Paramore @ Luna Park Big Top,Sydney (24/02/2010)

Thu 25th Feb, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Well that was… interesting. It reminds me of the analogy comparing a Linkin Park concert to the experience of riding a rollercoaster (pretty ironic, taking into account the location of tonight’s show). You get the illusion of danger, and it can even be kind of thrilling in parts, but in reality you’re completely safe and everything is under control.

Before you chime in with an incredulous ‘what did you expect, dude?’, I’m completely aware of what I’d signed myself up for. I have a not-so-secret soft spot for tween-friendly pop-punk – the source of constant jibes from my much more serious friends – and over the years I’ve been able to satisfy most of the urges to see it played out live. MCR, FOB, 30STM and a litany of other bands with SMS-friendly acronyms; they all had a certain edge in the live arena. But it was unfortunately something Paramore sorely lacked.

Perhaps the most unexpected thing at tonight’s sell-out show was the diversity of the crowd. You might have assumed the audience would be made up entirely of 15-year-old girls aiming to live out some sort of Edward/Bella music video fantasy, but to their credit Paramore clearly have a lot more pulling power. And of all the Soundwave sideshows happening this week it’d be a safe bet that tonight’s audience had the lowest duplication with attendees to the festival. In fact, when Hayley mentioned how much fun they were having on the Soundwave tour, the crowd response was noticeably mute.

The biggest highlights were the songs that have gained them the most radio play, with Decode and Misery Business inciting excited shrieks and frenzied sing-a-longs from the crowd. Hayley filming two songs from the stage with an audience member’s camera was also a nice touch, and surely made that particular punter’s night/week/year. It was good clean fun, there’s no denying that, it just lacked even the smallest smidgen of spontaneity. You were enjoying yourself because you knew what was coming next, not because you were going to be surprised.

When they closed their encore with Brick By Boring Brick things bordered on intense, but then they goofed it up by being ‘zany’, swapping their instruments to presumably highlight their ability to live life on the spur-of-the-moment (do they do this at the end of every show?). And although they had the best intentions, their attempt at a poignant ballad halfway through the set – The Only Exception – seemed to drag.

All things considered, criticising Paramore for giving a conventional live performance is pretty hackneyed on my behalf. It is what it is, and they had a few thousand people all enjoying themselves a great deal. The rollercoaster ride just felt a bit more like the Wild Mouse outside the Big Top’s doors (you must be at least 130cm for this ride!) rather than the Space Mountain experience I was hoping for.