Yes. I just wrote that.
While my opinion will not be shared by all, this post will hopefully enlighten some of you who have never cared for the group called Paramore. I realize I'm not the typical fan of the young quintet, but that can be said of a lot of other popular music I enjoy. Yesterday I heard someone say that the more different music you can appreciate, the happier you are. Perhaps there is something true about that.
Paramore caught my ear back in 2007. The presets on my car radio included an alternative station from the Santa Barbara area and it was good for finding new music. The hit song "Misery Business" was one of the songs I often heard while driving home from campus and it ended up stuck in my head for awhile. I did a little research and soon I found the music video online. To my surprise, the band was made up of these emo looking punks. The only thing that really sparked my interest was the petite redhead of a lead singer. Even for a performance video, the headbanging of Hayley Williams was enough to make me really enjoy the video. I went out and bought the album "Riot" that night.
Paramore rocks. I mean...it's pop rock. It's fun. It's young. It's safe sex. I enjoy the melodies, the drum cadences, the occasional guitar solo, but the thing I took away from "Riot" was a popular rock band. These were songs to please an audience. I'm fine with that because I was pleased with them. I couldn't help but feel that the tone of the songs would take a much different route were the lead a singer a male. Many have compared Paramore to The Used, only with a girl on vocals. I don't exactly agree, but the differences are clear. Of course, that ended up being the exact reason I was drawn to the group. Hayley Williams. Girl's a beast on the vocals and it wasn't until I saw videos of some live shows that I realized she was a great performer. No doubt that Hayley makes Paramore interesting. I've spent the last three years enjoying their music and Paramore is certainly a band I wouldn't mind my kids listening to. If I had kids. And if those kids were like 12.
Earlier this year I found out that Paramore was going to go out on tour with New Found Glory, Tegan and Sara, and Kadawatha. While I hardly knew who Tegan and Sara or Kadawatha were, I had listened to New Found Glory since high school and Paramore was on the playlist rotation so I decided I wanted to attend one of the shows.
A big issue I have with going to concerts is the ability of the artists to perform their songs somewhat close to the studio versions I have grown to enjoy. What good is live music if it doesn't sound anything like the music you like? This issue can be put aside however if the performance is good enough to make you not even care. For example, Michael Jackson probably couldn't sing for shit while performing his hit songs at concerts, but with the familiar track going and Michael doing his thing on the stage, I doubt many people left those venues unsatisfied.
Anyway, I got a couple of tickets and decided I would take a chance on this Paramore concert. I had planned to go with a friend, but that fell through and so I ended up going by myself. I had purchased general admission tickets because I wanted to experience this concert from down on the floor right in front of the stage.
The day of the concert was quite the adventure. I had read online that general admission ticket holders would be admitted in numerical order determined by the wristbands distributed early the morning of the show. My goal was to be in the front row, so that would probably require me to have one of the first few wristbands given out. The information online stated that ticket holders would be allowed to start lining up at 7am and wristbands would be distributed around 10am. I figured I would head down to the arena earlier than 7am, in case some die hard fans were camping out in the wristband line. I got up at 3:30, quickly prepared and hit the road. I arrived in San Jose around 5:15am and made a quick lap around HP Pavillion. Sure enough four young people sat in portable chairs, covered in blankets at the entrance to the arena. I parked illegally and quickly made my way down to the front of the line. I asked the campers where they parked and they informed me that I could park at the bus station for three dollars all day and I ran back to move my car. Upon returning to the line, three brothers from Bakersfield had already made a line of four into a line of seven. So there I was....eighth. 5:40am
I thought I had prepared. With me was a backpack(JanSport of course) of supplies. Ipod-check. Jacket-check. Snacks-checks. I was in it for the long haul. I'm pretty good at killing time, but 10am seemed like a lifetime away when 6:15 rolled around. Slowly over the next two hours a couple more people made their way to the back of the line. Most of them could tell I was a rookie I'm sure. These people ahead of me had chairs. I had the cold pavement. The front of the line was bundled like a colony of penguins. They had coffee and donuts to enjoy while they watched episodes of True Blood on their laptop.
The three brothers ahead of me were more primitive in killing time. They had two chairs and took turns sitting in them while one layed on the blanket they had brought. A set of Dominoes occupied their minds for awhile, I even got into a couple of games. The rest of their time was spent dancing in place as I soon learned that they were part of a dance crew from the valley.
I found a good place and tried to meditate, half the time convincing myself that this time spent would be worth the sweat falling from Hayley's brow as she headbanged her way into my collection of memorable experiences.
After McD's I went across the street to Pizza My Heart for a slice.
I headed back toward the arena around 12pm for a couple reasons. First of all I wanted to ensure that I would have good parking for the night. Second, and probably most important, I needed to take the all important pre-game dump. The doors of the concert would open at 5:30 with the show beginning at 6:30, three opening acts and the ETA to Paramore was about 9 hours away. I didn't want to take the chance that nature would come calling at an inopportune time so I planned ahead. I figured I could get away with minimal food intake between 12pm and the end of the show so I just bought a few fruit bars. I hit the head and did my business around 2 at one of the gas stations nearby. A necessary sacrifice.
When I got back to HP Pavillion there was some talk about a meet and greet session with Paramore in the parking lot so I went to check it out. There I ran into the three brothers from earlier and we hung out in the shade until 4:30. The band never made it outside.
