‘How did time go by so quickly?” Hayley Williams asks, one foot atop a monitor, her eyes seeking those in the front row. The question forms the backbone of Paramore’s first UK show in five years, which is a fizzing spectacle of angst and charisma that reveals a band in a unique position to answer it.
Dressed in a short black suit that is half Twiggy, half Angus Young, with purple mascara tears bleeding from her right eye, Williams high-kicks her way through a set that pairs teenage insecurities from decades-old pop-punk records with new material musing on the existential heaviness that settles on your chest in your mid-30s. When she thanks the crowd for growing up alongside the band, it doesn’t feel like a line.
They open with You First, a scratchy new-wave-leaning highlight from their recent sixth album This Is Why, and Williams is magnetic from the drop, using every inch of the stage to stomp and shimmy. Its slashing chord changes make it apparent that this version of Paramore, with Taylor York joined by two further guitarists and drummer Zac Farro attempting to put his kit through the riser, is a very effective, muscular rock band.
Between songs, the arena goes dark and long pauses reset the momentum. This simple trick supercharges the intros to That’s What You Get and Hard Times, which are lobbed out like confetti-primed pipe bombs. Williams complains of problems with her earpieces – half abandoning a cover of Adrianne Lenker’s What Can You Say – but her performance is a rowdy marvel of movement and vocal chops that reaches its peak with a supreme take on All I Wanted.
It’s not perfect – plenty of hits are left out, although they find time to play an unreleased song by HalfNoise, Farro’s side project – but it’s hard to think of a more honest, human arena show than this one. During Crave, Williams sketches the agony of wanting to capture a moment only to see it fall to the bottom of the hourglass. There are a few thousand others in this room who know the feeling.
• At the Ovo Hydro, Glasgow, on 17 April. Then touring.
