Well tonight I’m one of the lucky
few, I’m one of only 650 people who will
be at the London Garage to see a band that can
sell out arenas, a band who have been going since
04 and a band who are back with a new album and
with a more compact line up, that band is Paramore.
Paramore are not the band they used to be, they’ve
had 2 members leave which started masses of internet
rumours about how they’ll be splitting up
and how it’s all about lead singer Hayley(thanks
to the leaving letter that was put across the
internet from the departed brothers Josh and Zac
Farro), but all that has been put to waste, it
may have taken a few years but they’re back,
and contrary to what allot of magazines have been
saying it’s not a new line up, it’s
been the same since 2007, its now just 3 members
instead of 5 but as their new album has shown
that doesn’t mean they sound worse, it actually
makes the sound better.
So let’s get down to it, I arrived at the
venue at around half 4 to see the normal huge
queues thanks to the girls that have come down
early to sit around in the cold all day, but at
least they got breakfast sent to them from the
band, but after an hours wait, we get our wrist
bands and can then leave or continue to cue till
doors open at 7, I chose the latter. But it was
a good wait, chatting with fans of the band, exchanging
stories and enjoying the friendly atmosphere that
these gigs bring. Eventually I get inside and
find my perch at the back behind the sound desk,
and the waiting continues as we don’t get
a support band like advertised, but when the clock
hits half 8 the stage goes into darkness and without
a word of warning Paramore burst onto the stage
and jump straight into Now from their latest self-titled
album.
They sound amazing, with the music coming across
clean and every instrument being heard crisp and
clear. As I said earlier they are 3 members, but
like many other bands they have 3 touring members
too, so they have a drummer, keyboardist and extra
guitarist behind the main 3 members adding to
their sound, which makes for allot of depth as
the drums hit hard, the guitars weave together,
the bass rumbles and the keys tinkle in the background.
Hayley, Jeremey and Taylor are up front and they
franticly move around the stage, swaying with
their whole bodies making it interesting to watch,
Hayley controls the audience, with her powerful
vocals and strong stage presence that puts her
up there with the best. They continue the set
with That’s What You Get, Born For This
and For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic
from Riot! They all sound just as good, if not
better than they did before, as I saw them in
2010 when they played Birminghams LG arena and
they sounded great then, but tonight the music
fills the room and keeps you locked into the moment,
where as at an arena you can feel alone in the
masses as the sound bounces around the room.
The crowd loves every second of tonight, as they
sing along to every word of every song played,
but that was always going to be the case when
a big band plays to a small venue of mainly competition
winners, you’re not going to get to many
casual fans in the room. On the note of the fans
tonight, it was good to see that the room was
mainly filled with fans and not split half and
half with guest list spots from friends of the
band/record company. As the set continues the
band play a mix of tracks from both Riot! and
Brand New Eyes with Pressure from All We Know
Is Failing along with 3 of the 4 singles from
their singles club they put out last year. One
of which was an acoustic version of In The Morning
which was done by just Hayley and Taylor whilst
they sat down on a box at the front of the stage
under a bright spotlight, this was my low point
of the night as I would have liked them to keep
the pace up and maybe play some more singles that
they didn’t play like Crush Crush Crush
or Emergency, but again that’s just a personal
preference as the crowd loved singing along to
a song that at an arena might not go down all
too well as the singles club wasn’t advertised
to the masses and wasn’t available outside
of the US in physical form.
