The Farro Brothers Leave Paramore

 (Note: This is taken straight from my Tumblr)

 For those who have yet to hear the news, Zac and Josh Farro have officially left Paramore. Yesterday, the remaining three band members posted a blog on their official website about the brothers’ departure from the band, which you can read here.

I’ve been a massive fan of Paramore for quite a few years now and I’ve supported them for such a long time that it only seems natural for me to be affected by this news.

However, I wish people would stop acting like it’s the end of the world. Yes, it’s really sad for us Paramore fans — I nearly cried in front of my best friend and her brother when I found out — but it’s not like Paramore are breaking up.

Paramore is a band, and people seem to forget that. Most people think it’s all about Hayley, while a lot of rabid fangirls have eyes only for Josh. Paramore isn’t just about one or two people — they are a group, a band; they create music together. Paramore are not ending. Hayley, Jeremy, and Taylor are still going strong. They will probably recruit a new member or two as well.

Jeremy Davis left the band once. All We Know was written about him leaving and he was replaced by John Hembree. After five months, Jeremy returned, taking back his place in the band.

Jason Bynum was originally on rhythm guitar, though he was replaced by Hunter Lamb.

Hunter Lamb left in 2007 to get married, and the band went on as a quartet  — Hayley, Josh, Zac, and Jeremy — and recorded their second album, Riot!

Taylor York replaced Hunter after the recording of Riot! and the band became what we are so familiar with today. The five of them, four boys and a girl, just like it was at the start.

Now, the Farro brothers left, and honestly, I’m not letting myself get worked up about it. Yes, it’s sad for the band, but Zac and Josh weren’t happy in Paramore anymore and they needed to break away.

They can, and most likely will, be replaced in the near future. And maybe, after some time, they may come back — just like Jeremy did. We can’t be sure, and we can’t get our hopes up, but you never know.

In the words of Hayley, Jeremy, and Taylor: “We want Josh and Zac to do something that makes them happy and if that isn’t here with us, then we support them finding happiness elsewhere.” I would rather the brothers leave and be happy than be a part of something they no longer want to participate in.

We shouldn’t be angry at them, we should be supporting them on finding happiness elsewhere. We should support Hayley, Jeremy and Taylor, too, as they come to adapt as a trio.

We should be cherishing the time we did get with the brothers, from Paramore’s beginning to the present. We should feel lucky that we had the chance to see them in Paramore at all, and thankful for everything they gave us.
Losing members is always tough for any band to deal with, on both an emotional and professional level, and we should be standing by them every step of the way.

Paramore is a band, and even with the Farro brothers gone, they still are.

Post-Concert Depression

NOTE: My brain is completely muddled and still blown-away and I'm writing as I think, so this isn't at all in chronological order.

The concert last night was amazing. That's genuinely the only word I can think of, because I'm still completely speechless. But amazing doesn't even start to cover it. I got a load of footage which, after doing my homework, I'm going to start editing together. I'll upload it to YouTube and post it here whenever I finish it. Throughout most of it, you can hear me screaming and singing along. And it's kind of blurry because I had to zoom in. Even though I could see them pretty clearly on the stage, they look like specs through the camera. It was weird.

Fun and B.o.B were the support acts, and while Fun was pretty good, B.o.B was absolutely awful. But whatever. Hayley came on to sing Airplanes, dressed in a thick winter coat. I love her pink hair, and it looks even more amazing in person than it does in photographs.

When Paramore officially started, there was a curtain in front of the stage, and you could only see the silhouettes, but when it was time for Hayley to start singing, the curtain dropped. It was really effective.

She loved how we all screamed after pretty much every sentence when she was talking, and said it was one of the biggest concerts they'd ever held. She also loved how co-operative we were when she asked us to do stuff (stand up and dance, sway, get our phones out, etc.), and the last time anything as big as this happened was in December '09 in the same place (London 02 Arena).

She made us all stand up and dance for crushcrushcrush and spent about five minutes making sure the majority of people were standing up. Apparently, it usually takes a good fifteen minutes or so. And then we all got our phones out and waved them in the air to The Only Exception and I got a lot of footage of the crowd swaying their phones because it was really amazing (it's slightly jolty, though, because I kept switching the phone and the camera between hands).

When she introduced the band members, Jeremy and Josh easily got the loudest cheers (until Josh introduced Hayley), and I managed to record her saying "WE. ARE. PAAARAAAMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREEE!" which I'm really proud of. She says it at every concert, and I knew that more than anything, I wanted to record her saying that. AND I DID.

The last song they sang was Misery Business, and she led into it like this: "Before tonight ends, we have some business to take care of. And there is only one kind of business at a Paramore concert." And then the music started. It was so amazing. Josh from You Me At Six came on stage and started singing, too, and while I'm not a fan (I haven't really paid them much attention, to be honest) of You Me At Six, I can't deny that he has an amazing voice.

Jess and I both got Paramore hoodies with "Paramore" written in small, red letters on the front and "PARAMORE" written across the entire back. There's a fountain pen/injection needle between the PARA and MORE, and under neath it says "We wrote our names in blood." (a line from Ignorance) which I think is really creative and I love it to pieces.

When they started playing Decode, nearly everyone started cheering loudly ... and I just sunk into my seat and silently watched them perform. It's not a terrible song, I suppose, but (a) it's overplayed, (b) it's Twilight, (c) the cheers proved to me just how many Paramore fans like Twilight, and (d) I'm really not-at-all keen on it. It's the only Paramore song I don't like.

I really wish they had played Decoy and Swim in Silence (two demo songs), along with For a Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic and Careful. But I know they have to limit themselves, and the songs they did choose to play were wonderful, too.

Now, I could go on and on about that marvelous concert, but I have homework to get on with and things to catch up on online. So, suffering from Post-Concert Depression, I bid you farewell.

In brief, other news:

• I have tickets booked to see Deathly Hallows on the 19th at 5PM.
• Darren Criss was absolutely amazing in Glee (This deserves it's own blog post ... I'll write one up after I watch next week's episode).
• I'm doing terribly with NaNoWriMo. I'm a fair few thousand words behind.