so a few months ago my friend Brandon introduced me to the band Paramore. i really liked their sound, and when they scheduled a show for NOLA, Brandon and i made plans to go. my friend Chet was also going with a couple of people, so Wednesday night we all met up at a bbq place near the venue then walked over.
none of us had been to The Sugar Mill before, so it was a new experience for everyone. i thought it was really great, NOLA needs to have a venue like that, because the HOB seems too restrictive and other clubs are too small. The Sugar Mill was just the right size for a theatre sized band. hopefully in the future, they will host more shows, because i think they could snag a bunch of different bands if they really wanted to.
anyway, there were three openers led off by Paper Route. i first heard about Paper Route from my internet friend Jeff after he took in one of their shows in ATL. i thought they were fantastic. after listening to some of their songs online, i thought they reminded me of Death Cab, but after seeing them live, i thought they were more like a lovechild band of Death Cab and Mute Math. i thought they were the best opener of the night.
i had not heard much from Phantom Planet in years, and i was probably one of the few in the place who had seen them live multiple times (ie twice in 2004). they were good, but they played mostly new songs that i didn’t know, and then of course they had to play California. they only played 30 minutes, same as PR, but the lead singer had enough time to walk across the crowd to a post, then jump off and crowd surf back to the stage. that was pretty cool. [i remember him doing a similar thing when i had seen them in 2004, only this time he didn't have to avoid light fixtures from a low ceiling.] oh, and he dropped a few f-bombs in an all ages show with a bunch of parents standing near the back, so it was pretty funny to hear the crowd reaction to that. it sounded awkward and excited at the same time, and we wondered how many parents would not let their kids buy any PP stuff. 
the third band, Jack’s Mannequin, was alright, but i didn’t really get into them. the lead singer’s voice kind of bothered me.
Paramore came out and immediately the crowd went ballistic. i thought they had a great stage presence, and that chick can sing and has an endless amount of energy. she moved from the time they hit the stage all the way through, with only a couple of songs where she was stationary to play the keyboards. they played every song i wanted to hear except for “Miracle”, but that was only a minor thing. i thought they sounded great, and the music was LOUD and intense. the highlights were “Crushcrushcrush”, “That’s What You Get”, “Pressure”, and the stripped down acoustic version of “My Heart”. i would definitely go see them again.
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