Paramore provided an energetic, emotional catharsis to a sold-out crowd Sunday night at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
“All of us in this room, including those of us on the stage tonight, we need this. We need this to survive the world,” singer Hayley Williams told the crowd. “This is what we need: an evening of music, two blissful hours without worrying about the (expletive)(expletive) that’s going on out there.”
Leading the charge the entire night was Williams, a powerhouse of a singer who put on a grueling physical show as well. Among other moves, she vogued, did the running man, bent crazily backwards, dropped to her knees repeatedly and pulled off countless head/hair whips. Name any other synonym for dancing, and it’s likely she did it at some point.
Early highlights included “Playing God,” “Decode” and “Last Hope,” which sparked a crowd chorus. The second hour of the show featured a small secondary stage where Williams, drummer Zac Farro and guitarist Taylor York were elevated high above the rest of the band for two songs.
The crowd — loud for most of the night — roared as Paramore opened their show with two songs off their new album, “This Is Why,” before busting out “That’s What You Get,” which drew a massive crowd singalong.
One of many crowd singalongs at Paramore’s show in Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/ei8zALTqeU
— Mike Palm (@MikePalmMedia) June 12, 2023
Through the night, Paramore played eight of 10 songs from “This Is Why,” which was released in February. They added in a cover of a Williams solo song, “Crystal Clear,” as well as having Farro sing “Baby,” a song from his side project, HalfNoise.
Paramore hadn’t visited Pittsburgh since 2014, so there were plenty of pent-up emotions that only their concert could release. So is Paramore a rock band? Dance? Emo? Pop-punk?
Nowadays, they’re probably a little bit of all of those. But in their early days, they wanted nothing more than to be a hardcore band
“Right when we were in the moment of writing our heaviest, angriest album — that’s “Brand New Eyes,” by the way, a lot of angry feelings on that record — right in the middle of that, we wrote a freakin’ ballad that we then had to go play at festivals with all those tough-guy bands, because people liked it,” Williams said Sunday. “And we were like, well, damn, I guess we’re not a hardcore band.”
Paramore then launched into “The Only Exception,” as the crowd again lit up the arena with their cell phones before the song ended with a waterfall-like cascade of fireworks.
The regular set’s penultimate song was “Misery Business,” which included a fan named David getting to hop on stage to join the band. The band had retired the song in 2018 because of lyrics deemed controversial by some, but it re-entered their sets last year. Williams covered her mouth for the “Once a whore, you’re nothing more” line while the crowd filled it in. “Ain’t It Fun” closed the set before a short break.
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The band returned for the encore with “Still Into You,” a spontaneous “Happy Birthday to You” for a fan — and also dedicated to their physical therapist who shared the birthday — and “This is Why.”
Australian singer Genesis Owusu started the show with an upbeat performance that wasn’t out of place in an arena setting. Dressed in red and black, as were his three backup dancers/singers, Owusu didn’t let the small front stage cramp his style, hopping and dancing all around. Owusu will be back in October to headline the Thunderbird Music Hall in Lawrenceville in support of his new album, “Struggler,” coming out later this summer.
Then came British rockers Bloc Party, who alternately roared and soared through their catalog — including a pair of yet-to-be-released songs — in 40 minutes. The contrast of light and heavy electronic-tinged rock was consistently propelled by drummer Louise Bartle, with heavy bass from Justin Harris, shredding guitars from Russsell Lissack and strong vocals from singer/guitarist Kele Okereke.
Both helped set the atmosphere for a Paramore concert that those in attendance will find hard to forget.
“It’s just about, like, being a part of your memories, growing up with you that way, is so special to us. It’s crazy,” Williams said. “… When you really break it down to what’s happening here, it’s absolutely bananas that songs that we wrote in a room somewhere, me scribbling words from my bed, become part of your life in a way that we can’t even fathom when it’s happening.”
