Paramore - Wolverhampton Civic Hall - 09/02/2007
Posted by Josh McAuley on 09.17.2007
American pop-rockers pull out a miracle performance across the pond.
When my tickets to see Paramore arrived I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, whilst their music is good it is slightly pop/rock for my usual tastes. In fact I only agreed to go as a friends birthday treat and because I had nothing better to do. I expected to find the civic hall full of rude, arrogant people with little-to-no concert experience. I expected a simply average performance from a band who I liked but have never viewed as anything special.
We arrived about an hour before the doors were due to open and were surprised to find that there was actually quite a huge queue, I was also surprised at the diversity of the people queuing, spanning huge age gaps and no rude people in site, yet.
Once we got in and got to our places we were pretty much smack bang in the middle of general admission, unfortunately the civic hall is designed for classical or pop music performances, this means that the layout is completely unsuited for a rock concert, the room is too long and not wide enough, meaning that just one group of particularly tall people can block hundreds more from seeing. Unfortunately I was directly behind these tall people.
The first support act of the evening were Derbyshire rockers Lostalone. I had not heard of this band before and to be honest their performance offered little that encouraged me to investigate them further, perhaps it was due to me not knowing what to expect, perhaps it was off night, but whatever it was I felt that it was simply a sub-par performance. Now, one thing I hate at events is long times between bands, especially when I am standing up, unfortunately despite there being no activity on stage between the two support acts other than one man bringing on an effects pedal the break lasted 30 minutes. We managed to pass this by talking to those around us, including the tall people who let us through in time for the next act as they decided to go get beer instead of stay put.
The next support act provided me with a little bit more entertainment, again I had never head of them but This Providence really surprised me with their simple and catchy rock. Frontman Dan Young was an active presence on stage, doing his best to get all the audience members involved. Unfortunately despite the bands best efforts too many people were their purely to see Paramore and were simply not interested in paying attention.
At this point I think that its necessary to point out that if you don’t arrive at a venue at least an hour in advance, if you don’t queue outside and if you don’t work hard to retain your place during support acts then you have absolutely no right to push straight to the front during the wait for the headlining band. Also if people will not let you walk to the front then screaming insults and slapping people is just as unlikely to work and will instead just cause members of security to come and eject you from the venue. Needless to say we were all glad to see the back of those girls.
When Paramore exploded onto the stage I was still not expecting much, having enjoyed their first album and found their follow up to lack much of the energy that went into the first I was simply expecting a night of average entertainment. How wrong I was. A trap that many female fronted rock outfits fall into is to rely on just the front woman to act as the face of the band, others often falling into the background and becoming nothing more than a backing band, thankfully Paramore are in no danger of this. What I saw was a well polished performance from a band who were obviously enjoying themselves and were doing everything in their power to ensure that every member of the audience was having an amazing time. Whether it was Josh Farro reaching and touching hands with the front rows or Hayley Williams waving to a particularly vocal section of the balcony, each member of the band was trying their best to make this the best show they had ever put on. And boy did they succeed, it is very rare that I go to a concert and get as excited as I did at this one. Despite my low hopes and my indifference towards the music I found the entire show to be such a compelling spectacle that I could not help but feel that I was watching a very special performance. The bands music may still be very juvenile and undeveloped but in spite of this they play it so well that I can help but feel that Paramore will only improve with age and that they are headed straight to the top. Hayley’s voice was perfect, hitting every note perfectly and with a clarity that is very rare during live shows. Each other member of the band played their instruments to their full potential, interacting with the crowd and generally putting on a tremendous live show.
Me only criticism is that much of the bands catalogue sounds very similar and there is not much variation in the sound. In spite of this however the band had the crowd eating out of their hands from the opener “Misery Business” to set closing “Pressure”. On glaring omission from the set-list was current UK single “Hallelujah”, a song that I was looking forward to hearing live very much. In spite of this Paramore put on an excellent live show, completely knocking down my expectations and raising the bar to huge levels for any future performances.
The 411: Despite initial apprehension Paramore managed to really bring the goods, putting on a great performance. Whilst not a band that is like to change the music business or build up a huge legacy I would definitely recommend checking these out while you can.