We went to take our numerical place in line and the crowd waiting for us had grown to the thousands. It felt kind of good to be able to simply walk right past all those people and go stand at the front of the line. I recommend trying it sometime.
Two girls right behind me in line tried their best to convince me that I should let them enter ahead of me because I was taller and thus, I would have less trouble seeing the stage than they would. I didn't buy it. They could have taken turns sitting on each others shoulders and easily been able to see over me.
Once the doors opened to let us in it was like a stampede. The numerical system pretty much went out the window because everyone just clumped into the entrance. Luckily I was toward the front of the crowd and still made it in as one of the first waves. I walked into the arena and down to the floor where I took my place dead center in front of the stage. At this point I could have nearly reached out on touched the mic and definitely could have exchanged awkward glances with the performers.
The crowd grew behind me and slowly we all began to squish in tighter to one another. As one of the tallest people in the crowd around me, I admit I had a better vantage point than most. Some poor guy next to me had somehow become wedged in between mine and a young girl's shoulders in such a way that he couldn't face the stage. Instead he had to rotate his head to the side in order to see the show. I overheard this guy lamenting over his position to a friend standing behind me and I tried to ignore him. I was not about to give up valuable floor space. This guy resorted to nibbling on my shoulder so as to make me fidget enough to let him adjust position.
"How's it going?" I asked.
"Oh, you know, here for the concert" was his reply. It was funny. I felt bad and moved.
The opening act was Kadawatha. They're from Sweden. That's the most interesting thing about them.
New Found Glory was up next and they did a great set. Sadly, not everyone enjoyed the New Found Glory portion of the show. Three of the four people I had found waiting in the front of the line earlier that morning were teenage girls. They had obviously come to see Paramore. Wearing Paramore shirts and singing Paramore songs, these girls had been waiting longer that I had to see this show and their dedication was rewarded with the coveted front row position. Unfortunately for these young girls, New Found Glory didn't give a shit about that. As soon as the first chorus hit, our position at the front of the stage became dangerous. I wouldn't call it a mosh pit as much as an ocean of people. The sea was angry that night. We swayed back and forth, up and down, everyone pushing and shoving to maintain position. I noticed the first of the girls having to be rescued by security just as the front man from NFG asked to crowd to start jumping. Soon, the other two girls also had to be pulled from the overwhelming crowd. I felt bad when I saw that one of them was crying and I knew that all that time spent waiting was for nothing as they would have to retreat to the back of the arena floor.
Seriously though, New Found Glory had an awesome set.
I was pleasantly surprised, but mildly annoyed by Tegan and Sara. The twin sister performers actually turned out some good music and charming personality. Not having been exposed to their music before, Tegan and Sara came harder than I would have imagined. Two problem arose during the course of Tegan and Sara. One, the set just dragged on for what seemed like forever. They played much longer than either of the other two acts prior and the crowd(myself included) could sense that the wait was almost over. The group of us in front had spent all day waiting for Paramore and these sisters were testing our patience. The second problem was one I had tried to anticipate. The New Found Glory set had worked up quite a sweat amongst the crowd. It was hot, it was sweaty, it was gross, but no one really cared at that point because we were in it. As Tegan and Sara broke into some slower songs, the sweat turned cold and I began to realize that I may need to urinate before too long. Leaving to use the restroom was out of the question. There would be no way for me to make my way out of the crowd by the time Paramore came out, let alone make my way back to the front of the stage. I was worried. This could be a catastrophic ending to my day of waiting and I envisioned the worst. I weighed my options and the consequences of each. I admit I seriously considered just pissing my pants right there in the middle of that crowd if it came to that. After waiting all fucking day I was not about to leave right before Paramore came on to take a leak. I committed myself to holding it. It would have to hold.
The energy in the crowd grew as Tegan and Sara left and the crew began sound checking the equipment. Before long, the lights were cut and a deafening wall of screams and cheers filled the arena. A drape fell over the stage and a backlight began to cast shadows of the band as they began the intro song. The instrumental intro had not lasted more than two minutes when the lights cut again and I could see the drape fall to the ground.
First thing I'll remember about the Paramore show. The opening riff of "Ignorance" and Hayley yelling in the mic as she bent over backwards toward the crowd. The next sixty minutes were a little crazy with a lot to take in. My memory of that time is made up of moments like snapshots.
-The lights beginning to swing from the ceiling
-Hayley smiling at me after the bridge of "Feeling Sorry"
-Seeing the girl who was 40 people behind me in line somehow now in front of me by two rows.
-The lighting effects were under utilized during the other band's performances because it was visual explosion once Paramore started playing.
-The music sounding just as good as a recording.
-Hayley Williams is a rock and roll animal posing as a human being.
-a whole bunch of stuff I can't put into words but remain with my senses still.
The music was good. The performance was better. The waiting was worth it. Overall I would recommend making it out to a Paramore performance someday. Perhaps the music isn't your taste, but the show is entertaining for sure. I got the sense that they were all about pleasing the people.
I did bring a camera and besides snapping a few photos I was able to take a few videos as well. The camera was not the one I'm used to and as a result I feel the things I took hardly do the show justice. If you need any evidence to why I might enjoy a Paramore show just take a look at the video below.
If you're interested in knowing more, check out paramore.net or Hayley's blog at http://yelyahwilliams.tumblr.com/
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