It’s Saturday night in Milan, one of the really first hot ones, where the subway trains seem the only solace from a sultry heat that follows you everywhere and sticks to your clothes like a viscous slime. A part of the City is almost completely paralyzed. The outskirts of Milan usually jam-packed with football fans and enthusiasts, is now crawling with a young, colourful and agitated crowd.
And yet, no one is talking about the real stars of the show.
Because in a stadium crawling with “Swifties”, Paramore-heads just stand their ground and make the most of a barely one-hour-long concert from one of the most underrated bands around. Good music, after all, can make 45 minutes last forever.
There is a buzzing feeling of anticipation going around, as the crowd waits impatiently for something to happen. It’s almost 6:45 PM and the Stadium is yet to be full, but those who are there can feel that something big is happening. The tireless machine of the hundreds of technical and production employees makes itself known by walking on stage and removing the protective cover from the floor. That’s when a plethora of whispers begin sneaking around between the sweating fans: “It’s starting”, they say in awe; “Here we go”, they repeat in excitement. And then the band comes out, and San Siro Stadium explodes in a welcoming scream, and the temperature is forgotten and the heart-eyed people all around simply start to jump up and down in anticipation. The roar that ignites the Stadium says everything about who has just walked on stage, and who is there to listen. Because it isn’t the reverberating boom that the almost 65 thousand people present could have produced, but it’s full of respect and anticipation. This isn’t a Paramore concert, after all, but everyone present knows that some monsters of our time have just graced our presence. And that should be enough to say how important a band this chameleonic is.
Paramore is no ordinary opening act. Usually, that’s a spot reserved for upcoming artists, someone that can even change from Country to Country, supporting a bigger star in order to have the opportunity to be known. And yes, Paramore has been kicking it for 20 years, but they never really made it big. Not as big as a tour of this magnitude would require, at least. They have just gone independent late last year, and opening for one of the most talked about pop singers around is the perfect way to get some new fans. Hayley Williams can shine against Taylor Swift without all the props, choreographies and sparkling set designs, and give a performance that will be burned on the frontal cortex of a new listener for at least a day. They have two decades of solid, creative and varying discography “Swifties” can explore, and they are confident, young and hungry to get what has seemed to always escape them: stardom.
Hayley greets us smiling, taking pause to look around and interiorize that she’s in front of yet another huge crowd, one that’s particularly impatient to hear what she has to say. Then she screams for us to sing along with her, and the energy in the Stadium skyrockets and everyone just goes crazy. Hard Times (from the 2017 After Laughter album) is the opener, a song that allows Hayley to showcase her vocal ability and the chemistry of the band as a whole. I never realized that what makes Paramore so great is the rapport they install with the crowd at each concert: even if people weren’t there for her (which she was very acutely aware of since she reassured everyone that they could get to know Paramore and become fans after the show) simply hung from her lips. The stage was bare, except for the band, and it was all the spectacle they needed to just draw you in. It was unbelievable, you could not look away.
Hayley jokes that it’s been too long since Paramore has been to Italy (which is true, come back again sooner, please), and then they go straight into Burning Down the House (yes, the Talking Heads cover, part of a project spearheaded by A24 Music, as a tribute album to Talking Heads containing 16 tracks recorded by 16 different artists – if you don’t know it, give it a listen, it has some rare gems in it, just like the Paramore version of this classic). And it’s after this one that Hayley’s smugness and confidence come through because she looks around the huge crowd cheering and just says: “If you don’t know any of our songs, baby that’s okay, you just sit back and enjoy”, sure that what they are about to give is one of the performances of their lives. And then they launch into Still Into You (from the self-titled album, their fourth, released in 2013), one of the most viral songs not only from that album but of theirs in general. It was after this song that I realized how lucky I was to be there, in front of a band so lively, captained by a singer with that much vocal prowess and bubbly stage presence. It was inspiring. And we were just three songs in!
