Paramore kicked off their six-show UK and Ireland run with Bloc Party on Thursday, April 13, in Dublin. The show included a serene cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” and a not-so-serene-but-well-deserved shot at Ticketmaster.
“I wanna say one more time how special it is that you’ve all made it tonight,” Hayley Williams said, according to NME. “We don’t take it lightly. We know, honestly, especially now, it’s a huge sacrifice to come to a show because Ticketmaster need to get their sh*t together. We’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves, too, because we were like, ‘People are spending money that they don’t have to come and hang out with us, and we better give them something that’s worth that.’ We just love you so much.”
Ticketmaster is hated by many fan bases because of the service’s exorbitant fees and faulty interface, including Swifties after a disastrous The Eras Tour presale that warranted a Justice Department investigation. Swift released a statement in November that said, in part, it was “excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.” The Senate Judiciary Committee even issued a warning of sorts to Ticketmaster ahead of Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour sale earlier this year.
Artists such as Zach Bryan and Maggie Rogers have creatively circumvented the system.
Paramore will tour North America from May 23 to August 2, and loyal fans will probably be thankful they maneuvered whatever obstacles — Ticketmaster or otherwise — to see them.
Paramore is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.