After months and months of waiting to be reunited with my favorite band, the day finally came. On July 30, 2014 the Monumentour finally rolled into Atlanta at the Aaron's Ampitheatre at Lakewood. I left my house around 1:45 and arrived at 2:30 to a group of about 100 people waiting outside the venue. There wasn't really any line so I just made my way up to where people were waiting to enter the lot and line up outside the gates. So on cue at 4 PM, the security let us charge for the gates. I ended up around 5 people back in one of the four gates. But one of my main problems was that people had friends up in front and they would just go meet up with them after not running. GA queues like U2 and Springsteen have it right with the numbering system. Although there isn't as much planning in the Paramore/Fall Out Boy lines, it would be helpful for some system to not let people cut in line. During the 2 hour long wait in front of the gate I had shades of Parahoy when someone came back with water they bought for all of us in line. People like that make the wait so much easier and make everyone happier.
I had been to this venue less than a week earlier for Warped and while I thought that was hot, when the clouds went away the temperature starting soaring and were a main component of more people passing out than I've seen before. The gates opened at 6 and as usual I had the worst security lady checking our tickets. For everyone 3 people in other lines to get in, one of us got in. It wasn't too terrible as I ended up about 4/5 rows back between Hayley and Jeremy. So out of the 4 shows I've seen, 2 were on Jeremy's side and 2 were on Taylor's side but this was the closest I've been to the center.
After another 2 hours of long and hot waiting, New Politics finally graced the stage. Lead singer David Boyd, guitarist Søren Hansen and drummer Louis Vecchio started off with a song from their self-titled first record, "Give Me Hope" which was followed by one of my favorites from their new album Bad Girl in Harlem, "Berlin." Following Berlin were four more songs from the latest record "Fall Into these Arms" which featured crowd surfing from Boyd, "Just Like Me" which featured break dancing from Boyd, "Tonight You're Perfect" my favorite song which included an inspiring speech about how music affects your life from Boyd and finally crowd favorite "Harlem". The band ended their energetic set with their 2010 hit "Yeah Yeah Yeah"
Right after dismantling New Politics equipment, the Paramore screen started playing Pong and the crowd became antsy for the first headliner. Now I consider myself a pretty diehard Paramore fan (I don't really like the term parawhore) but it seemed like the paramore crowd was a bit lacking compared to the Fall Out Boy fans. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of Paramore fans but it seemed like the people who weren't diehards of the either band were there for mainly Fall Out Boy. That's not a diss on the crowd; I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd for this show. A lot of people my age and older were in the pit with me. But nothing rubs me the wrong way more than a fan who labels themselves as "diehard" or "hardcore" but is truly nothing of these sort. For example, there were this group of a few girls, some actually wearing some of Hayley's outfits, who I overheard talking about how much they LOVE Hayley and the "rest of the band." During the wait outside the gates a local radio station had a booth and we're playing their station. They'd play songs like "Fancy" and "Problem" and this group of girls knew every word by heart but when Paramore played "For a Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic" and "Part ll" these girls weren't singing along. Now I don't know if they just didn't want to sing but they were singing along to "Still Into You" and "Ain't It Fun" so I guess that's all you need to know to love the band. Sorry for the little rant, on to the review of the performance.