Forgiveness (from After Laughter) is up next. It’s one of the slower ones in this concert and it lets you focus on the lyrical capabilities of Taylor York (the guitarist) and Hayley Williams. After this, and a little wordplay on Paramore and Per Amore (for love) in Italian, the band invites the crowd to groove with them at the rhythm of Caught in the Middle (again from After Laughter). Hayley runs up and down the incredibly long stage, engaging everyone, and a few shy headbangers start showing their faces. The chorus that comes on when she starts singing “I don’t need no help, I can sabotage me by myself”, is yet another reminder of how relatable these songs are, how they get under your skin and remind you that despite everything and how turned upside down the world is, living is a communal experience. And at a Paramore concert, it really feels that way.
Then, in Hayley’s own words “for all the lovers out there”, comes The Only Exception (from the 2009 album Brand New Eyes, that debuted at number two on the Billboard 200). And the Stadium just sings. I swear I think even the cement and the grass underneath our feet know that song. And it is slow, and it is intimate, and Hayley and Taylor get in the middle of the stage and just live the tune for each other and for us all.
After a moment so sweet and intense, Hayley knows exactly how to break the tension and teaches us how to rock, and most importantly how to wear the “crown of rock” on our heads: it’s time for Misery Business (from Riot!, their second album released in 2007)! The headbanging is a lot more convinced on this one, and a girl next to me, who did not previously know them, turns my way and says: “My God, count me as a fan now!”. That’s Paramore’s magic right there.
When Hayley announces that there are only two songs left, a collective sigh of disappointment rises from the stadium. But the excitement picks up almost immediately when Ain’t It Fun (again from the self-titled album, Paramore) starts. It’s as if all was forgotten, and everyone just sings “Ain’t it fun living in the real world” as a mantra. At the end of the song Hayley Williams showcases why she’s one of the best vocalists around, with impeccable control and a range that goes from strong and sultry to delicate and elusive. Always on key, obviously. The rest of the band, throughout the concert has various opportunities to shine, moving around and dancing with Hayley in the middle of the stage.
This Is Why (from their most recent album of the same title, released in early 2023 as a fundamental corollary of propulsive post-punk sounds) is the closing song. It’s a sound completely different from the rest of their discography, but of course not any less inventive or enticing. Paramore’s energy, playfulness and the diversity of the people singing along in the audience reflects perfectly their 20-year-long musical journey. A journey that was showcased perfectly during the concert. A concert that was only a small taste of what they could do, if given the chance, at such a big venue and with a crowd that came solely for them.
The entire stadium laughed, danced, and sang together. That’s what will stay with me the most. The fact that Paramore was able to bring in people that didn’t even know them. People that now surely will forever have an amazing first impression of one of the best and most chameleonic bands of our time.
The countdown for the Taylor Swift concert starts the second Paramore walks off stage, and I witness firsthand how crazy people can get, waiting for a 45-song-long concert that’s only two minutes away. But you can get every information you want about that concert somewhere else. It’s talked about more than enough. Everyone seems to forget Taylor Swift’s just as incredible opening act, though. One that can reshape the way you view music. One that has still a lot to give. So just know that we’ll be waiting for a new album, and a new word tour, Paramore. This one is just as big, but on your own!
Setlist:
- Hard Times
- Burning Down
- Still Into You
- Forgiveness
- Caught In The Middle
- The Only Exception
- Misery Business
- Ain’t It Fun
- This Is Why
(From here on, words by Benedetta Baldin)
And then, the show starts. Taylor is obviously one of the biggest acts nowadays, so it comes as no surprise that she can engage and excite crowds all over the world. On this tour, she plays a few songs from each album she released, big hits alongside less-known tracks. I am vastly disappointed to realize that she has not played “Our Song“, which was the track that got me accustomed to her catalogue. She delighted us, though, with almost all of the other well-known tracks of hers, so we can kind of forgive her for this. She changes costumes and choreography with each era, and the show flows very smoothly. As I am not a very die-hard fan of her, the show was quite too long, but all the swifties that were there next to me instead thought it was too short. In any case, it is surely a spectacle that will not leave you impassive!
Setlist for the show can be found here!
