A bit of a lean period on the music front of late. But I went to the Nottingham Arena tonight to see Paramore on the opening night of their UK tour.
When we ordered the tickets there was no problem: like the music, want to see the band.
In the interim, however, I was worried to see Hayley Williams collaborating with rap artist B.o.B. on the various music channels. I hate rap. And to make matters worse, I realised soon after we’d booked that B.o.B. was the supporting act.
Now, I still hate rap. But to be fair to B.o.B. he put on a decent show (there was only one obligatory “motherf***er”), and a couple of songs were quite rock-like. He still had the pointless dancers, of course, but then that’s what rap is. And some of the time it was impossible to work out where some of the sound was coming from – it sure as hell wasn’t coming from anyone who was holding an instrument, of that I’m certain. He also managed to get a few spectacular vocals immediately after taking the mike away from his mouth (if it wasn’t miming, then there was one hell of a backing track being used).
Naturally, the bass was so intense that your heart was struggling not to go into arrhythmia, and my trousers were shaking!
Hayley Williams came on to duet with him on their collaboration song.
Anyway, after the set change, Paramore came on. I have to say that they were excellent. It was difficult to hear any of the lyrics, and the sound was very intense just as you’d expect. But they put on a very polished show, with enough rawness to keep it in the rock camp. Hayley seemed genuinely surprised at the size of the venue and the number of people there (it wasn’t a full house, but it was close), and she was clearly happy at the reception they got.
They did a few acoustic numbers (as well as a country one – they are from Tennessee, after all), but the set was predominantly tracks which define the sound for which they are famous.
As I said, an excellent show.
On the side of it all, the audience was refreshingly short (and young – with weak bladders, meaning there was a constant flow in and out), so visibility was good. Not many were old enough to drink, so getting beer was easy at the break. A few songs required people to hold up lighters until their thumbs got too hot to carry on (that always cracks me up). And initially, you had to put up with the forest of iPhones until peoples arms got tired or batteries ran out.
Afterwards, we went for a pretty decent curry at Anoki (just round the corner). Mind you, it was bloody expensive. Main courses started at £14, and anything decent was nearer £17. Starters were £7, and rice and naan were £3 each. God knows how much the beer cost. It was lucky they were doing a 2 for 1 offer on main courses (we didn’t know about this before we went in), otherwise our £85 bill for four would have been closer to £120!
There weren’t many people in, even though thousands were walking past outsode. I can’t work out if that was because of the price, or perhaps because everyone else was off for a Happy Meal.