Written By: FrancyI'm a fan of Paramore and I don't care who knows it. So when I heard they were going on tour with No Doubt in Summer 2009, I ran to my computer to get tickets.
No good seats in Toronto? Montreal it is!
Last year, Paramore released a live DVD, The Final Riot. I was impressed by their live performance - they seemed to have worked hard at building a show not around songs, but around moments; at featuring each member of the band; at telling stories with music; and showcasing the heart of the band.
They delivered the same experience for the most part in Montreal, but there was something missing: The goose bumps.
I hate to say it, but Paramore showed some immaturity as a band by just playing rock songs for an hour. The lone ballad, "When It Rains" was beautiful and full but ultimately void of dynamics. It would have been easy enough and WAY more effective had they stripped it down to an acoustic guitar, some simple percussion and Hayley's confident but heart-breakingly vulnerable voice.
Was it all bad? Absolutely not. Paramore's performance of "Let the Flames Begin" completely blew my mind: As the band jammed feverishly, I half-expected the energy in that arena to bust out through the roof, blast up into the night sky and rip through the moon.
By the time No Doubt hit the stage, the Bell Centre was almost completely full. With a stage that looked like something out of a space movie and a giant digital video screen serving as a "anything's possible" backdrop, No Doubt lit that place up in a way I was not expecting.
I always thought of No Doubt as just a quirky, weird ska band who eventually traded the horns for synths and club beats. I was dead wrong. When Gwen Stefani prances and slithers across the stage like a feline high on cat nip, she's doing it because it works.
Like their opening act though, No Doubt could have capitalized more on some would-be moments that were unfortunately allowed to slip by. I would have loved to see a more intimate version of "Don't Speak". During "Hey Baby", everybody on stage was playing a synthesizer but there was never a moment made out of it. When Paramore stormed the stage to join No Doubt, I was disappointed by the lack of structure. Bassist Tony Kanal and guitarist Tom Dumont started generating some guitar-duel heat at one point but let the moment fizzle out instead of thrilling the audience by pushing it to the boiling point.
The performance of "Just a Girl" was a showstopper though with front-woman-of-the-universe, Gwen Stefani, shouting "Are you looking at ME?" rather indignantly before dropping to the floor and cranking out a long set of push-ups.
Brilliant.
