Not many bands are capable of selling out arenas on their sixth album 20 years into their career, but most bands are not Paramore. The trio are playing to an absolutely rammed CIA this evening, with their main tour support coming from Bloc Party. Opening with In Situ off their most recent album Alpha Games, Kele Okereke and co weave their way through a set including the likes of Hunting For Witches, Banquet, and This Modern Love. Their set starts slow but builds to an intense finish with a double whammy of Helicopter and Ratchet.
Coming on to stage to a spoken-word poem written by frontperson Hayley Williams, Paramore hit the throttle straight away with You First and The News, the latter powerfully erupting into the room. Coming early in the live set as well are some even bigger Paramore hitters – That’s What You Get, Hard Times – but even the deeper cuts are screamed back at the band tonight such as Playing God off 2009’s Brand New Eyes.
Paramore live shows are all about being a community or a ‘family’, one which Williams is keen to impress tonight, but it isn’t cynical. There’s so much love in the room for both the band and fellow fans, with the vocalist also shouting out people she recognises from the front row every time Paramore come to the UK; she talks, too, about how both the fans and the band (specifically drummer Zac Farro and guitarist Taylor York) have grown up together.
The likes of ultra-emo banger Decode, the powerful Last Hope, and the poppy Rose Coloured Boy all land perfectly, but it’s the first-ever UK performance of fan favourite All I Wanted that gets the most love: Paramore had never played it at all until last year. Misery Business (which sees two fans joining the band onstage for its latter half) and Crave close out the main set, with some behind-the-scenes clips playing onscreen, before the band come back for an encore of The Only Exception and recent single This Is Why.
The magic of Paramore is not exaggerated – this is a band at the top of their game with a feeling that they can still only get better.
Paramore + Bloc Party, Cardiff International Arena, Sat 15 Apr
words JOSHUA WILLIAMS photos ZACHARY GRAY
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