Paramore
13th February 2017
Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Connor Crawford.
Auckland was asked straight out tonight if they had brought their dancing shoes and in true kiwi style, Auckland showed Haley Williams of Paramore that they certainly had. And how they danced. All. Night. Long.
But before the fans tonight got to revel in the multicoloured goodness of Williams and her crew, they were treated to an upbeat set from Bleachers led by – what some hail to be – the next biggest music producer in the world, Jack Antonoff. For those of you not familiar with Bleachers – you may recognise Antonoff from one of his other bands ‘Fun’ instead, the guys that brought you the megatrack ‘We Are Young’ that hit the airwaves back in 2011 and then stayed around for quite a while. Formed in 2014, Bleachers are obviously very heavily influenced by the 80’s new wave / early 90’s era, Antonoff certainly playing a major part in their sound. Hitting the stage complete with double drum kits they took the crowd by storm, Antonoff’s energy seeing him constantly encouraging the audience to give him more, which many of them did. His call for people to hop up on each other’s shoulders met with particular enthusiastic displays.
With tones of Antonoff’s musical heroes such as Bruce Springsteen underpinning the base of a few Bleachers tracks it’s easy to see how Antonoff can expertly meld the worlds of old and new together – despite the slightly sickly-sweet pop fluff lyrics. The rest of the band are in on it as well it seems as during their song ‘You’re Still a Mystery’ their keyboard player Evan Smith delivers one hell of a saxophone solo which saw him down on his knees more than once. However it was their biggest (and first huge single from 2014) ‘I Wanna Get Better’ that really got the crowd going, the positive lyrics seeing Antonoff go into emotional overdrive as he held his guitar out with one hand and beat his chest with the other. One thing is for sure, Bleachers made an impression, and the band that hails from New York may wake up tomorrow to find that they have a few new kiwi based fans.
As the house lights came up the crowd chattered amongst themselves excitedly, safe in the knowledge that only moments away was the band that they had been waiting for for rather a long time; well when you are a fan, four years is a long time, Paramore last appearing here in 2014 and 2011 respectively. Led by the effervescent Hayley Williams, Paramore originally formed in 2004 in Tennessee; while in music videos they appear as the three piece that they are, on tour the take up a bigger portion of the stage as they expand to a seven piece.
Lit from above by a giant set of circular lights, Williams – while looking very much the epitome of cool in a black and white checkered mini skirt and black jacket – sadly took the more safe colour approach to her wardrobe tonight, as did most of the band who were dressed in varying shades of white or dark colours. This however made a lot more sense when during their opening track of ‘Hard Times’ the lights and projected on screen graphics burst into a myriad of shapes and colours around them, hues of reds, yellows and purples, cascading down. With an opening track as catchy as ‘Hard Times’ that got the floor section bouncing in unison, it was pretty obvious that this was going to be a night full of feel good vibes and inclusivity; Paramore well known for treating their fans as if they are extended family members.
Racing through ‘Ignorance’ – which saw Williams buckled over in half while she sang through a small loudhailer – ‘Still into You’ and ‘Forgiveness’ in quick succession it quickly became evident why Paramore are so popular with their fans. While the band were giving it everything they had, nothing could compare to the sheer on stage exuberance of Williams; from high-kicks, to fist pumping the air, Williams barely paused for a moment as she belted out each of the tracks, her bleached blonde hair turning to white lightning in the strobe lights.
Addressing the crowd for the first time Williams advised the fans that “we are going to make up for a lot of lost time!” which elicited cheers of delight. With five studio albums now under their belt and a bevy of hit singles, Paramore certainly had more than enough of a back catalogue to keep this crowd entertained, and entertain they did. Although it does have to be said, that while hits like ‘That’s what you Get’ had the audience of thousands dancing as if their lives depended on it, some of the less popular tracks did see periods of ‘samey-samey’ sneak in and it would have been good to see the band change it up a bit.
After advising the crowd that feelings with a capital ‘F’ often have a habit of sneaking up on you and that they “tried to get here sooner … but you know … life”, Paramore delivered a beautiful version of ‘Hate to see your Heart Break’ from their 2013 self-titled album; the brightly coloured lights and visuals dropping back to the most basic of pale white so that fans could instead illuminate the room with the lights of their cell phones which they did so beautifully. However, that was about the only breather the crowd were going to get as Paramore jumped straight into ‘Caught In The Middle’ and turned the dial back up to 11; the high energy performance finally getting to Williams as she at one point flopped down on the floor and lay on her back seemingly letting the music wash over her as she took a well-deserved break.
But soon it was the song that many a sign waving fan had been patiently waiting for; ‘Misery Business’ synonymous with one lucky fan having the chance to get up on stage and sing with Paramore in person. Tonight’s lucky fan, chosen personally by Williams was the lovely Emily, who despite probably some of the biggest butterflies ever fluttering inside her, owned the stage as she sang with conviction and then joined Williams in a riotous celebration of dance. Closing their set out on ‘Ain’t It Fun’, Williams encouraged the fans to keep those dancing shoes on right up to the very end as the band exited to the last lines of the song being sung by recorded gospel style voices.
The encore game in full swing, Paramore didn’t leave their fans waiting too long before they returned to deliver a trio of tunes that included the kitschy ‘French Class’ which saw drummer Zac Farro come out front to sing a duet with Williams before letting loose on a small set of drums in front of him, every so often tossing out the drumsticks to the waiting crowd. A quick introduction of the band by Williams saw the crowd join Farro in a chant of ‘Lo-gan, Lo-gan’, synth player Logan MacKenzie being a bonafide kiwi that Williams advised we “are never getting back” as the band loves him too much.
Closing the evening out on ‘Rose-Coloured Boy’ and self-empowering messages of love and positivity; Paramore exited the stage surrounded by the adoration and respect of their thousands of fans.
Paramore:
Bleachers:
Were you there at Spark Arena for this epic double header? Or have you seen Paramore perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Hard Times
- Ignorance
- Still Into You
- Forgiveness
- Fake Happy
- That’s What You Get
- Caught Myself
- Pool
- Hate To See Your Heart Break
- Caught In The Middle
- Told You So
- Idle Worship
- No Friend
- Misery Business
- Ain’t It Fun
- Grow Up [encore]
- French Class [encore]
- Rose-Coloured Boy [encore]
If you enjoyed this content, please consider donating towards the running of Ambient Light, covering expenses and allowing us to expand the coverage you love by visiting our PressPatron page.