Some of you may have been patiently waiting for my review of the Honda Civic Tour on Thursday. Fear not, I have it right here, sans one review. I will touch up on one band slightly before the review is out, but before we begin, I have to say a little something.
I don’t usually attend concerts where I may feel out of place. I enjoy the atmosphere and have been to many a concert during my time that I confidently felt like I could absolutely fit in. This. Was. Different. The average age for everyone at this concert seemed to be 16. When you outage everyone by almost 10 years, you lose faith for the performance, being that it’s lost on the Teeny-Boppers of this new generation. I did indeed start to lose that faith as I made my way into the crowd at The Lawn at White River State Park.
First up that night was Kadawatha. I had been told to look into them and be prepared for a pretty stellar show. Whoever gave me the heads up, they were spot on. Even though it was only a 5 song set, it was a pretty positive light on a night where I thought only two bands held up.
When the drummer made his way out to the stage, most fans decided to stay relatively mellow as they had never heard of this band before. He starts out with good solo leading the rest of the band to the stage. When the lead singer makes his way to the front, the band erupts into their first song and they deliver well. They play like it could be their last show, and for a band from Sweden on their first US Tour, they act like every show is the last.
While the beginning starts out a little blotchy (I’m not sure if it’s stage fright, or if the band was just trying to find their footing), they finish the set very strongly with a synchronized jump kick and fall to the ground. The band performs awesomely together and have an amazing energy on stage that meshes well with most of the remaining on tour. I was amazingly surprised with the response the band got as their show continued. While the crowd didn’t seem into the show at first, once it ended, the band was getting a great reaction from fans.
The vocals were superb, and they carried a different tune as compared to most other bands. They also made it a point to meet with fans after the New Found Glory set to promote their 5 song EP and sign autographs. I hope they keep this up as time goes on and they find themselves signed to a label.
It didn’t take very much longer after Kadawatha left for New Found Glory to make the stage theirs. I did, sadly, miss most of this performance because of an interview with Kadawatha (Which should be up soon), however, there wasn’t much to write home about. It’s your traditional NFG set with mainly their hits being played, including their newest-ish “Kiss Me.” They did implore the crowd to get into the set, which I find very commendable. The high energy (as always) set was indeed typical for NFG fans, which is where they’ve gotten their popularity. My only complaint is that the bassist needs to put on a freakin’ shirt because, and I say this with bold letters to make my point clear: NO ONE wants to see that while you’re jumping around, man!
Once again, we unfortunately left during “Kiss Me” to go meet up with Kadawatha, so I missed pretty much the middle and end of the set. After coming back out, and situating with a coke and water up towards the back of the lawn, Tegan and Sara came to stage.
I have a few friends who are interested deeply into this band, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. I had high hopes because, once again, these close friend praised their work. While the harmony and joking with the crowd was great, the drull folk music and whiney undertones that are worse than Jewel made this a forgettable show for me. I noticed that quite a few people in the crowd who were older were enjoying it a little bit more than a lot of the younger crowd, but, I was towards the back for this segment, so the front crowd could have been thoroughly pleased too. They praised Indy for being the nicest crowd so far since they’ve been touring. I’m not going to lie – For a concert that featured 3 very high energy bands, Tegan and Sara did not belong on this tour. The band is just not my cup of tea and I probably won’t venture to learn more about the band since I didn’t find their live show very appealing.
While I remember going to concerts and being impatient for a closing act to get on stage, today’s children/teens are a lot more impatient than I ever was. Either forgetting to take their riddalin before, or just hyping up on too much sugar (as wonderfully witnessed as a kid went nuts next to us – More on that in a second), chants of “Paramore” began a full 30 minutes before the band took the stage. What’s more – On stage there was a screen where people could text messages to the whole crowd, and this didn’t help matters. Every 5 minutes or so, another message across the screen would relentlessly tease the crowd into yelling for Paramore again and again, as if they didn’t already know that’s why everyone paid to go there in the first place. They also took time to ask people to marry them through text screen. Folks, Sports billboards are tacky enough, but you seriously need to wake up when it comes to proposal ideas. A Paramore concert is not only lame – But if you’re the 50th person to do it, you’re no more special than the first dolt who did it.
Finally, though – After countless screams, chants, proposals, and badly misspelled texts, Paramore cut the lights. A black curtain covered the front of the stage, to which my own girlfriend said, “Are they really that lame that they don’t want their fans to see them come on stage?” No, honey – They aren’t that lame. What started out the show was a wonderful silhouette of all 5 major band members starting the concert off. Drums, guitars, bass and of course, Hayley Williams just bouncing up and down as the music begins. When the first major chord for the song hits, the curtain falls and the band rocks and owns the stage like many older bands who have made it big in the past 5 years before them.
There’s one major difference – Their youth and experience on tours has finally started to shine through. Some people have not been kind to their stage show as of late, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. Paramore has an amazing and (so far this year) unmatched presence on stage. Let’s also not forget the vocals. Hayley Williams proves over and over why she has a golden voice. Her vocals are strong at the beginning, and so much to the fact that they sound just like the CD. However, as she gets into songs more and head bangs more and jumps around, she loses breath and begins to breathe after every word.
As the band continues to play through their newer songs, they don’t leave out the hits. Paramore delivers on all accounts, giving the fans what they want, and taking just as much when asking the crowd to sing along. The crowd goes insane and gladly obliges the band’s requests. Their energy is not wasted on stage as many in the crowd goes insane, including a little 6 – 7 year old boy who started going nuts when the hard stuff started. (Yes, it was indeed cute.) It almost wears me out, but I still enjoy the electricity and energy the band has to offer.
The band decides to take a moment slow things down a little including a country song (“You ain’t Woman Enough to Steal My Man”) and bringing a couch on stage to get comfy. It’s told to the fans that the band feels like it’s their little reminder of where they come from. Believe me, if Paramore had been Nashville’s next big hit instead, I probably would have been listening to that too.
During songs like “Decode” and a few others, wonderful little videos are played in the background that show off the band doing stuff. For instance, “Decode’s” video starts out much like the actual music video does, but instead of Twilight shots (thankfully) they instead have the band going through the forest at night with flares searching for one another – finally meeting at the end. The videos actually add to the quality of the show instead of distracting from it, which is something you don’t find very often.
After “ending” the show with “You Are the Only Exception,” the band disappears and doesn’t disappoint by coming back out for two more songs. They finish the night with “Misery Business” in true fashion, but bring many people up on stage to sing with. One fan was lucky enough to be given the solo and a red microphone to sing into. (Hey, apparently it was the special red mic!) The show ends with confetti flying out to the crowd and the band bidding Indy farewell.
Overall, the night was indeed impressive. All four bands did their best to bring their all to Indianapolis on Thursday, and they didn’t disappoint their fans. Massive highlights for me was Kadawatha’s explosive beginning and Paramore’s coming of age. I had heard bad things about Paramore’s stage show before and they weren’t good things. This proved the band had grown a lot and I thought they did a great set. I would definitely love to see them again given they stop back through Indy again.
And believe me, I really hope they do.
