But there is one standard Paramore play that’s frequently pretty fun. It’s something almost all artists do, and it’s a fairly rote move. Of course, sucking up to crowds isn’t just a time-honored Paramore tradition. I’m serious!”įans cheer as Paramore performs at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Even, like, Europe dates, we just - we start in North Carolina.” At another, she gushed, “I don’t know how we’re gonna keep going on this tour, and anything could ever top this show. And she seemed to eat the fans in Charlotte up right back.Īt one point, Williams joked, “We should start every tour here, maybe. So, when that side quest ended, Williams was again on the move, boogey-ing her way through “Hard Times” before punctuating its last line (“ And I gotta get to rock bottom”) by dropping to her knees then leaning back till her head touched the floor to complete a classic rock-star pose.įans in Charlotte ate it up. However, her legs seemed to be getting more restless. The staging for the next song - “Crystal Clear,” a deep cut from her 2020 solo debut album ”Petals for Armor” - was identical. But otherwise Williams stayed glued to a mic stand that stayed glued to the floor. Her hands drifted, too, as if controlled by a gentle puppet master, and her knees bounced just slightly as she delivered the song’s dreamy vocals. kept her standing still, mostly, and in one place, mostly) over the course of the band’s two-hour, 22-song set came almost exactly midway through:Īfter excusing herself at the end of “Big Man, Little Dignity,” she reappeared with Farro and York to perform new song “Liar” a few moments later on an elevated B-stage, their silhouettes cast against the glow of a small screen behind them that played video of drifting clouds. The only section of the show that settled her down (i.e. To do jumping jacks, literally, while belting the chorus of “That’s What You Get.” Or to incorporate styles of dance into the ska- and reggae-tinged “Caught in the Middle” that careen, in a matter of seconds, from something resembling a martial-arts teacher’s kata to something resembling how a blissed-out clown might react to suddenly hearing his favorite song.Įvery move Williams makes seems at once carefully calculated and joyously spontaneous. To kick at the air, to twirl in circles with her arms outstretched, to whip her hair so violently that her face gets lost in a sea of it. Her tendency to whirl from one side of the stage to the other like a dervish. Paramore performs at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.Īt the sold-out Charlotte show, her striking outfit - a cobalt-blue, double-breasted, collared silk top with color-matched boyshorts and eyeshadow, and gold heels - surely helped.īut more generally speaking, I think it’s her hyperactivity that’s so transfixing. Or, perhaps to be more specific, Williams on stage doing Williams things.ĭespite the fact that the new show features six other people on stage with her (the group on tour is rounded out by backing musicians Joey Howard, Joey Mullen, Logan MacKenzie and Brian Robert Jones), Williams will always be the main attraction for everyone except maybe her bandmates’ relatives or close friends. What I mean is that Paramore performances are at their best when it’s just Paramore up there doing Paramore things. The silly yet still kind of cool gimmick known as the “Paramoat,” a special VIP area that suddenly opened up behind and beneath Zac Farro’s drum kit for a select handful of ecstatic fans right before the two-song encore.īut the best tricks trotted out by Williams, Farro and guitarist Taylor York for their band’s first show in Charlotte in almost six years were the old tricks.Īnd I don’t necessarily mean to tell you that I prefer the old songs - though it’s certainly hard to beat light-’n’-airy 2014 hit “Ain’t It Fun” when it comes to music that makes you want to flop your arms around like one of those inflatable tube men at the car dealership and it’s definitely tough to top 2007 pop-punk banger “Misery Business” when it comes to tracks that can instantly turn you into a human Bobblehead.
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