Hayley Williams / Photo by Timothy Norris

On a day Hayley Williams should have been so happy she could just scream, the 20-year-old Paramore singer could barely manage a yelp. Her voice hurt too much.

See our photo gallery of the show here.

The newly blonde Williams, kicking off a 19-date U.S. tour with her Nashville quintet on the day its third album, "Brand New Eyes," was released, departed the stage frustrated Tuesday night after only 11 songs and 37 minutes, her pipes shot.

After an uncomfortable five minutes, guitarist Josh Farro (who was celebrating his 22nd birthday) led his singer-less bandmates back onstage and addressed the standing-room-only crowd at the Fox Theater in Pomona, 35 miles east of Los Angeles.

"We have a slight issue," he said. "Hayley's voice is shot, completely gone. She's upset — she feels like she let you guys down. But we're gonna play some music for you and you guys can sing."

And sing the crowd did. As Farro and bandmates -- brother Zac Farro, Jeremy Davis, and Taylor York -- pounded out "Misery Business," the fans nearly shook the rafters of the newly restored theater, a 2,000-plus capacity room that reopened in May. It was an exhilarating and unifying moment for fans bent on making Williams their generation's Gwen Stefani.

From the beginning, Williams — whose band played "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" in Hollywood on Monday night and then did a breakfast show for radio behemoth KROQ-FM at the Troubadour on Tuesday morning — was overmatched by whatever bug she caught earlier this week.

By the second song, "Ignorance," the concert was a game of call-and-response with the crowd, fans gleefully taking her cue to complete her couplets. Still, Williams gamely bounced around the stage, her fans pogoing with her during "That's What You Get" off the band's 2007 platinum-selling album "Riot!"

She worked her way through "Looking Up" before telling the crowd, "This is everything we'd hoped it would be, and more. We've been waiting a long time for this record to come out. Thank you for celebrating with us."

But the first line of one the band's early singles — "I think we have an emergency" — foreshadowed impending doom. She soldiered through that song, "Emergency," and "CrushCrushCrush" before throwing whatever she had left into "Turn It Off," one of the high points of the new album.

It's a contemplative mid-tempo rocker in which Williams wrestles mightily with her demons, the kind of song that sets Paramore apart from the emo/punk/hardcore maelstrom of the Warped Tour scene that helped launch its career. On this night, the song's big chorus seemed to sap her.

"I got sick a couple days ago, so I apologize," she said, taking a breather.

During "Conspiracy" she sounded as if she needed a shot or three of Tennessee bourbon, then, after "Where the Lines Overlap," promised the crowd, "Because you give us what you've got, we're gonna give you everything we've got."

It was false bravado. After valiantly delivering "Decode," she tossed the mic stand and exited.

The awkward finish did little to diminish the fans' adulation, but it might have taken the shine off Paramore's moment of triumph, especially after spending the summer caddying for No Doubt.

And Williams has less than 48 hours to get ready for Thursday's sold-out show at the Hollywood Palladium. Gulp.

Setlist

Instrumental
Ignorance
Caught Myself
That's What You Get
Looking Up
Emergency
CrushCrushCrush
Turn It Off
Conspiracy
Where the Lines Overlap
Decode
Misery Business
Instrumental