Paramore - Reading Festival
Pop rockers Paramore paraded onto the main stage at Reading Festival to an ear-exploding applause from the colossal crowd. Admittedly a number of punters amongst the 50,000 strong audience were only there to get a good spot to watch Blink-182 perform later, but that didn't stop fiery-haired frontwoman Hayley Williams and her band of merry men from giving it their all.
The Tennessee five-piece, who launched into their hour-long set with hit single 'Misery Business', oozed confidence and had no trouble getting the crowd moving along to their upbeat music.
Paramore continued to please with an eclectic mix of old and new songs, fan favourites 'Pressure', 'Ignorance', 'Decode' and 'That's What You Get' saw thousands of festival-goers jump and sing along in unison.
Williams was her usual charismatic self and in between jaw-dropping vocals, the pint-sized singer offered friendly banter to the hefty crowd.
Halfway through their set the boisterous band chose to slow things down with love ballad 'The Only Exception'. Although the mellow track stood out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of their infectious bouncy rock tunes, it without doubt received the biggest crowd reaction. Punters swayed their arms and lighters throughout the soppy love song, whilst chanting back the catchy one-line chorus 'you are the only exception' to an enthusiastic and delighted Williams.
Picking up the pace again as their set came to a close, Paramore ended their energetic evening with contagious hit 'Brick By Boring Brick'. Despite being unable to hear Williams' vocals due to the overwhelming response from the crowd, Reading's rowdy audience delivered a superb rendition of the song, 'ba da ba ba da ba ba da''s included.
Having suffered with sound problems at Leeds the day before, which resulted in the band cutting their set short, the pop-punks certainly redeemed themselves down south at Reading. The Americans were on top form and were one of the only acts that produced a flawless show-stopping performance at the festival.
Quality band, quality set.