Watch Paramore Play 'Misery Business' For The First Time In Four Years

Paramore

Paramore have stunned fans in Bakersfield, California by playing Misery Business live for the first time in over four years. 

Paramore 'retired' their 2007 mainstream breakthrough hit in 2018 due to what some fans and vocalist Hayley Williams herself believe to be problematic lyrics.

During the Misery Business performance, Williams reflected on why they were bringing the song out of 'retirement', telling the crowd "Four years ago, we said we were gonna retire this song for a little while, and I guess technically we did, but what we did not know was that just about five minutes after I got cancelled for saying the word ‘whore’ in a song, all of TikTok decided that it was ok. Make it make sense."

"I remember a time when we had a MySpace and we were still a really small band. We were really small. We hadn’t even put out this song and we had noticed that kids were calling themselves ‘Parawhores’. We were like, ‘Eugh, that’s weird!’ But I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s a word, and if you’re cool you won’t call a woman a whore because that’s bullshit."

“We can all learn from ourselves, right? Just for the record, 90% of you said ‘whore’ tonight. That’s all I’m gonna say – I’m not gonna preach about it. I’m just gonna say thank you for being nostalgic about this because this is one of the coolest moments of our show and it’s very nice to feel like there’s a reason to bring it back that’s positive.”

Watch the full Misery Business performance which features a lucky fan named Brandi leading the final chorus at the invitation of Williams.

The 18-song setlist for the show also featured the first live performance of their new single This Is Why.

This Is Why is Paramore's first new music since 2017 and brings to an end five years of fans clamouring for the band to return from hiatus.

Entering back into a world - and cultural landscape - very different from the one they last participated in, Paramore have returned with a song about exactly that.

This Is Why is a deliciously infectious Paramore ear-worm for the post-truth world. 

Of the song, Williams says, “This Is Why was the very last song we wrote for the album. To be honest, I was so tired of writing lyrics but Taylor convinced Zac and I both that we should work on this last idea. What came out of it was the title track for the whole album. It summarizes the plethora of ridiculous emotions, the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022, having survived even just the last 3 or 4 years. You’d think after a global pandemic of fucking biblical proportions and the impending doom of a dying planet, that humans would have found it deep within themselves to be kinder or more empathetic or something.”

In what’s widely recognized as one of the most exciting musical returns of the year, the band have also announced the release of their long-awaited sixth studio album, This is Why, for February 10, 2023, on Atlantic Records.

Recorded in Los Angeles, California with long-time collaborator Carlos de la Garza, the album features 10 new Paramore songs with cover art shot by Zachary Gray.

This Is Why arrived accompanied by a video directed by Turnstile’s Brendan Yates. This Is Why was filmed in Malibu, California last month. Speaking on the video and collaboration, Williams says,

“It was so rad working with Brendan. I’ve known the Turnstile guys for a little while and was so psyched to have our worlds collide in this way. There’s a cool kinship between the way our bands do things... Hopefully we will get to play shows with them at some point.”