Reviews

An anthemic juggernaut of power pop magic, the song seems to get bigger with every performance. And as for the five scamps performing it, my how they've grown!

Paramore (c) Shirlaine Forrest

The youthful energy and passion is all still there in spades, but it is truly remarkable just how far the band have come in terms of stage presence.

Many bands of the genre enjoying a similar rise in popularity are content doing the same Dance, Dance as their club shows, but Paramore work the stage with flair and style and inject their songs with the necessary power to fill such a big venue.

The set list was practically perfect, their hard work on the road evident in more mature-sounding versions of older material, such as 'Emergency' and 'Pressure', and a cover of Jimmy Eat World's 'The Sweetness' that sounded more marvellous than the original.

Paramore (c) Shirlaine Forrest

Newer material truly shone tonight, with 'Born For This' and 'CrushCrushCrush' showing all the signs of becoming anthems for a generation, but it was a set closing re-working of 'My Heart' - which began with Hayley Williams performing solo with a keyboard, giving the song a fragile, fraught edge, and built to an outstanding crescendo with Josh Farro's backing screams adding a startling depth – that created one of the most magical performances of a song I have ever witnessed live.

With encores in the form of ‘Decoy’ and ‘Misery Business’ perpetuating the euphoria, Paramore have started 2008, a year that has the band nominated for a Grammy and headlining festivals, in the most triumphant way possible.