“You guys know that it’s ridiculous that we’re still here, right?” laughed Hayley Williams, shortly after serenading The O2 Arena with a swaying rendition of The Only Exception, lit by twinkling phone-lights.
A soft-edged stand-out from 2009‘s Brand New Eyes, the song has come to symbolise the beginning of Paramore ripping apart at the seams; shortly after that album’s release founding members Zac and Josh Farro swiftly departed in acrimonious circumstances. The years that followed were tough to weather, and at one point even Williams secretly quit the band.
So it is something of a miracle that Paramore are still standing, with Williams, Taylor York, and a back-in-the-fold Zac Farro a now-formidable trio. In recent years, the band have been making some of their most eclectic work yet, between the new-wave stylings of 2017’s After Laughter, and the fidgeting post-punk of this year’s This Is Why. They’ve also been further energised by their respective side-projects: Williams’ spiny and experimental solo releases, and Farro’s psych-garage outlet Half-Noise.
Paramore drew on all parts of this story for their live return to London, bringing a powerful sense of catharsis to older songs that perhaps have some difficult connotations. Alongside favourites Still Into You, Ain’t It Fun, and That’s What You Get, the band also rummaged deeper, unearthing Twilight soundtrack contributions Decode and I Caught Myself, and also creating space for a pair of solo track performances by Williams (Crystal Clear) and Farro (unreleased Half-Noise song Baby).
Riot! smash hit Misery Business – which the band previously retired out of regret for the internalised misogyny of certain lyrics – was also reclaimed with the help of three eager front-row fans summoned up onstage. Best yet was an electrifying penultimate performance of All I Wanted – a Brand New Eyes highlight the band only began performing live last year.
More recent material also shone. Both Liar and Crave – two of the more gently melodic cuts from This Is Why – glimmered and twisted, the latter speaking to Williams’ insistence that she wouldn’t change a single part of Paramore’s journey. “I romanticise even the worst of times, when all it took to make me cry was being alive,” she sang.
Though occasionally backed by artful visuals, the focus was not on stadium-baiting spectacle. Aside from a smattering of red confetti, it all felt rather more paired back, punctuated with a poem written by Williams, and a lo-fi montage of phone footage (a particularly large cheer went up for a shot of Williams’ goldendoodle Alf) ahead of the encore.
Keeping this kind of close focus felt like the ideal approach to a show seemingly centred on one important goal: reclaiming all of the fun they’ve had along the way.
