Kansas City's Starlight Theatre, pre-show

When No Doubt leaked information about their Summer Tour late last year, I got incredibly excited and anxious — I’ve loved the band for years but hadn’t ever had a chance to see them play live. When the tickets finally went on sale, I joined their Tour Club and got two seats on the sixth row of Kansas City’s (amazing) Starlight Theatre. That was back in February. Four and a half months later, it was finally time to make the drive up to Kansas City to see the show!

After some debating of who was going to accompany me on this trip — my friend Tara decided to come along since she likes both Paramore and No Doubt — and we made the 5.5 hour drive to Kansas City.

Bedouin Soundclash's Jay Malinowski

After waiting in line for about an hour or so, we were finally admitted through the Tour Club gate and made our way to the seats I had bought. I knew they were going to be great seats, but I didn’t know they were going to be as close as they were. We ended up getting there about an hour too early and paid for it — it was pretty warm (and humid) until some clouds starting rolling in. Eventually, openers Bedouin Soundclash finally began their set.

Playing for only about 35 minutes, Bedouin Soundclash seemed to have a positive effect on the crowd and were very pleasant to listen to. Based around a ska/reggae vibe, the band had the difficult task of keeping the crowd entertained after it began raining, and they definitely did a good job. They only played a few songs but seemed to be having a good time up on stage, and they were a good band to kick off the show.

After another 45 minutes or so of downtime, the stage for second openers Paramore was finally set up and the drummer ran out to the stage to start the show with a solo. As Hayley Williams ran out, she was greeted with a large (albeit smaller than I had expected) collective scream from all of the younger teenage (and preteen) girls in the crowd.

Paramore's Hayley Williams, mid-head bang

They played a set based around 2007’s “Riot!” but did include some from their upcoming album, “Brand New Eyes,” and even a few from their first album, “All We Know Is Falling.” Hayley Williams is for sure the draw to the band and showed a ton of charisma and stage presence for being so young (she’s only 20!) Fan favorite “Decode” (from the Twilight soundtrack) closed their set to a loud, incredibly loud scream.

Overall, while their performance didn’t exactly make me a super-fan, they are a respectable band and much better than most “pop-punk” crap I hear these days. Still not sure why No Doubt chose them to open, but it certainly wasn’t a bad choice.

To read about No Doubt’s performance, be sure to read the second and third pages of this article!

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