Waterparks, Heart Attack Man and Winona Fighter Bring the Heat to a Cold Chicago Night

Late-season additions can mean a number of things depending on the subject and context. For example, when a pro sports team makes a move to bring in talent, it's usually a sign that the team is on the upswing and like their chances enough to push more chips into the middle of the table and go on a run. It's exciting for the fanbase and can really give a jolt that elevates a great team to championship caliber.

On the other side of this phenomenon is Cousin Oliver, which is shorthand for when this kind of thing goes wrong and named after the notorious character added to the later seasons of The Brady Bunch. Didn't have to drink Metamucil this morning? Then a more recent reference you might actually remember because you were alive for it would be the new wave of employees that got introduced in seasons 7-9 of The Office. Remember Nellie? Robert California? Pete and Clark? Kinda? Yeah there's a reason for that.

It's not always a bad thing though. The mid-show pickup of both Rob Lowe and Adam Scott on Parks and Recreation really took the show to another level. Frasier and Woody didn't walk into Cheers until seasons 3 and 4 respectively. Frank Reynolds didn't join the Paddy's gang on Always Sunny until they had an entire season under their belts.

It's the positive side of this kind of pickup that Waterparks had in mind for their current Prowler Tour. While the tour itself kicked off the first week of November, it came out swinging in the second half of their road trek, adding both Heart Attack Man and Winona Fighter to the bill, both making their debut at Chicago's Salt Shed stop. And if Cousin Oliver could have traveled 51 years into the future and seen this show and picked up a few lessons on how to be a game-changing midseason addition, maybe he wouldn't have flamed out as hard as he did because he would have spent a lot more time running around head butting anyone he could. Tell me that wouldn't have pulled in an audience, especially at a time where there were like 4 total channels on tv.

It's hard to say much about Winona Fighter that hasn't already been said, specifically by me. I'm not the end-all, be-all when it comes to all things WF, but I have made it a point to see them each time they've stopped here in the Windy City (first at the House of Blues supporting Bayside, then 2024 Riot Fest, and then again earlier this year at Subterranean), so I do have experience with the fury and mayhem that is their live show.

A lot of what they did last Friday night at the Salt Shed is right in line with the other times they've performed in Chicago: blistering pop punk riffs, hooks that dig so far into your brain that they'd show up on an MRI, a kickass cover of Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", and some of the best hair across the board in all of rock music. And whether it's headlining a 500 capacity club, playing a 4,000 seat venue, or ripping off a set at a major festival, you get the same exact show, which is a performance full of so much energy you wonder how on Earth this band can do this kind of thing every night and not disintegrate into dust.

Tearing through exactly half of My Apologies to the Chef (which will absolutely be appearing here again in the next week or so as I name my favorite albums of 2025), it's almost impossible to take your eyes off lead singer Coco Kinnon as she stomps, body slams, spins, jumps, shreds on guitar, and is essentially a one-woman musical tornado from beginning to end of the set. And while she rightfully gets a lot of the focus, these songs wouldn't punch nearly as hard as they do (and they really do) without Dan Fuson's guitar mastery. How much of his ability to rip through insane crunchy riffs like it's no big deal whatsoever is derived from his hot pink guitar? I don't know, and to be honest with you, why even take the chance to find out? That's like telling Picasso to switch brushes mid-painting or asking Jesus to switch to a different non-pink guitar. And when he's not busy balancing a bass above his head on one hand MID SONG, bassist Austin Luther low-key ties every single song together with his bass playing (which is quite a feat considering most Winona Fighter songs feel like slam dancing in the middle of a hurricane so keeping them pulled together and moving in one direction sounds near-impossible).

On one hand, this marks Winona Fighter's 4th time blessing Chicago with their live music, so if you missed them this time you might be out of luck for a while. Then again, that might just be proof that the Windy City is winning them over enough to have them come back not just every year, but multiple times a year.

Speaking of bands that just can't stay away from our fair city, Heart Attack Man might as well list Chicago on their taxes as a permanent residence. The trio out of Cleveland made the trip down I90 twice in 2022, three times in both 2023 and 2024, and now making their second stop in 2025 after playing Bottom Lounge back in July. And just like every time they're in town, they absolutely lived up to their name, which makes you sound like you're about to die from being rocked too hard. And if that does ever wind up being the case, there are way worse ways to go than getting moshed to death to Laughing Without Smiling (off of 2025's excellent Joyride the Pale Horse) or Freak of Nature.

Sticking mostly to ...Pale Horse and 2023's Freak of Nature, the band did dip into the archives a bit for long-time fans for nuggets like the title track off Fake Blood and a couple deep cuts off 2021's Thoughtz & Prayerz EP. And the end result was a blue collar, workmanlike set of midwest punk rock, with singer/guitarist Eric Egan even giving a shoutout to all the workers (especially in retail) that had worked on that Black Friday and still had the energy to come to the show. It seemed like the band was determined to repay the crowd by upping their own energy to 11 in return, which they were able to pull off in spades.

It's sometimes hard to describe Waterparks to someone that's never heard their music. They fit firmly in the pop punk/pop rock/electro pop genre, but have really blended both hip-hop/lo-fi and hyperpop influences into their recent releases. What sounds on paper like it could potentially be a jumbled mess is exactly the opposite in reality. Somehow all the various sounds borrowed from different genres and shoved into a blender with a healthy dose of boy band looks and charm.

The band hit the stage with the high-powered opening 1-2-3 combination of 'Blonde'/'SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN'/'FUCK ABOUT IT' and set the bar as high as any other Waterparks show you've ever seen. And then things started to get both reflective and interactive, with the rest of the set being broken up into smaller chapters. Each chapter had a theme (Happiness, Sadness, Anticipation, Anger) and had songs that fit that specific feeling (like ''Stupid For You' and 'Dream Boy' in the Happiness section, 'High Definition' and 'Crybaby' for the Sadness section, etc). These are the types of things bands can mess around with when they aren't touring on a new album that they feel beholden to playing most of. They even had fans pick between two songs every once in a while to add a little spontaneity.

Honestly, it's a structure that more bands should look into, because it seemed like it revitalized the band and gave them excuses to revisit old material and dust it off for a new generation of fans. Having an entire acoustic section of the show for singer Awstin Knight to reach for some extremely deep pulls had longtime fans in absolute heaven (including what my research is telling me was the first time ever playing 'Kiwi (Play)' in concert). The freedom that came with not having a specific album or era to cater to let them put on a true career retrospective that pulled from all five of their studio albums. The band is too long and full of more hits to ever think about hanging it up, but the way this show rolled out, covering all the different eras and feelings they've touched on along the way certainly seemed like it could have been a victory lap ending with the band riding into the sunset.

But that's not what Waterparks has in store for us. They're no Cousin Oliver. If anything, the Prowler tour is showing that they may have more staying power than ever.

The Prowler Tour goes through 12/18 in the US before heading over to Europe. Dates and tickets can be found here.