Waterparks Turn Manchester Academy Into a Sweaty, Neon-Soaked Pop-Punk Communion
- Olly Bailey
- 21 hours ago
- 2 min read
Manchester Club Academy - 18h March 2026
WORDS. CHRIS BELLIS / IMAGES OLLY BAILEY
Manchester Academy, that sweatbox institution at the heart of Manchester, has seen it all—but on this unseasonably perfect spring evening, it feels like it’s about to burst. Queues coil endlessly around the University of Manchester campus, a sea of dyed hair, handmade signs and nervous excitement. This is the kind of night the Academy was built for: sold-out, shoulder-to-shoulder, and humming with the promise of chaos.
Enter Waterparks—the Houston trio who’ve spent the last decade carving out a space where pop-punk brattiness collides with glitchy electronics and raw confessionals. Frontman Awsten Knight remains the band’s volatile centre of gravity, flanked by guitarist Geoff Wigington and drummer Otto Wood. Together, they’ve built a reputation not just for genre-hopping records, but for live shows that feel less like gigs and more like therapy sessions—albeit ones fuelled by neon lights and absolute mayhem.
Tonight, they lean all the way in. From the jump, the Texans fire off a barrage of fizzing standards, turning the Academy into a heaving, euphoric pressure cooker. Fans now erupt, every lyric screamed back with startling force. their set is something closer to a narrative arc than a standard run-through. it seperated into themes, Happiness, Sadness, Antisapation and Anger, It’s relentless, but never exhausting—because Waterparks understand pacing, swinging from full-throttle ragers and into disarmingly intimate, stripped-back moments where the crowd takes over entirely.
Knight, meanwhile, plays ringmaster with chaotic precision. His between-song patter ricochets from absurd tangents to playful crowd roasting, diffusing hecklers and tightening the bond between stage and floor in equal measure. Behind him, video screens flicker and pulse, while bursts of colour-synced lighting elevate the whole thing into something almost theatrical.
But the real headline act? The crowd. Waterparks fans don’t just attend—they detonate. Circle pits bloom and expand across the floor, voices swell to the point of drowning out the band, and the Academy itself seems to shift under the collective impact. It’s sweaty, it’s chaotic, it’s borderline overwhelming—but never hostile. Instead, it’s unified, euphoric, and oddly tender.
By the end, one thing is undeniable: this isn’t just a gig, it’s a shared language. And watching thousands of people scream every word back at a band they clearly adore, you can’t help but feel that if you didn’t get Waterparks before—you probably do now.
SET LIST
Blonde
Sneaking Out Of Heaven
Fuck About IT
Happiness
Stupid for You
Peach (Lobotomy)
(Picked as a vote between Peach and Telephone)
Dream Boy
FUNERAL GREY
Sadness
High Definition
Not Warriors
(Picked as a vote between Not Warriors and Gloom Boys)
Group Chat
Crybaby
I Felt Younger When We Met
Acoustic
No Capes
(Partial)
Powerless
(Partial)
Rare
(Partial)
Teenage Jealousy
(Partial)
It Follows
(Partial)
Snow Globe
(Partial)
Silver
(Partial)
21 Questions
(Picked as a vote between 21 Questions and Lucky People)
I Miss Having Sex but at Least I Don't Wanna Die Anymore
Anticipation
IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL
RED GUITAR
PROWLER
(Partial, Unreleased)
ANY MINUTE NOW
Anger
TANTRUM
REAL SUPER DARK
Turbulent
Encore:
LIKE IT
FOLLOW WATERPARKS
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