Concert Review: Art + Friends with Paramore in Nashville, Tennessee

Who: Paramore, Coin, Bully, Canon Blue, Liza Anne, Nightingale

Where: Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee

When: September 9, 2018

On Friday September 7th, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee, Paramore ended their album cycle for their latest album After Laughter with a bang. They brought out some of their favorite bands from Nashville to perform along with their favorite artists to show off their art.

As I mentioned before local artists had been invited as well as local record store Grimey’s and Hayley Williams’ hair dye company goodDyeyoung. There was a lot of art such as sculptures done by Brett Douglas Hunter, posters from Hatch Show Print and more to look at throughout the venue. One of my favorite art installations at the show was a room filled with screens, flashing random images and playing loud music.

Music wise the bands did not disappoint and they brought a lot of energy which is definitely required at a Paramore concert. There were 5 other bands, all from Nashville that played at the show as well. The fan favorite of the first 5 bands was Coin, who brought a ton of energy to the show and even got people moshing. All of the bands brought their own sound to the show and showed that Nashville isn’t just a place with good country music.

Paramore took the stage at 9 PM and played a two-hour long set, which is a longer set than they play while out on tour! The band started with the song “Grudges” and although they jumped around from album to album After Laughter was played in full for the first time. Of course, the band still played the classic songs like “That’s What You Get”, which featured Hayley Williams singing the chorus through a megaphone. There was an acoustic break where the band sat down and played their cover of “Passionfruit” by Drake as well as the song “26” from After Laughter and “Misguided Ghosts” from Brand New Eyes. I’m pretty sure after while this section of the show was happening everyone had some teary eyes. Of course, right after this, the energy level picked up, with “Caught In The Middle” getting everyone dancing once again.

Williams announced that the band had made the decision that this would be the last time they would be performing “Misery Business” for a long time. While this may disappoint some people, it’s important to remember and celebrate all of the chances the song gave to fans to sing on stage with the band. One or two fans get to go on stage, get introduced to the crowd, get their own microphone and sing their hearts out with Paramore! That is what should be remembered about this song.

Before the encore of the show, the last song on After Laughter, “Tell Me How” was played live for the first time. Before jumping into the song, Williams thanked everyone for being there and thanked all of the people that helped make Art + Friends a reality. She also thanked Taylor, Zac, and touring band members Joey, Joseph, Justin, and Logan for being there. “Tell Me How” is a highly emotional yet powerful song and it really needed to be played live. This was the perfect setting for it and everyone in the crowd sang along loudly.

The encore started with “Told You So” and then featured the band covering two Halfnoise songs, which is drummer Zac Farro’s side project. Zac came out from behind the kit and was able to sing while Hayley sang and played the drums. The After Laughter era ended with the song it began with, “Hard Times”. The whole floor turned erupted into a giant dance party and just like that the show was over.

People flew in from a lot of different places to be in Nashville for this show and to celebrate After Laughter. There really isn’t another band I can think of that brings people from all around the world together quite as Paramore does. Art + Friends was a culmination of exactly that, art and friends and there’s nothing better than that.

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Post by Madeline Cronin

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