Then Paramore took the stage, and the crowd went absolutely wild. The curtains dropped, and with them a dozen or so light bulbs, which flickered on and swung above the heads of the fans closest to the stage.

Vocalist Haley Williams commanded the crowd, bringing everyone to their feet and coaxing the crowd into singing along to most of her songs. She sure can sing, but Williams danced around so much for most of the show that anyone unfamiliar with the Nashville band wouldn't have known about her talent.

It wasn't until about eight songs in, as they performed "Decode," both the best-executed and best-received song of the group's set that Williams stood still in the middle of the stage. It gave the song an intimate feel, and her voice really shone through.

Then lead guitarist Josh Farro and Williams took to the left side of the stage, and an acoustic cover of Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" followed. We were a little shocked and skeptical, but the final product was perfect, polished and professional-sounding.

"We promise, by the end of this song, you will love country music," Williams said as the crowd, who had already decided they would love it, screamed. As if there weren't enough country fans in Texas already, Williams may have earned the genre a few thousand more.

The reduced Paramore performed a few more acoustic songs before returning to a full-band setup. "You still with us?" Williams asked, rhetorically as the rest of the group re-set up shop onstage. "Let's get to steppin', because I am so ready for this."

Then the concert continued, fans raged and the lights eventually dimmed. Aftermath may not be the biggest Paramore fan, but Williams has enough stage presence for the entire band, the rest of whom have swagger of their own, too.

Overall, the set could have been stronger if Williams hadn't jumped around quite so much, but everything else was solid. And as Aftermath left, we didn't have to deal with too much traffic either, because most of those in attendance seemed to have traveled with their parents, who picked them up afterward.

And they all drive slow, so we zipped past them onto the freeway.

Personal Bias: We listened to New Found Glory in middle school before they were popular. How are they still around!?

The Crowd: So, so, so young. And drunk? A few female friends of ours said there was a woman vomiting/passed out in the bathroom for over an hour. We hope it wasn't one of these kids' moms.

Overheard in the Crowd: "SCREAM IF UR HEAR 4 PARAMORE EVEN THO U HAV SKOOL 2MORROW LOL!!!!"

Random Notebook Dump: When Tegan and Sara started performing "Walking With a Ghost," we definitely thought they were covering the White Stripes. Nope. Turns out they wrote the song back in '04. It definitely ruined a paragraph we wrote about each band performing a cover. C'est la vie.