Live Review: Paramore @ Brisbane Entertainment Centre 2023

Paramore. A name synonymous with pop-punk, 00s emo, lyrical regret, love, loss, and feuds.

Is it any wonder that such a frenzied and colourful outfit should illicit an equally frenzied and colourful air of anticipation in Brisbane last night? Not at all. In fact, it’s to be expected when the Tennessee trio are in town.

Kicking off their Australian tour in support of their sixth studio album, This Is Why, Paramore, who made their name almost 20 years ago with their lawless brand of rock, were, by their own admission, impressed by the noise their doting fans made at their first Aussie show in five years. 

With Californian singer-songwriter Remi Wolf in tow, the dexterous pomp of the artist perfectly complemented the feverish energies of the night’s headliners. Wolf’s set is delivered in such a way that her art is redefining what pop music is; she’s funky, stylish, and a great deal more than soulful.

Though she performed songs from her 2021 debut album, the wildly acclaimed Juno, it was Wolf’s cover of Shaggy’s Shawty/It Wasn’t Me that fervently won over the otherwise Paramore-minded attendees. Once that happened, Wolf partied with her newfound friends with all the confidence and production of more seasoned soloists and certainly with the vocal power of all the solo female greats: big hair, big sound, big impact.

Cue Paramore. The screams as the lights go down and the trio – Hayley Williams, Zac Farro, and Taylor York – step onto the stage were unlike anything else. Animalistic, unrestrained, utterly adoring. Setting the mood with You First, lifted from This Is Why (and reworked by Wolf for its remix version Re: This Is Why), Williams tutored the audience in Paramore’s mission for the evening – "It's our duty for the next two hours to give you a place to feel the things you might not be able to out there." Paramore were good on their word.

Ahead of their rendition of Caught In The Middle, Williams encouraged the audience to partake in “bad dancing”, highlighting her own endearing flailing on stage, moving as if she was navigating the aggressions of the punk jungle. For all that Williams tends to draw criticism across social media for apparently hogging the spotlight, perhaps she’s been misunderstood. Williams is treated by her fans like royalty. She allows her audience to lose themselves with her unrestrained persona; it’s impossible not to love her. She draws devotion with power unparalleled by any other frontwoman on the scene, and no, it’s not the Hayley Williams show, but she is a damn good entertainer.

Again, this was a team effort, and Paramore were incredibly tight. The addition of their three touring members created an unbelievable energy on stage, and the sound and production were near flawless.

The six of them navigated the spectrum of the Paramore discography with finesse. They managed to carefully navigate the contrast of pensive themes and bubbly sound of tracks from After Laughter, just as well as they were able to become a united and relentless beast as they delivered hits like Decode (whose introduction was met with almost demonic screaming from the crowd), Still Into You, and Ain’t It Fun.

That being said, Paramore’s questionable diversion from the genre that made them a household name – their experimentation lauded by the media but doubted by some fans – and into a more synth-pop realm with their most recent two albums was the more sombre part of the evening. While performances of Liar and Williams’ solo track Crystal Clear provided many with a rest in an otherwise elaborate and sweaty ordeal, it was a chance for the (current) original trio to convene and indulge in their art. A quiet moment for them to demonstrate their excellent musicality, which can often be overlooked for their showmanship.

Since its reintroduction to the set last year, Misery Business has become something of a battle for Williams’ attention among fans, with diehards making signs, each splayed with a brief tale more tragic than the next, but all begging Williams to join her on stage and deliver the fan favourite.

Though there was an interlude in the band’s career where Misery Business was removed from their set list (“because we were stupid” is Williams’ admission), now, depending on the lucky guest vocalist, the song gets recontextualised, reinterpreted, or reminisced. It’s an endearing act on Paramore’s part to do such a thing. 

This time, the honour went to Stephen, a Columbian man living in Brisbane. The poor guy couldn’t sing a note, but that’s not the point of the segment": It’s about the fun, the camaraderie, and leaving the stage after his excitable delivery of the bridge alongside his idols to chants of his name, it’s moments like that that make the night for the fans, and show the band what Aussie mateship (something certainly not lacking through the night) is really about.

The greatest thing about Paramore is their transcendent energy. Whether they themselves are young or old, and their audience likewise, their music, again, young and old, is demonstrative of the evolution of the band’s artistry. Whether they’ve mastered the nuances of their more recent sonic palette and can deliver them with as much expertise as their more seasoned sound is another debate, but their artistry has a brushstroke for everyone.

For those that have come up with them, they have the patience and appreciation to be respectful of Paramore’s more low-fi efforts. And those fresher to the band appreciate the new-age style of the band as much as they do their involvement in music history.

And if the deafening screams that repeatedly punctured the venue, the undulated adoration, and Paramore’s sheer dominion are anything to go by, we’ll be seeing more of the fierce energy from them for many more years to come. Theirs is pop-punk for the ages.