★★★★
“This is a safe space,” Paramore singer Hayley Williams tells the crowd at Glasgow’s Hydro. “You’re with family.”
Platitudinous? Perhaps, but the very real love between stage and pit is on full display tonight, not just in the raucous singalongs but on the three occasions the band stop mid-song to ensure someone in the audience is getting the attention they need. “We’re gonna get ya some water,” Miss Williams assures as she points out the security chief.
It has been, as the singer herself notes, a long time and a long road since Paramore last played in the city - namechecked as "one of our favourites" - in 2018. There’s been a solo project, Petals for Armor, by the frontwoman – a record partially inspired by her battle with depression – a six year gap between albums and the small matter of a global pandemic.
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The pent-up energy on stage and in the room is obvious on opener ‘You First’, a highlight from new record This Is Why which is quickly followed by ‘The News’, the politically tinged second single from the same album.
Things kick up a notch with a pair of tracks from the group’s emo classics Brand New Eyes and Riot!, with the latter, ‘That’s What You Get’ prompting a mass pogo down the front.
Miss Williams is an engaging stage presence, bouncing and high-kicking her way around the stage as she and the band rattle through some select cuts from 2017’s After Laughter. “You tired?” she asks in her Tennessee lilt before ‘Hard Times’. A roar comes back in the negative. “That’s what I thought – this is Glasgow.”
Things slow down after ‘Ain’t It Fun’ is cut short due to the second fainting spell in the crowd, with fan favourite ‘Decode’ showing off the diminutive frontwoman’s vocal talents following an airing of solo track ‘Crystal Clear’.
Drummer Zac Farro breaks a snare on ‘Rose Coloured Boy’, and it’s not the only bum note as that’s followed by a move to the front of the stage for a run-through from his own solo project, HalfNoise. It’s competently performed but, as with Miss Williams’ solo effort, not particularly suited to the cavernous arena and, judging by the number of people shuffling to the bars and toilets, not what people came to hear.
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Much better is a cover of ‘Rip It Up’ by Orange Juice, performed solo acoustic by Miss Williams who confesses playing without her band is “terrifying”. It goes down impeccably and we’re soon on to the biggest singalong of the night.
Arguably the band’s signature song, ‘Misery Business’ was retired by the band in 2018 due to a line in the second verse which the singer, more than a decade removed from writing it, now considers misogynistic. She doesn’t sing the offending line tonight, and gives the crowd a cheeky finger wag when they do, but there’s a reason the song has endured.
As is tradition a fan is invited up for the bridge and final chorus, in this case one who bears a sign proclaiming this her 22nd show.
“And I haven’t asked you up before?” the frontwoman gasps in mock indignation. “What the f*** was I thinking?”.
Another fan favourite, ‘All I Wanted’, has to be restarted due to another fainting fan – “don’t worry, we’re going to finish it” assures the singer – and sees a sea of phones and lighters in the air. The closer to Brand New Eyes it had never been played live before this touring cycle and many in the room have clearly been waiting for a long time to hear it.
The phones are back in the air for the encore as ‘The Only Exception’ brings a mass singalong before the stomping title track to This Is Why brings things to a close. Through a sea of ticker tape the band depart, following two hours, 21 songs and three fainting spells. All in a night’s work.
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