Holy crap Paramore!

Paramore played at WaMu Theater last night along with Relient K and fun. Like the last two nights, I missed the first opener (fun in this case), but saw the second two performances.

Relient K took me back to high school. I think if you looked up the definition of "pop/punk" you'd find a picture of Relient K. Actually, maybe they'd be the example for the Christian subcategory. They did have a few songs that were interesting, but I think those were mostly their older stuff (and their set closer). I don't know their discography well enough to say with any real assurance, though. And I mean, even though the performance wasn't anything particularly special, didn't make it un-fun to watch.

Paramore, though...they were way more than I expected! Haley Williams came on stage headbanging and pretty much never let up. At one point, she lied down in front of Taylor York, and he bent over a little so Jeremy Davis could do a backflip over them! It was totally unexpected and totally ridiculous! Of course, York and Davis were still playing while this was happening, too. Amazing.

It was also pretty awesome that Williams interacted with the audience so much. Even though it was in a huge venue, she didn't treat the audience like we were just watching or like we weren't important. There was a person with a "Haley marry my son" sign, and she took time out of the set to comment on it (something along the lines of "That's flattering, but marriage is way down the road for me. Maybe I'll go to prom with you. That's a little more my age group."). She also brought up a balloon sword that someone had to get all the band members to sign it, and accepted a shirt with "Team Zac" written on it and hung it on the bass drum for the rest of the set (or at least until it fell off).

The set (stage, background, etc...not music) isn't something I usually pay attention to, but with Paramore it mattered. When they came on, they had a sheet with their older logo on it. Then right as they started their performance of "Ignorance" (I think...I don't remember. It must have been their first Brand New Eyes song, though), the sheet dropped away revealing their new logo. And then during the encore, that dropped away giving yet another change of scenery.

Speaking of the encore, it was definitely the highlight of the show. Paramore played "Decode" and "Misery Business" and right before the bridge of the latter, Williams stopped singing to talk to us. But since the rest of the band was still playing, the crowd kept singing and made it through the bridge before letting her speak. I'm pretty sure we surprised her because she was about to talk and then said, "Oh, you guys know this part. You sound great, Seattle," and let us finish. And then she talked about how they met a fan during their meet and greet before the show that claimed to know all their songs on guitar. And gave him the chance to prove it. They brought him up and gave him Josh Farro's guitar and had the fan play the lead guitar part for the rest of the song. It was very exciting...and he nailed it! After they finished the song, Paramore just kept banging on their instruments for at least 15 minutes while getting rid of all their picks, water bottles, drumsticks, and what looked like song sheets or something...I couldn't quite tell, and just generally having fun with themselves. Definitely one of if not the most fun concert I've ever been to.