Paramore is, indeed, a band — a three-piece that expands to seven players on the road — however it’s no secret lead singer Hayley Williams is the star of the show. She proved why once more Wednesday night when Paramore packed St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center with gleeful fans.

For 2 hours, Williams gave a fiery performance that was part tough cheerleader and part punk rock queen. She steadily sprinted across the stage and spent loads of time strutting, moshing and jumping around. All of the while, her famously powerful, four-octave voice brought infectious vigor to her songs recent and old, even when her vocals sometimes got lost in the combo. Her sheer amount of energy and enthusiasm was much more amazing provided that she just returned to the road Sunday after postponing 4 shows as a result of a lung infection.

Now 34, Williams signed her first record deal when she was 14 and released Paramore’s debut album when she was 16. After an intense period of recording and touring in the midst of the last decade, the band took an prolonged break in 2018 that got even longer as a result of the pandemic, a time when Williams released a pair of solo albums.

Wednesday’s set list focused on songs from Paramore’s sixth album “This Is Why,” which got here out in February. Williams also worked in her solo track “Crystal Clear,” a stellar example of the more mature and art rock-influenced work she explored on her own. While “This Is Why” also reflects growth, it’s still very much a Paramore album and the strong guitar work really shined on songs like “The News,” “Running Out of Time” and the title track. (Drummer Zac Farro got to sing “Baby,” a not-bad recent single from his side project HalfNoise.)

Midway through the show, the core band members retreated to a secondary stage behind the primary stage. They played several slower songs including “Liar” and stood in silhouette with a blue sky on the screen behind them surrounded by orange light paying homage to an August late afternoon on the beach.

The near-capacity crowd — made up of nostalgic millennials with a surprising variety of teens — gave the brand new material a warm welcome, but really jumped to attention and sang along in the course of the old hits, from the 2008 stomper “That’s What You Get” to the still-gorgeous 2010 love song “The Only Exception.” The rapturous response to 2007’s “Misery Business” stood right up there with any of this 12 months’s other arena or stadium spectaculars.