Paramore - The Final Riot! (2008)
When I had first met my girlfriend, who was pretty emo at the time and had long red hair, I would jokingly tease her that she was actually Hayley Williams trying to hide her identity from me, that I had an obsession with her (Hayley Williams) and wrote to her all the time until she wrote me back and told me to fuck off. Believe it or not, she believed it (along with my claims that I fucked an animal's carcass before, wow, I don't know whether to be more disappointed in her or myself) and felt for me. Human emotions? What a dumbass! Speaking of that Hayley Williams lady, she sure does come across as a really competent frontman (frontwoman? is that a term or do we just use "frontman"? does it even matter?), with vocals that don't come across live -quite- as powerful as the studio versions, but very admirable for what they are, and between songs, all this shit about "HOW YA DOIN' CHICAGOOO" sure does hype the crowd up when they realize "wait, fuck, that's where WE'RE from!!" because Hayley Williams is an expert at mindfucking people, although she isn't exactly the greatest at faking an echo in "Pressure". That being said, the rest of the band is pretty good, especially in the performance of "Let the Flames Begin", "We Are Broken" (holy SHIT her voice is gorgeous), and the way that they incorporate Leonard Cohen's classic "Hallelujah" into a song of theirs by the same name, but they generally just kinda slip into the background of the concert otherwise. Some will say that "Brand New Eyes" was the calm before the storm in the band, but I'd rather say that this was, making it an almost depressing listen if you're an old fan like I am, but hey, fun times all around provided that you don't think about it much.
7/10
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