Paramore have been on stage for an hour and show
now sign of stopping as they have allot of fan
favourites left to play, and as they finish Looking
Up, Hayley takes a moment to have a little rant
about the media, “You know we have a new
album coming out on Monday, and I just wanna say,
when we first came to England we got our first
taste of what it feels like to have someone write
what they think of you in a magazine and its weird,
and it’s the worst, well sometimes it’s
cool, when their nice about it. And what’s
cool, whatever people write about us, you know
us the best and so whenever we’re interviewed
we feel like ‘what’s the point’
as the fans already know this. It’s funny
cos I read a review in Rolling Stone, and we don’t
really care about reviews, but this was actually
a pretty good one. They did refer to me as some
sort of emo/metal/queen… whatever that means(the
crowd cheers), but they said something about the
album sounding like a great solo debut(the crowd
boos and Hayley sticks her finger up) and let
me tell you something, this is the only time I’m
going to rant about this, and I promised myself
not to write about this online, as I tend to do,
But I wouldn’t be here and nor would I want
to be, if it where for these two guys to my side,
and now also if it were not for these 3 back here,
cos where a family and you guys are part of that
too, and it wouldn’t be the same if it was
just emo metal queen Hayley Williams. We’ve
also written in our songs very honestly about
what’s going on, and the next song is good
proof of that(it was Ignorance) and this year
as where getting back into the swing of being
a band and doing all the busyness and being on
TV and whatever comes with it doesn’t really
matter as you guys know the truth and love us
for who we are know who we are and not for something
else entirely, and that means the most to us and
that is why where doing this”. I guess this
has come from allot of comments about the line
up being new and how it’s about Hayley,
but although this rant does come across to say
we love the fans, it also slams the things the
band uses to get to the masses, if they were not
in magazines and on TV then they wouldn’t
be as popular, so to criticise the machine that
pushes them along just because people focus on
her and not the group is silly, she’s correct
the fans will always know the truth and love them
for who they are, but does it matter if people
who are just finding their music or casual fans
think it’s just Hayley? I don’t think
so, but I guess it means allot to her, and it’s
quite nice to hear someone speak from their heart
on stage instead of the normal throw away bits
like ‘we love you london’ (which was
also said) that bands say.
They end their set with Monster and Brick by Boring
Brick before leaving the stage, and after a few
moments of darkness Hayley and Taylor take back
to the stage to perform an acoustic cover of Matilda
by Alt-J which was truly boring, I’m sure
no-one in the room new the song as no-one sang
along, but the crowd where woken up when the rest
of the band entered the stage and played their
latest single Still Into You, which blew me away,
I had heard them perform the song on the radio
a day before and Hayley didn’t do the high
part towards the end of the song, but she nailed
it tonight and it sounded amazing! They then said
their goodbyes and told the crowd how they knew
what was next, and started into Misery Business,
this would have been a great end to the show if
it wasn’t for part way through as the song
does its final build up the lights come on and
Hayley says “You know what’s coming
now, we have someone come up and finish the song
with us, and we already know who it is tonight”
as they get security to pick this girl up on stage
with purple hair who supposedly sang the song
with them on Skype when they were last in the
UK, the girl is given a mic like Hayley’s
(wrapped in coloured tape from top to bottom)
and as the band start back into the song Hayley
goes to the back of the stage and sings along,
as this girl sings at the front, it then gets
to the last chorus and the girl grabs Hayley’s
hand and drags her onto the box at the front of
the stage to sing together, this was really hard
to watch and even though Hayley enjoyed it I found
it very cringey, it might have been fine if it
was early in the set but the final song ended
by a fan who drags the singer to the front was
truly astonishing especially since the fan was
taking the shine from the band and putting it
onto herself. The band thanks the fans and the
lights rise and people start to leave.
Overall the gig tonight was amazing, they sounded
great, they performed well and they spoke from
the heart, if they hadn’t have had the 2
acoustic tracks and the fan on stage ending the
gig would have been perfect. Paramore know how
to treat their fans, and as an added extra to
this special gig they gave fans a memento in the
form off a limited plectrum along with a certificate
of authenticity. You can expect Paramore to be
back before the end of the year probably with
an arena tour and with a set list that includes
more songs from the new album (which is fine by
me as the new album is amazing!), but you’ll
be hard pushed to get an atmosphere like tonight!
4.5/5
Review By James Daly
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