Paramore have been a band I've been following pretty much since the iconic hit 'Misery Business' dropped way back in 2007. I have had many hair styles mimicking frontwoman Hayley Williams (though they never looked as good as hers). I've had the pleasure of meeting the band way back in 2009 (which is a huge story in itself) and Hayley even wore a T-shirt I made onstage. Needless to say, this band are very special to me.
This will be my sixth Paramore show, and it's the bands first time back in Birmingham since 2018, a lot has changed in the world since then. The venue is packed out and sold out, filled with fans both young and old, many who have been there since the beginning and others joining in for the first time.
Opening the show was Rozi Plain, whose set was a melancholic mix of folk and very proggy synths. A very mellow set but a nice calm way to ease into the show.
Following were Bloc Party, a band who I can remember hearing on the radio way back in the mid 2000's. I was actually surprised how much of their set I knew without realising. I must admit, to say I've known about them for almost 20 years, I feel like I have really been sleeping on them. I enjoyed their set way more than I expected to and will be putting their tracks back in my heavily played playlists.
Finally we get to the main act of the evening, Paramore! Opening with a spoken word poem written by Hayley Williams herself, before easing into two tracks off the latest album, 'You First' and 'News'. Opening with new material can sometimes be a bit of a flop but this was not the case, as fans belted out every word like it had been a part of the repertoire for years. Suddenly we were taken back to our youth with 'That's What You Get' where the energy was turned up to 11 and got the whole crowd jumping.
The band really threw in a little of everything as the set went on, from 'Playing God' to the Twilight throwback 'Decode' through to 'Last Hope', where afterwards Hayley passed her microphone to a fan in the front row who proposed to their partner using song titles, many tears were shed by fans and Hayley.
We were also treated to a song from Hayley's solo album (Petals for Armour) 'Crystal Clear' which flowed amazingly into 'Liar'. Not long after the fans were treated to a tour and Birmingham first '26', played acoustically with guitarist Taylor York. This song was a real tear jerker for me, without going into detail of what happened since the last time I saw the band, the lyrics always hit a little bit too close to home.
But while we were on the topic of depression, the energy coin was flipped to the happy sad banger 'Hard Times'
Drummer Zac Farro took the spotlight to debut a new HalfNoise song 'Baby', before the set simmered back down for 'The Only Exception' and 'Crave'.
Anyone who has been to a Paramore show before will know what the deal is when it comes to performing 'Misery Business', this is where fans are brought up onstage to help sing the latter part of the song, and tonight is was Amber Drew's turn, who had been a fan since 2006 and wasn't allowed to go by her parents, she was a complete natural to the stage, very charismatic and a great singer!
As we came to the end of the set, we were treated with something that previously has rarely been included in a Paramore set, due to the famous high note, and that was 'All I Wanted' but of course, Miss Williams absolutely smashed it no problems. Finally the band concluded the set with a favourite off the new album, 'This Is Why'. Once again, Paramore never fail to disappoint, they are 100% a band that should always be checked out when in town at least once in you're life.
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