Paramore pops at the Rave’s Eagles Ballroom
REVIEW
At the ripe old age of 28, Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams was in a reflective mood at the Rave’s Eagles Ballroom Friday night, reminiscing about the band’s early days when “the pants were tight and the bangs were out of control.”
Friday’s sold-out concert — constituting night two of WLUM-FM (102.1)’s annual Big Snow Show December concert series — illustrated just how much Paramore has changed and how much has blissfully stayed the same.
Following a tumultuous period when former bassist Jordan Davis sued the band for songwriting credits and royalties — and the band contemplated a breakup — Paramore figuratively shed its skin and literally shed its sound.
The result was its fifth studio album, “After Laughter,” released a day after the band settled with Davis in May. The album cast aside the band’s punk tone and textures and brought its pop sensibilities to the forefront, dressed in ‘80s gloss.
A six-piece band, including official members Taylor York on guitar and Zac Farro on drums, sharply recreated the shimmer and shine of the “Laughter” material Friday, particularly the Afrobeat-inspired grooves for punchy show opener “Hard Times” and the gorgeously rendered “Forgiveness.”
But it was Williams who simultaneously gave the songs greater brightness and gravity. She’s always been an anxious, sometimes acidic lyricist, but that’s especially the case on “Laughter.”
“I’m gonna draw my lipstick wider than my mouth,” she sang Friday for the deceitfully peppy “Fake Happy.” “I don’t need no help/I can sabotage me by myself,” she chanted during the breakdown of “Caught in the Middle,” ironically wearing bright yellow sunglasses.
But whether she was singing these mature pop songs or revisiting tunes from her teens and early 20s, like the bristling pop-punk rager “Ignorance,” Williams Friday was still that excitable, infectious kid that made her a star so young.
She sang as she headbanged, her voice soaring while she flirted with whiplash, for “Brick by Boring Brick,” and she looked like an action star, her body whipping across the stage backlit by bright white lights, during “That’s What You Get.”
And keeping with Paramore’s concert tradition, Williams brought a fan on stage to sing the end of breakout single “Misery Business,” selecting a young woman named Mallory, who exclaimed, “I’ve been waiting 13 years for this.”
As Mallory busted into the song — shaking her head every which way, making sure to clutch her glasses so they didn’t fly off — Williams was right there by her side, belting and dancing along and getting down on her knees to worship the fan like a queen.
It was an experience Mallory will never forget — but Williams seemed to genuinely relish the moment just as much.
Opener Dashboard Confessional has a deeply passionate fan base and a Milwaukee born-and-based bassist in Scott Schoenbeck, but Chris Carrabba’s emo act took a risk Friday, devoting a large portion of its hourlong set to songs from the forthcoming “Crooked Shadows,” the band’s first album in nine years.
Dashboard put a lot of energy into recently released single “We Fight,” but the band still struggled to rile up the crowd. Dashboard devotees likely dug the heart-on-the-sleeve, yet-tobe-released slow-burner “Belong,” but antsy, chatty concert-goers disrupted the moment.
But there was one indication that “Shadows” will score — when Carrabba sang alone on acoustic guitar for the unreleased “Heart Beat Here,” coaching the crowd through a cheery singalong.
And naturally, those voices were loud and proud for established hits like “Screaming Infidelities” and “Hands Down.”