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 cues
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
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