Waterparks ft. Chloe Moriondo and Jhariah in Boston 11/20
November 22, 2025
This is Waterparks the band. I did not go to a lowercase waterpark in November.
I have a scrapbook where I save wristbands from events and am trying out using the blog as kind of a digital scrapbook. I have a lot more shows coming up in the future so the format of this will probably be worked on. I also immediately chucked my wristbands from this show, so there's that. All I have are the digital parts.
Setlists listed later are all from setlist.fm. No, my memory isn't that good.
Venue
This show was at Roadrunner, which was..fine as a venue. Bar lines were non-existent, but I'm not sure if that's good management or because the parxies are all underage. Bathrooms were clean. The venue was NOT oversold and crowded, which I thought was great. After seeing Lights at a sold out show at Brighton Music Hall where I couldn't move despite being in the back and being directly under a fan that they did not turn on this was a major improvement in setting. I bought "premium" balcony tickets. The premium section of the balcony was the only section open and the view of the stage is largely obstructed. We got to sit between sets up there but I think that's only because it wasn't a full house, reviews indicate that it's a 50/50 shot that staff will yell at you to stand up.
They had safe gluten free drinks but no menu or drink listing posted anywhere. I would have ordered a fun mixed drink but I hate having to, like, negotiate with bartenders on what they can make based on supplies and time. Just tell me if you have fun things you do with your full bar, please.
I also couldn't tell if the sound was just bad or if Waterparks themselves were meh.
I will unenthusiastically return if someone I am very excited to see plays here.
The Show
Jhariah
SetlistBIGSHOT
DEBT COLLECTOR
FIRE4FUN
RISK, RISK, RISK!
Needed a Change of Pace
Flight of the Crows
PIN-EYE
Impression
Jhariah was a great choice for an opener. They're super high-energy, had a great full band (with sax!) backing them, and have a genuinely beautiful singing voice that they are very skilled in using.
The audio levels were super jank the first song so I couldn't hear them at all (but could REALLY HEAR the guitarist's backing vocals, lol) but the audio engineer eventually figured it out.
Overall, I like them. I want them to be sucessful and I'd be happy to see them on a lineup in the future. They clearly have high creative goals and are technically skilled, but for my own tastes I do wish their music sounded less free-form, I think? I'm a simple girl and I want to sing along more easily.
Chloe Moriondo
Setlistabyss
Celebrity
Bodybag
hate it
I Eat Boys
Hell Hounds
Plastic Purse
Paparazzi (Lady Gaga cover)
Cdbaby<3
girls with gills
oyster
I Want to Be With You
Chloe was engineered in a lab just for my brain. I'm so glad that I looked their music up the weekend before. Both Suckerpunch and oyster are no-skip albums for me.
I am not sorry for drunk barking the barks during this set!! It was fun! I involuntarily "awwww"ed when they said they were singing their last song.
Chloe sounded great and I will jump at the chance to see them again. Like are her vocals heavily autotuned at some points? Yes, but it was a stylistic choice that takes intention and skill to make the autotune do the thing. I'm here for it.
My one half point of criticism is that their cutesy "oh do you minddd if I pick up an instrument for you and play?" shtick is pretty at odds with the "i will ruin your life :)" vibes of most of the songs, and I'd like to see a more consistent personality and stage presence. But then again, it took nothing from my experience. I loved the set.
Waterparks
Setlist
Blonde
SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN
FUCK ABOUT IT
Stupid for You
Peach (Lobotomy)
Dream Boy
FUNERAL GREY
High Definition
Not Warriors
Crybaby
I Felt Younger When We Met (cut short due to medical issue in the crowd)
Teenage Jealousy (Acoustic, partial, live debut)
Worst (Acoustic, partial)
Violet! (Acoustic, partial)
Lucky People
I Miss Having Sex but at Least I Don't Wanna Die Anymore
IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL
RED GUITAR
PROWLER (Unreleased)
ANY MINUTE NOW
TANTRUM
REAL SUPER DARK
Turbulent
LIKE IT
My husband and I stopped going to shows for a few years because I would go, decide that I didn't actually like the artist having seen them perform, and have a terrible time. I am happy to report that I have experienced some Personal Growth and proved at Boston Calling (particularly during Avril Lavigne's set) that I can think someone is terrible and still have a good time, and then with the horrible venue that we saw Lights at, that I could have a terrible time and still like the artist.
Having said that, I am desperately trying to hold onto my love for Waterparks at this point. I had Concerns going into the show, mostly that when the pre-sale for the tour happened that it sounded like there was a new album coming and the album...never came. And then that the live snippets I heard from other shows didn't seem particularly heavy on actual vocals. I am more lenient on appreciating sets with heavy backing tracks than I have been in the past, but I do believe that if you are touring a performance you should be able to rework your music in way that involves performing it.
The good:
Funeral Grey is my favorite parx song. I looked forward to screaming it all day, I screamed it, I felt fulfilled. Fuck About It, I Miss Having Sex, and Turbulent are other favorites. So we hit literally all of my potential highlights. I bought tickets because I was worried I'd have FOMO if I did not go and I got every song I wanted and will never have FOMO about seeing Waterparks again. In that sense it was a very successful outing.
The bad:
I do feel like the entire set suffered from the album not being completed. The promo photos for this cycle have some theater imagery, Awsten had said previously that this was going to be like a stage show, but this didn't really come together. I'm assuming because the album had more of the theme that would fit and that they just haven't completed it in time? Are they going to tour after the new album drops and actually execute the vision? I don't know that I'll see it because the new singles don't really speak to me and felt like the weaker part of the set. It's also possible that there was more going on on the screen that I had zero visibility of.
Their sound in general was pretty muddy and I couldn't make out what was Awsten singing and what the backing track was.
Overall we just weren't wowed by the experience. I had fun based on "I like these songs! We're singing some songs I like!" but nothing beyond that felt really special. And honestly, paying to leave my house on a Thursday night when I work the next day does kind of warrant something special.
The ugly:
Waterparks has a bad reputation based on how batshit and involved parxies are. It's the the point that if I were to meet someone who asked me if I liked them that I would feel the need to specify that I like them a normal amount. They also have a growing number of songs about how batshit their fans are. A new song literally has the lyrics "I hate 50% of my fans and the other half understands".
I don't think Awsten is responsible for being stalked. I do think Awsten needs to examine the fact that his marketing strategies and online presence encourages the behavior of his largely under 21 fanbase. It is one thing to be open and vulnerable in your art, and another to encourage these kids the way he does. Which I wont be getting into because I fully believe that the spectacle of it all is part of his marketing strategy and it gives me the ick.
It's the the point that if we get another If Lyrics Were Confidential style song I'm outtie. And that's really too bad, because he could spend his time and platform and the chokehold he has on the parxies to actually make the world better.
Final thought: I spent the past week trying to like the song Crybaby and used it to go to the bathroom. The sound in the bathroom at Roadrunner is pretty good! I didn't manage to escape the song.