PARAMORE: THE OPRY HOUSE & LISTENING PARTY
Paramore’s This Is Why album release show and listening party
in Nashville, TN
words by Niki Davidson
Credit: Zachary Gray
In preparation for what could be their highest anticipated album yet, Nashville based band, Paramore, hosted their album release show in The Opry House, and their global listening party the next day in the US. The release show would be their first in Nashville in four years. Fans of the band came from many places to see the band perform songs old and new, with some even flying in from out of the country to witness the historic event for the band.
In the days preceding the event, fans hosted events to meet up with each other and get to know each other, one of these being sharing dinner together at The Rainforest Cafe connected to the Opry Mills Mall right next to the Opry House. Having caught wind of the event, the band paid for the dinner of the attendees and thanked them for coming to see the show.
On the day of the event, fans came early to show their support. Multiple fans have made mementos to hand out to attendees of the show, including magnets, signs and even glittery cowboy hats that vocalist Hayley Williams wore during the set. Signs reading “We missed you” and the date were handed out to hold up during the end of the first song of Paramore’s set.
As the band began their set with the title track for the album, ‘This is Why,’ the sold out venue could be heard singing along with the song, and dancing no matter if they were on the floor or in the balconies. After a few tracks, the band left, and it was just Williams with her guitar. She shared a heartfelt story of drummer Zac Farro having left the band and her writing a song about him. This is when she played ‘In The Mourning’ for the first time since 2013. The whole song pulled at the heartstrings of attendees as they sang along in almost a harmonic tone.
Williams went on to explain she didn’t like to play on her own as it made her nervous, but she was glad she did, and had gotten over the fear. She then went on to play another song, Loretta Lynn’s ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough’. After this, the band returned, and Farro was front and center as the band played a song from his band, HalfNoise called ‘Boogie Juice’. Farro jumped into the crowd, tambourine in hand as he had the crowd dancing and hyped for the rest of the set to come including the debut of a never before heard song, ‘Running Out of Time’.
As per tradition, the band stopped through the bridge of ‘Misery Business’ to pull a fan from the stage to perform the rest of the song with them. The lucky fan of this show was a lovely girl named Monica. Having compared the experience to having been “floating on a cloud,” Monica could be seen excitedly dancing along with Williams on the stage as they finished the song and show together. The two snapped a photo together, before Monica left with her friends.
Afterwards, Williams mentioned the global listening party happening the following day at a record store very important to the band as a whole, Grimey’s. This is where the mural for the band was painted in Nashville.
The following day, the fans that had flown in for the concert, also attended the listening party here. Beginning at about 9:00, fans began to line up at Grimey’s off Gallatin Pike. The event gave fans an early listen to the album and gave indie record stores more traction. This particular store is one the band had been going to through their teen years, and one that Williams has supported through COVID by donating signed test presses of her album, Petals for Armour to help them through the shut down.
The fans implemented their own numbering system for the event so that attendees could visit around at the local shops nearby, many going to the vintage shop, Anaconda Vintage, which is connected to Grimey’s. Fans talked to one another and many continued to talk after the event, a group even having a night out in Nashville after the event concluded. Fans from Nashville, all the way to Los Angeles were at this event, most of them having attended the show the previous night and even wearing the exclusive merch from the night.
Employees of Grimey’s were incredibly helpful with any questions attendees had, and welcomed them into the shop before the event began. The shop prides itself on providing new and pre-loved records, cds, books, and movies, allowing attendees of the event to even sell their CDs to give them a new, loving home.
Once it was 4pm, fans were given wristbands, an exclusive poster to the event, a raffle ticket (that would be used to raffle off a signed This is Why print, and another item added by Grimey’s, one of the aforementioned Petals for Armour test presses signed by Hayley Willimas. The first thirty or so attendees were also given an exclusive flexi disc containing the not yet released track, ‘Running Out of Time.’
As everyone piled in to what may have been the most attended listening event, the Grimey’s staff took photos of everyone before playing a recorded message from the band thanking everyone for attending and explaining that they were about to hear the new album in full. After the message, the staff explained they were playing the actual record, and would use the time needed to flip the record to announce the raffle winner.
As the album began, attendees cheered as ‘This is Why’ played. When the chorus began, the store could be heard singing along, and some even dancing along to the track before the next two began. When the album’s fifth track, ‘Big Man, Little Dignity’ began, the whole store fell silent, as this was a song NO ONE had heard previously. Listeners took in the lyrics, and vocals of this song and the following 5 songs and let the music flow through them, some even dancing with their neighbors. As ‘Thick Skull,’ the album’s last track finished, the store full of fans cheered, having now heard the album in full. Many that were natives to Nashville and surrounding areas, went to the counter after to preorder the album as others shopped around the store and bought music from other artists ranging from all genres. It was then that attendees were invited to a concert happening in the store the following night.
Paramore could not have picked a better store to host their Nashville event. This one having so much personal history helped them immensely in resonating with the fans and creating a wonderful environment for the listening party. The employees working that night were very attentive to anyone’s questions, and did an incredible job at hosting the event with nearly if not over 200 people attending. It’s true that Paramore’s fans are more like a family to one another, and this was definitely shown during this event, with many, as stated before, staying in contact, and even doing things for one another while they waited to be let into the listening party.