Live Review: Paramore – 20th April 2023 – The O2, London, UK
3 min read
Paramore made their return to London’s O2 Arena last night, continuing their strong European tour. The rock band, well known predominantly for singer Hayley Williams, made a raucous return earlier this year with comeback album This Is Why, their first as a group since 2017. The sold out night was enlightened by support from Rozi Plain and Bloc Party, the latter of whom were thanked for being an inspiration to the band everyone was waiting for.
Hayley’s voice opened the evening, monologging contradictions. A great ball of light erupted like a black hole on the screen, leading into You First. The News followed, and then That’s What You Get. The energy was electric, both from the band and the audience. Hayley glittered like a disco ball, dancing across all corners of the stage. The songs were split by recorded interludes, the first of which ending in Playing God. For all of Hayley’s energy, fellow members Zac Farro and Taylor York gave back in their performance. The session players joined in also, the band feeling truly bigger than their official cannon trio. “You inspired this album,” Hayley said, “and we haven’t said that yet, on this whole tour!” A thank you to the support band ended in a Freddie mercury esc sing along involving high notes culminated in Rose-Colored Boy, the crowd exploding at the announcement. With a sweet introduction to the band from Hayley, Last Hope was played to a sea of lights and singing. “We’ve been waiting to play this to you London! This song is 12 years old”.
It’s one of a few comments on the band’s duration, another being “It’s been a fun almost 20 years with you”. Hayley announced this before beginning new song Running Out Of Time. “Thank you for letting us do what we want every album.” With that being said, the group still found time to honour solo projects. Hayley played Crystal Clear from her Petals For Armour material, while Zac came down to sing his new, unreleased track Baby by Half Noise. For big hit Misery Business the band pulled three audience members up to finish the song. Each person performed amazingly, singing their hearts out to thunderous applause. The band didn’t let up, launching into Ain’t It Fun, the final song of the main set. It was clear that it wasn’t the end. The time off stage was soundtracked by a montage of photoshoot, recording sessions, and behind the scenes footage, shown in super 8-esc grit. “Thank you so much for making life bearable. We are already figuring out when to come back”. Closing on All I Wanted and This Is Why, Paramore gave fans a reason to have them back as soon as possible.
Setlist:
You First
The News
That’s What You Get
Playing God
Caught In The Middle
Rose-Colored Boy
Decode
Last Hope
Running Out of Time
Crystal Clear (Hayley Williams)
Liar
I Caught Myself
Hard Times
Still Into You
Baby (Half Noise cover)
The Only Exception
Crave
Misery Business
Ain’t It Fun
Encore:
All I Wanted
This Is Why
All photos provided by Atlantic Records and taken by ZACHARY GRAY
Writer and Musician, Ryan Bulbeck has been published with a number of online publications, and has worked with a myriad of great artists, both as a performer, and as a producer. His most recent band The 295 are still active, playing shows around the UK.
