Behold the orange reign of Paramore, ACL Fest's greatest rock band

Wherever your eyes went, there was orange.

Hayley Williams’ hair is one of the great American rock & roll symbols. Elvis’ hips, Prince’s pencil mustache, Stevie’s shawl. If you know, you know. As Paramore returns to touring after several years, Williams’ locks are back to signature orange — not quite teenage “Riot!” orange, which was the shade of traffic hazard signs and brash youth, but more like a harvest orange, for an idol full grown and taking in what she’s built.

But hey, who cares about color theory, and the lack of synonyms for “orange.”

There was a whirling dervish of carefully chaotic fire burning through the atmosphere on Sunday at Austin City Limits Music Festival. Williams made like the Human Torch as the band started up with “Hard Times,” a new wave-y milestone from their “After Laughter” album.

She snapped at the waist, cocked her head back and forth, threw her neck back. Michelle Pfeiffer had a whip; Hayley Williams has the hair.

She muscled her way across the American Express stage, orange cargo pants carrying her to glory, orange studded belt winking at the days when Hot Topic had end-cap displays of Paramore merch. She thumped her sternum with her hand. She wiggled a little. “You hit me with lightning,” she called in that classically trained voice. “Maybe I'll come alive.”

In the pit, people with bright orange dye jobs (and maybe some in wigs) came unhinged. A benefit to having diehard fans and a near-two-decade career is that you don’t actually need to sing those lyrics you’ve been touring with since you were a minor. The fans will come, and they will sing them for you.

“You killed that (expletive),” Williams said with a grin at the song’s end. “Thank you.”

Williams and her bandmates — today, drummer Zac Ferro, guitarist Taylor York and their reliable family of touring musicians — made their ACL Fest debut last Sunday, during Weekend 1. Throw some reasons at the wall for their survival in the Darwinian order of pop-punk — Williams’ once-in-a-generation talent; the band’s ability to stylistically evolve and still sound good; growing up alongside their listeners; the fact that those mid-to-late-2000s hits still frankly rock your face into atoms.

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Or, take it from a guy who made customers listen to “crushcrushcrush” ad nauseum when he worked at an ice cream shop as a teen. This is the greatest modern rock band on earth, and ACL Fest was the time to give them their due.

For the old heads — so sorry to say that losing your dome to 15-year-old songs might make you an old-ish head — Paramore brought some treats. “Brick By Boring Brick,” off 2009’s “Brand New Eyes,” came up second, right as a plane flew over Zilker Park towing a banner for Blink-182’s show in town next year. Solved: The mystery of what “Ba duh duh ba duh duh dah duh” sounds like when screamed by an audience roughly the size of Rhode Island.

“I want you to do your worst,” Williams conspired with the audience before “That’s What You Get” (of 2007’s disciple-making “Riot!” and also many aimless afternoons playing the video game “Rock Band” in rooms littered with empty Monster energy drink cans). The stage’s big screen displayed a brick phone. We love a knowing nod, folks. York absolutely tore into those famous, sucker-punch guitar licks. Williams, who at strategic moments in the set had given us Tennessee gospel runs, was just having fun: The line “I never learn” sounded like Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice had jumped onto the stage.

Another benefit of presiding over a dyed-orange-in-the-wool fan base: Every album track is as popular as a single. Paramore cycled through the eras: plenty of “After Laughter” cuts, “Still Into You” from 2013’s self-titled album, and heck, “I Caught Myself” from the 2008 “Twilight” soundtrack. (Weekend 1 got “Decode”; I grumble. And nothing from 2005's "All We Know Is Falling"? Please, Hayley, the world is already so cruel.) Mainstream breakthrough “Ain’t It Fun,” also from the self-titled, shot the holy spirit through the crowd and through Williams’ vocal cords.

And yet, all was prelude to the Great Return. Paramore, you see, is playing their career-defining beast “Misery Business” again. (They retired it in 2018; Google it.)

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It was one of those ACL Fest time bubbles. All stops, and you find yourself realizing that you and all these strangers can find joy in the same 3 minutes and 31 seconds, so maybe world peace is indeed possible. Williams covered her mouth on the song’s kinda-controversial line, written when she was a teenager — “Once a whore, you’re nothing more” — and playfully chastised the crowd for going all in.

Traditionally, Paramore likes to bring guests onstage during “Miz Biz” to sing a crucial section before the big catharsis at the end. On Sunday, they welcomed British singer and fellow ACL artist PinkPantheress. Earlier in the day, she’d told her own audience that Williams is one of the reasons she got into music. “I wish I could sing like her, too,” the songwriter said then, even throwing the song into her own setlist.

PinkPantheress came out holding her bag and her shoes in her hands, and it’s nice to know that we are all overwhelmed in the presence of the woman whom John Mayer once dubbed the" Great Orange Hope.”

Before closing with new single “This Is Why” — on which bassist Joey Howard really bassed for his life — Williams led a “Happy Birthday” tribute to Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She honored the band for their longevity and keeping their crew together over decades. Paramore wants to do it as long as the Peppers, she said, and “nobody knows more than us, it’s (expletive) hard.”

She did a band roll call. “And I’m Hayley. Miss Williams, if ya nasty,” she said.

A fan in the crowd held up a cardboard sign: “Hey Miss Williams, I’m nasty.”

After a particularly passionate singalong during the set, Hayley Williams dropped to her knees and bowed repeatedly to her audience. The camera caught the fans, and on a giant video screen, showed them returning the same gesture, universally recognized after the “Wayne’s World” Accords of 1992 to mean: “We’re not worthy.”

At a Paramore show, this is the small part that represents the whole. The band loves their people, and their people really, really love them. Orange is the warmest color.

From Weekend 1:Paramore brings nostalgia and a dance party to their first (yes, really) ACL Fest

Paramore setlist at ACL Fest Weekend 2

• “Hard Times”

• “Brick By Boring Brick”

• “Still Into You”

• “That’s What You Get”

• “I Caught Myself”

• “Pool”

• “Told You So”

• “Misery Business” (with guest PinkPanthress)

• “Ain’t It Fun”

• “Rose-Colored Boy”

• “Happy Birthday” (in honor of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea)

• “This Is Why”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Paramore at ACL Fest Weekend 2 and the orange reign of rock legends