Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | October 8, 2026
Hayley Williams is a pop-punk icon. The Paramore lead singer is currently on a solo tour to promote her most recent album, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Actually, this is her second tour for that album. This time round, she's playing in stadiums, amphitheatres, and, earlier this week, the Hollywood Bowl. Not too shabby.
And Williams has been making the most of this moment. $1 from each ticket sold in North America was donated to the environmental and food sustainability organizations Reverb and Support+Feed. During the pre-show, she played songs from Macklemore, Lukas Graham, Finneas, Aaron Rowe, and Beoga, all of whom were removed or dropped out of Ed Sheeran's tour. She's also been vocally political at performances, shouting "Free Palestine and F*CK ICE" on-stage. The latter part made the U.S. Government all sad. They released a statement condemning her, to which Williams responded, "And may I suggest all Nazi b*tches suck on my fat d*ck." I love her.
The queen of emo and impeccable hair dye has never been one to quash her opinions, but she's also got a positive message to spread to her fans, and a bit of advice too.
She ended her most recent set with a plea, one that made her emotional.
"It's not convenient to get to go somewhere and enjoy art and enjoy community, because they don't want it to be convenient anymore. So, if I could tell you anything, go to smaller shows than this. Go to little shows at independently run venues. Find your people, find your favourite music, and support that. Make it. We are all that we f*cking have."
Preach it, Hayley.
Now more than ever, we need those small spaces and the local artists who bring them to life. It is, as we've discussed on this site many times before, obscenely expensive to go to concerts in 2026. The Ticketmaster monopoly has made live music a luxury, and there's no such thing as a cheap seat for many tours. And the artists forced into this model aren't benefitting from it unless they're a Taylor Swift or Coldplay level of mega-fame. The profit margins are so tight that many singers lose money on world tours. Others simply cancel and cut their losses. The concept of the middle- and working-class arts scene is being cut to shreds by stuff like Live Nation, Spotify, and private equity. We have to fight for the local spots, for the bars where bands play to dozens and the DIY places that let people experiment.
As Williams noted, thriving third spaces for arts and community are not desirable to those with power: landlords, politicians, censors, data centre creeps, venture capitalists, people with no imagination, etc. They want to turn everything into a homogenous blob of perpetual "number go up" profit for themselves and nobody else. If it can't be distilled to a list of data points then they don't see any value in it. They think art is something that can be defined and dictated by algorithms. Surely in this moment we should rush out to support the opposite of that? No AI, no premium charges, no clout-chasing: just the real thing. I promise you that spending £10 to see some band you've never heard of in your local bar will provide you with a great night out. It won't be 1/20th the fun of seeing someone in an arena who charges 20 times the ticket price (plus overpriced drinks, plus parking and hotel fees, and so on.)
And you know what: do it alone if you can as well. There was a weird non-drama online recently when some loser submitted a blind item to Deuxmoi mocking one of the Please Don't Destroy guys for going to Phoebe Bridgers' tour on his own. As if going solo to gigs isn't one of life's greatest pleasures. I do it all the time and it's amazing (although sometimes I do miss having someone with me to stand in my spot while I go to the toilet.)
That's your homework for this week: look into your local arts and music scene and see if there's something you want to check out. Maybe it's a new band or a cool gallery showing or a weirdo film screening. Be a patron of the arts and make Hayley proud. Unless you're ICE, in which follow the advice mentioned above.
