LIVE REVIEW: PARIS PALOMA – THE FATAL FLAW TOUR @ VARIETY PLAYHOUSE, ATLANTA, GA – OCTOBER 7, 2026

There is nothing quite like a sold-out night at Variety Playhouse to make you feel like you’re part of something larger than yourself. Paris Paloma built a perfect night for collective catharsis, where a packed room screamed back lyrics that rage against societal norms. The floor was filled with fans dressed to the nines in flowy gowns, fully prepared to dance, cry, and rage against the patriarchy together.

The night started strong with Susannah Joffe, an indie-pop singer-songwriter whose theatrical, introspective set served as the perfect compliment to Paloma’s world. Walking out to a dramatic intro track, Joffe launched straight into “Your Mother’s Name.” She took a moment to acknowledge it was her first time in Georgia before introducing “Texas Baby,” a track exploring her complicated relationship with her home state that soon got the room clapping in unison. Between songs, Joffe offered backstories that gave her set a welcome layer of intimacy, and she stunned in her performances with effortless vocalizations.

Paris Paloma’s set began with a dramatic instrumental intro as her backing band entered the stage. She then came out guns blazing with “Stem the Flow” to open the show. Paloma spun and twirled across the stage, her dress billowing as fans blew extra wind. She then grabbed a guitar and transitioned into the dark, driving “drywall.” Before the third track, Paloma took a moment to voice her firm stance against generative AI, labeling it soulless and echoing Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki’s famous sentiment that it’s “an insult to life itself.” That conviction set up “Miyazaki,” a defiant song written about these opinions and titled as a direct nod to the filmmaker.

Much of Paloma’s catalog confronts heavy, deeply real themes about abuse, body image, and the patriarchy, and her writing consistently weaves these topics through the lens of art history and classical mythology. Explaining her deep love for art, she shared a story about Mark Rothko’s color field paintings, noting how they famously move viewers to tears. She admitted that when she first saw a Rothko piece at 17, and again at 23, she felt nothing, wondering if something was wrong with her. That story transitioned into “Rothko,” highlighted by live violin on stage and a dramatic build in the end. Pivoting back to her earlier work, Paloma then said it was “only fair we play an old one,” and the crowd went wild as the intro to “as good a reason” hit. During an extended outro, she shouted out Joffe, her backing musicians, and her entire touring crew by name, from lighting design to management and photography, before leaning back into the art theme in a song for “art history nerds” on “Pre-Raphaelite.”

The tone then shifted with a candid speech about her exhaustion with unsolicited comments regarding her body. Paloma addressed how online critiques of her appearance are frequently weaponized to derail her arguments against patriarchal harm, before asserting she has no intention of altering herself for anyone’s approval. Urging the crowd to treat joy as a form of resistance, she began the next track dramatically with the spoken-word intro to “Good Girl,” sitting at the base of a massive red tree stage prop (from The Fatal Flaw album artwork). As the fast-paced lights kicked in and the song picked up, she got the audience to jump along to the beat. In a playful moment, she then gave the room a choice (cheekily noting it was a “pro-choice show”) between an acoustic version of “Beautiful Birds” or a full-band version of “get her the fucking flowers.” The crowd overwhelmingly voted for the latter, and the band happily obliged.

Next, after complimenting the crowd’s elaborate attire, noting fans dressed as Persephone and Hades and other Greek gods, Paloma explained how her next track examines toxic masculinity through Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles whose exposure to war corrupted him into a bloodthirsty teenager who ultimately killed a baby. Written from the perspective of his mother, “Pyrrhus (you go where I cannot)” hit hard. Paloma then knelt on the floor for a dramatic beginning to “Silhouette on the Hill,” eventually getting the room to clap along to the rhythm for the big build. Keeping on the themes of the night, she then noted that most men have far more in common with women than people like Elon Musk, adding that there is no reward for hating women. In fact, you are simply being a “Good Boy.” The band then kicked into the track of the same name.

Paloma went on to express her profound gratitude for the safe, empathetic community surrounding her music, a space she never dreamed she could build. She credited “the fruits” as one of the early songs that helped forge that bond, which was then the song she played next, and the audience sang every line back to her. Addressing how her catalog is often categorized as angry and therefore used to diminish her messages, she clarified that her rage exists to protect the soft, beautiful things in the world. She then performed “I Cry in Front of Paintings,” describing it as a song about walking away from dysfunctional relationships and stepping off the precipice into the gentle love one deserves. The main set closed with “My First Name,” an unreleased track, with Paloma teasing that a loud enough applause at the end might be impetus for her to do another song.

It did not take long for Paloma and her band to return to the stage. Inviting the entire room to sing along to her biggest hit “labour,” the venue happily screamed every word. Towards the end of the song, Paloma stepped down off the stage directly into the pit to finish the song among the fans. As the house lights came up, The Oh Hellos’ “Soldier, Poet, King” blared in the venue, leaving the audience bouncing, dancing, and embracing one another, a final communal moment closing out a perfect evening of whimsy, catharsis, and timely songs. 

Paris Paloma Photo Gallery

Susannah Joffe Photo Gallery

Setlist

• Stem the Flow
• drywall
• Miyazaki
• Rothko
• as good a reason
• Pre‐Raphaelite
• Good Girl
• get her the fucking flowers
• Pyrrhus (you go where I cannot)
• Silhouette on the Hill
• Good Boy
• the fruits
• I Cry in Front of Paintings
• My First Name (unreleased)
• labour

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Live photography by Anna Daugherty for No Flash Needed. © 2026 No Flash Needed. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without written permission.