Yesterday a buddy and I went to see Paramore at the Chicago Theater. Needless to say, we might have been the only guys there that weren't dragged by their girlfriends.I can't speak for my friend but, I have no shame in seeing a Paramore concert of my own accord.
On the upside, the girl-to-guy ratio was through the roof! As an engineering major, I'm not used to that kind of atmosphere! Not in the slightest!
But, enough about that. The concert.
First of all, if you haven't read my review of the new Paramore album, give it a read here. I won't be discussing it in this post.
Alright. Let's start from the beginning. The show was a sellout show so I hardly got tickets to it. I bought tickets two days before because someone had sold theirs back to Ticketmaster. I lucked out pretty good two because they were tickets that were only about ten rows back from the stage. Put simply, we were pretty damn close.
The warm-up band was a band named Kitten. Your first impressions of the band based on the name are probably right. They're an alternative-pop group that has a very wild and seductive lead singer. Her clothes were an odd combo of a fishnet shirt and a jean skirt. She was incredibly energetic the whole show. Even if the style of music didn't really call for it. If there was a downside to Kitten's performance, it was that they did not have enough fast songs. Most of them were slow.
To put it lightly, the lead singer was doing some radical things on stage. At one point in the show she even spread her legs in a guys face. I definitely wasn't expecting something like that! But overall, Kitten was a very solid opening act. I wouldn't be surprised if they made their way up sooner than later.
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Paramore started their show rather unexpectedly. Hayley Williams and Taylor York came out and played one of the interludes from the new album. I'm not sure which one it was. If I were to guess, it was "Moving on." Right from the start you realize how good of a singer Hayley Williams is live. Also, you realize how hot Hayley Williams is in track pants and a sport bra *ahem.*
Anyways, then the show really started when the touring group and bassist Jeremy Davis came out and played "Misery Business." Like Kitten, Paramore is very high energy and, most impressively, the energy never let up the whole show. They followed up "Misery Business" with "For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic" which is my favorite Paramore song so, I was very pleased.
They played quite a few tunes from the new album. They, of course, played "Now." The first single from their new album was pretty pumped live.
They played "Fast in my Car." which was very cool. Though, interestingly enough, the speaking parts in "Fast in my Car" Hayley seemed to have trouble with. I think it was because she was too pumped the whole show to actually speak regularly. She kept wanting to shout those parts.
They played "Proof" (I think). Another high energy song from the last album. They also played "Ain't it Fun" which Hayley said was the band's favorite song from the last album (to my surprise). Quite frankly, I find myself skipping that one when it comes on my CD player. However, it was a very good song live. Then again, Paramore really doesn't do any wrong when they perform live. They could probably make the shittiest song written sound awesome live.
They played "Anklebiters" which, was one of the most awesome things I've ever seen a band do. Why? Well, I don't particularly like the song so that's not it. Why it was so awesome was because they brought up not one, not two, but nine people from the audience onto the stage. I have never seen a band in all of the recordings or shows I've been to do that. That was really cool of the band to do that. I mean, that was incredibly unexpected!
They ended the main set with "Still into You" which is probably my favorite song from the new album. The song translates well live even though it is very light-hearted and not typical slashing at guitars in classic Paramore style.
Speaking of classic Paramore style, the throwback songs that they decided to play were a little odd at times. From their first album All We Know is Falling, they played "Pressure" and "Whoa" but not "Emergency" which I thought was odd. Though, Hayley did talk about their first time in Chicago in 2005 and how the only song that they got people to sing at the Beat Kitchen was "Whoa" because of the lack of words in the chorus. So I guess there was a good reason for them to play it. To play for all the fans that had seen them even back then.
From Riot! they played "Misery Business" and "For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic" like I said before. The only other song they played from Riot! was "Let the Flames Begin" which was very good. It was one of the best songs they played last night. The contrast between the quiet verses and the loud chorus really translated into a dynamic live performance. I actually was pretty disappointed that they didn't play more from Riot! I was hoping that they would play "Hallelujah," "Crushcrushcrush," or "Born for this." But, I shouldn't be particularly surprised that they didn't play those. Especially considering how many songs they played from the new album.
From Brand New Eyes, they played what you would expect (mostly). They played "Ignorance" (but not in drop D). They played "The Only Exception." Though, unexpectedly, they played "Looking up" which most people wouldn't know unless if they intently listened to Brand New Eyes.
They also played a song that I didn't know. If I were to guess what it was, it could have been "Monster" or "Decode" - two songs that I'm very unfamiliar with. This is mainly because I really only listen to the albums. But, there's no really saying what it was unless if you ask someone who knows Paramore's music than I do.
For the encore, they did two songs. I actually don't remember what the first one was. It was a song from the new album. I know that for sure. The last song they played (and I forgot to mention it before on purpose) was "Brick by Boring Brick." It's about as great as you would expect it to be. The encore was pretty awesome in general. They shot blue and green streamers into about the first ten rows (so I got buried in streamers) and during the last chorus of "Brick by Boring Brick" they shot blue and green confetti into the air which got stuck in everyone's hair (there was even a guy in front of me who had a thick beard and he got confetti stuck in it).
Would I see Paramore again? Absolutely. I have to admit, this concert I did feel a little uncomfortable getting too into it because I wasn't a female. It sounds stupid but you would understand if you went because my friend didn't get that into it either. But it was still a lot of fun regardless. I know that next time I see them, I will not hold back on being a complete lunatic.