‘How did time go by so quickly?” Hayley Williams asks, one foot atop a monitor, her eyes seeking those in the front row. The question forms the backbone of Paramore’s first UK show in five years, which is a fizzing spectacle of angst and charisma that reveals a band in a unique position to answer it.
Dressed in a short black suit that is half Twiggy, half Angus Young, with purple mascara tears bleeding from her right eye, Williams high-kicks her way through a set that pairs teenage insecurities from decades-old pop-punk records with new material musing on the existential heaviness that settles on your chest in your mid-30s. When she thanks the crowd for growing up alongside the band, it doesn’t feel like a line.
