a song on the album Greatest Hits. If it’s begun to feel as if every single move the band has ever made is intentional to some degree concerning their discography, it’s because it is. The titular nature of their discography resulted in a nearly alphabetical discography - save for when the “Friendly Reminder” files got deleted.

(It was definitely a time to be online. You had to be there. It’s not dissimilar to say, a Zayn leaving One Direction moment, or maybe a Ryan Ross leaving Panic!. You just… had to be there.) It would lead to several more albums despite it all, a clothing brand, and a multitude of sold-out shows.

DESC: “BLEACH BOY VEVO Tweeted: BLEACH BOY VEVO: @AWSTEN:”

“I deleted all the files for friendly reminder last night.”

Within this immersive and expansive discography, nearly everything links to or is indicative of a deeper meaning, all left in the form of breadcrumbs for dedicated and sleuthing fans to figure out. Save for the occasional explanation from the group, of course. Bits and pieces are always left as hints for future projects. It’s incredibly admirable for a group to be so dedicated to their craft that their plans have spanned over a decade. Sneaking Easter Eggs into tour posters for future albums as of 2018, the band always has a trail to leave, and one to blaze. 

In tandem with the above, the entirety of the Sneaking Out of Heaven tour has been so carefully calculated that it has taken me ages to craft something to the same caliber. The group’s most recent release, Intellectual Property, centers thematically around the idea of religious traumatization, the property itself seemingly being the idea of organized religion itself. This is not to be surprising to those who have a connection to religiously centered trauma, considering the Canaanite frogs. (“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet" 

(Revelation 16:13)”).

 Something of note here is of course, the frogs in religious texts are nearly always (to my recollection) of a negative connotation and additional note of the numerical value of three spirits in the aforementioned Revelation passage. It nearly refers to the impurity of the whole self, the mental state, the physical being, the lack of faith, or the incorrect way of displaying such. “He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them" (Psalm 78:45)”, the punishment of the frogs to represent filth, as the notion of what we are with sin. The aforementioned is especially known to be true when one recalls that a soul/pastor becomes a Canaanite when they stray from G-d’s path. 

Solely reinforcing the idea of the above, midway through the set, stagehands assist in overlaying a white backdrop. Those who were there for night one of the sold-out, two-day run? They’ve experienced this the night prior, yet the others are awaiting for what seems to be centuries with anxiety and excitement. And suddenly, a display of Awsten’s silhouette sitting (post a quick-change, always impressive regardless of who is performing a show, all while setting up an equally as impressive secondary stage.) as projected text reads layered in front of his chest. It feels almost as if it fits best elsewhere, in a group therapy session. But that it was.

“RELIGIOUS GUILT IS THE NAME PLACED ON LEARNED TRAUMA THROUGH THE TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH.

FROM AN EARLY AGE THESE INSTITUTIONS INSTILL IDEAS IN YOU 

THAT YOUR INTERESTS, YOUR NATURAL FEELINGS, AND EVEN WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON IS INHERENTLY WRONG.

AND AT THE END OF YOUR LIFE, YOU WILL FACE PUNISHMENT FOR WHO YOU ARE AND THE FEELINGS YOU WERE BORN WITH.”

Quite honestly, it felt freeing. For most, the concert ticket was cheaper than therapy as well - I would know, I’ve spent far too much trying to identify and free my own guilt, not to mention the cost of my first tattoo. The concert itself was clearly something to recall for life, and not just for myself but for the entirety of Orlando’s House of Blues. An incredible setlist for “Greatest Hits truthers” as Awsten had said, including a stunning piano medley and acoustics of songs that haven’t seen a tour debut in years, or until the night as they had been released as demo tracks. 

Waterparks will continue to be one of the most expansive groups in the current state of the music scene, and those who are fans will grow with them as I had. 

At times, and especially now, I still feel like the fifteen-year-old that I was sitting and trying to identify why I felt like a heretic in temple, in church, and in my skin, and what G-d would want me to do an-

And yet, Everybody is a God once you make it out of the Property.

☆☆

Find Waterparks on Spotify, Instagram, and Twitter. Purchase a copy of “You’d be Paranoid Too (If Everyone Was Out To Get You)” here, and Awsten’s clothing brand can be found here.

Find more photos from Waterparks’ sold-outhere show in our gallery here.