The Motorpoint* Arena is Sheffield Arena‘s latest monicker. Sounds very Detroit. Sheffield is was England’s steel city but we don’t really make cars. [* – Motorpoint is actually a car supermarket]

This was my third Paramore show. They were coming to town, why not. It was only last month that they played in KL after their Australia/NZ tour. They were back in the ‘States for a short while and here they are on the road again in Europe. According to Hayley, they’ve been on the road for pretty much six years now. I think that’s just pure dedication, especially with two more records in between the tours they did.

I missed fun. (although a mate of mine said it was worth a miss. heh). However, I managed to catch B.o.B which was not too bad and didn’t prove to be out of place at a teenage rock show. Their set ended with the obligatory Airplanes which was greeted by a resounding cheer especially when a pink-haired Hayley got onstage to provide the vocals.

The Paramore set started prompt to Ignorance, similar to the Brum show I saw in last December. Heck, if I had looked up the setlists online, this set is identical to the one they played at Bukit Jalil! The difference with the Brum show was that despite the similar sizes of the stage(the Brum show had a mini-fest feel with four bands), tonight Paramore owned the night as an actual headliner with proper onstage setpieces. And, finally, a longer set of an hour and a half.

And a fantastic set it was. TWYG was pretty early again and I was stoked by the time they played Emergency. Playing God chilled the set down a tad followed by err… Decode. I am being unkind here – the song’s great but cannot tahan the way people get so gila about the film. Talking about the film, the evening’s crowd were a little more ‘mainstream’. Sheffield doesn’t have the volume of rock kids as the West Midlands or even Nottingham, but with their songs like The Only Exception being sung by all and sundry (including my toddler of a niece), one doesn’t need to wonder why anymore.

Midway in the set, the sound was plagued by crackling sounds from Josh’s guitar which was quickly remedied by the time they got on to the acoustic set they had which included nifty versions of Rains and Misguided. We were again treated with the ubiquitous Jeremy-flips-over-Josh act on Pressure (you missed it in KL lah, Hanna), followed by sing-a-longs with Looking Up and they ended their main set with the poignant Exception. Encore? Misery Business of course. UNH!

Paramore shows being once-a-year affair? We’ll see. Bring it on.

[More photos on my Flickr]

Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield set 11.11.10: Ignorance / Feeling Sorry / That’s What You Get / For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic / Emergency / Playing God / Decode // [Acoustic set]: Never Let This Go / When It Rains / Where The Lines Overlap / Misguided Ghosts // Crushcrushcrush / Pressure / Looking Up / The Only Exception / [Encore] Brick By Boring Brick / Misery Business