This is why emo heroes Paramore were a force to be reckoned with in Fort Worth

“Forget about the (stuff) outside these walls. You’re here. You’re with safe people. This is your family tonight. I’m gonna try to keep politics out of it. Going to do my best. What we need to do is to dance hard, to cry, to get all of this rage and fear out. Shake it out, baby.”

Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams, known for her vocal range and stage presence as much as for her outspoken voice on current issues, issued the above statement near the start of Paramore’s show Saturday night at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. And, for the most part, she kept politics out of it. But more on that later; the show was so much more than that.

Paramore, the three-piece emo band from Tennessee, was in town on an arena tour to support their sixth album, “This Is Why,” which came out in February. It’s the first time the band — vocalist Williams, drummer Zac Farro and guitarist Taylor York — has performed in arenas in about a decade after opting to play smaller venues for a while. From the way the crowd reacted, Paramore’s venue next time they come to North Texas should be AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

“I think we’re a little braver,” Williams said. “Definitely, the band is not on the verge of breaking up anymore,” she joked.

Paramore has seen a lot in the nearly 20 years since Williams founded the band with Farro, Josh Farro and Jeremy Davis when they were teens. They shot to stardom following the success of 2007’s “Misery Business,” the lead single from their second album, “Riot!” Band members came and went. For a stretch, it did look like Paramore was breaking up. On stage, Williams jokingly referred to the band’s 2009 album “Brand New Eyes” as “the emo ‘Rumours” (Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album).

But Paramore didn’t break up, they grew up. They changed their musical style on every album. And they grew up alongside their fanbase, a fact that Williams celebrated Saturday night.

“If you’ve grown up with our band you know that after every album we weren’t really sure if we’d make a next one. Such is the case when you start a band when you’re 12 and 14 and 13. It’s been an honor and a privilege to grow up with you,” Williams said.

‘Hard Times’ and good times

While much of Parmore’s lyrics are about the hard times of growing up — heartbreak, unrequited love, confronting others’ and your own hypocrisy, the moment when you realize the real world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — the music consists of some of the most joyous tunes imaginable, with killer hooks, guitar riffs, synths and grooves. A lot of dancing out the rage, if you will.

And dance, the fans did. Dickies’ seats were packed with thousands of fans, but nobody sat down from the start of the show at 9 p.m. until the encore ended, 22 songs and two hours later. The floor pit was full of several hundred people head-banging and singing along to Williams’ every word. If she sang it loud enough, they sang it back to her. I wasn’t at Taylor Swift’s AT&T Stadium show this year, but I guarantee that crowd was no match for the opening riffs of “Decode,” Paramore’s song from the “Twilight” soundtrack.

Nearly half of the set consisted of selections from “This Is Why,” including “Running Out of Time,” which pokes fun at Williams’ time management skills and also doubles as a reminder to pair action with thought (“Intentions only get you so far.”) Before the show, the band used that song to promote its partnership with Support + Feed, a vegan charity that helps combat food insecurity and the climate crisis with plant-based foods.

But elsewhere, the band played hits from each album with glee. “That’s What You Get,” “Misery Business,” “Ain’t It Fun” and “The Only Exception” were some of the crowd favorites, but really, the crowd was into everything.

There was confetti. There were pyrotechnics. There were two giant polygons dangling from the ceiling. There wasn’t a spot on the stage that Williams didn’t dance, strut, toe tap or run across. (Seriously, why don’t more people talk about Williams’ showmanship? She’s a once-in-a-generation talent. Check out this ACL Fest set from last year if you want more proof.)

At times it felt like a church service, with the amount of call-and-response singing from the stage to the crowd. (The band’s Christian homeschool roots showing.) Two fans joined the band on stage for the final bridge of “Misery Business,” in a time-honored Paramore tradition. Every moment felt like an emo family reunion.

‘This song goes out to Greg Abbott’

Back to politics. When Williams did speak out from the stage Saturday night, it was from a place of protecting that emo family, especially the community in Texas.

“This is going to be the only thing people write about this show tomorrow,” Williams joked before playing “Big Man, Little Dignity,” a “This Is Why” cut about a powerful man with no integrity. “This song goes out to Greg Abbott,” she said. At the last verse, Williams put down the pinkie finger she had been extending the whole song and traded it for her middle finger.

Williams didn’t mention any specific Texas legislation Saturday night, but she has spoken out in the past about Tennessee bills that would ban drag shows and gender-affirming care. Last month, a federal court ruled Tennessee’s drag show ban was unconstitutional. Texas’ law that targets drags shows by banning “sexually oriented performance in front of minors” goes into effect Sept. 1.

Williams ended the set with an appreciation for the diversity of Texan Paramore fans and urged them to go vote.

“These are the Texans in the crowds that we see…diverse crowds full of all sorts of people, doing all sorts of different things. So in a sense, this is the only Texas that we know. I know that we don’t live here, but…this Texas — this is good, this is beautiful, and it’s what makes this state (expletive) cool. So if you do nothing else, please find out when to vote, and do it. I know that’s not always easy, because the people in power do not make it easy for marginalized people to vote. But for this Texas right here, for the future, jump over whatever hurdles, climb over whatever you need to do. Please vote to make it look like this forever.”

If we all are running out of time, Williams managed to make those two hours count, as both a celebration of the band and a thoughtful look to the future. Bring on the next arena tour.

Paramore setlist, Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, Texas (July 8, 2023)

1. You First (with Note To Self as a spoken-word introduction from Hayley Williams)

2. The News

3. That’s What You Get

4. Playing God

5. Caught in the Middle

6. Rose-Colored Boy

7. Running Out of Time

8. Decode

9. Last Hope

10. Big Man, Little Dignity (Dedicated to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, with extended outro)

11. Liar

12. Crystal Clear (Hayley Williams song)

13. Hard Times

14. Told You So

15. Figure 8

16. The Only Exception

17. Baby (HalfNoise cover)

18. Crave

19. Misery Business (Bridge performed by fans Hope and Jack)

20. Ain’t It Fun

Encore

1. Still Into You

2. This Is Why