Hayley, Williams, Taylor York, and Jeremy Davis along with touring members John Howard, Aaron Gillespie and Justin York walked on to a very staticky intro and quickly bursted into 2013 hit, "Still Into You". While I might not be the biggest advocate of this song, it does kill live along with getting a great crowd response. 2007's Riot! hit "That's What You Get" started with a small drum intro which then followed to another Riot! song and my 2nd favorite Paramore song, "For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic". During these first few songs I got some good eye contact with Jeremy and all three members were getting the crowd rilled up. 2009's Brand New Eyes first single "Igorance" was preceded by a Hayley speech talking about the band turning 10 years old, how grateful the three of them are for their fans and how they're stronger they are tan ever. 2005's All We Know if Falling lead single "Pressure" followed with the return of the Pressure Flip after Jeremy's surgery. The Twilight Sountrack Hit "Decode" followed with a pretty good crowd response and lead into Brand New Eyes Hit single "The Only Exception". I'm not the biggest fan of either of the songs but they were performed pretty well while all 3 shine on both songs. What followed was my 3rd favorite Paramore song, "Last Hope". This song always means a lot whenever I hear it, especially live. Even though I've heard the song 3 times live, I hope they never take it out of their setlist or at least not for too long. The "mystery song" that has become a standard was "Brick By Boring Brick". I don't hate the song but I would have preferred "Emergency" or especially "Born for This" to get another showing. Crowd favorite Riot! Hit "Misery Business" had it's outing with a solo by fan "Alan" who did quite a good job. This bright and happy crowd moment quickly turned dark by one of the best moments of the night, "Let the Flames Begin" into it's sequel "Part ll". It wasn't quite epic as the first performance of this performance on Parahoy, but it still had so much energy and was pretty perfect. Self-Titled track "Proof" was second to last and led into the massive summer-hit "Ain't It Fun"
Although this was my least-favorite Pararamore show I've seen, probably due to crowd and the other great performances I've seen, it was still spectacular and further proved that they cannot put on a bad show. Hayley, Taylor and Jeremy are on top of their game and are going to keep climbing the ladder of success My top 3 moments of the night were "For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic", the speech/"Last Hope" and "Let the Flames Begin" into "Part ll". This was a near perfect performance that I got to see pretty close up. I can't wait for their return. But I sorta hope they hit the studio first.
Before I left for Fall Out Boy I left my spot to get some air, sit and a drink. I wish I could have been close up but I didn't want to put myself in danger after seeing so many people pass out. I headed back to the pit and ended up 30ish rows back on Joe's side. They started off with the first track off 2013's Save Rock and Roll, "The Phoenix". It was a pretty epic opener which led into 2007's Infinity on High's, "The Take Over, The Breaks Over" and 2005's Under the Cork Tree's, " A Little Sixteen Candles, a Little More Touch Me". Both songs are some of my favorites that I've loved for years. The songs that followed were "This Ain't a Scene It's an Arms Race", "Alone Together" and Death Valley" which were all solid performances. Next was my first favorite song "Sugar We're Going Down". The song brought back many feelings of nostalgia and it was a memory I don't want to forget. "Sugar" was followed by one of my favorite songs off the latest album, "Miss Missing You" which lead into the Andy vs. Patrick Drum off to "99 Problems" and "N****s in Paris". The drum off was a major highlight and I had so much fun while they drummed to one of my favorite all-time rap songs performed by Kanye West and Jay-Z. The band then ran through great performances of "Dance, Dance" and my favorite Save Rock and Roll song, "Young Volcanos". The band the played a decent performance of "Just One Yesterday" featuring Lolo and then an awesome performance of one of my favorite childhood songs "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy?" which like "Sugar" brought a feeling of nostalgia. Following "Grand theft Autumn" was my favorite moment of the night, a cover of "We Are the Champions" into an EPIC performance of "Save Rock and Roll". The band then played a disappointing performance of "I Don't Care" but an epic performance of 2013 hit, "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark" which is one of my least favorite songs on the record. The encore consisted of "Thanks fr th Mmrs" and usual closer "Saturday" which rocked off the half roof.
As a now casual fan, it was great seeing Fall Out Boy live. The top 3 highlights were "We Are the Champions/Save Rock and Roll", "Sugar We're Going Down" and "Young Volcanos". They were my first favorite band and I was obsessed back in the day. I may not like them as much as I used to but it was good seeing them play live and it's another name I can cross off the concert list.
All in all, Momumentour was perfect. All three bands played great and I got to see my favorite band up close and personal for the 4th time. Sure I would have loved to change some of the setlist but they did what they needed to, play the hits for the fans that liked the other bands. I do feel like Paramore took more risks playing songs like "Last Hope", "Part ll" and "Proof" instead of playing hits or singles like "CrushCrushCrush", "Monster" and "Now" while Fall Out Boy stayed mostly with hits or songs they've been playing live constantly. This isn't a knock on either performance. They both exceeded expectations and pleased me constantly.
Here are some videos from the show
New Politics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN0TRVm3O-E
Paramore -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4DMjIHl6XU
Fall Out Boy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYwdoVjiQpQ
