Twenty One Pilots Review: From Clubs to Sold-Out Stadiums

Brian Roth ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Contributor

In December of 2013, Twenty One Pilots played their Boston debut headliner at the Paradise Rock Club. Still rather unknown, Twenty One Pilots put on a show with enough passion and talent that would make any producer weak in the knees; if only those producers knew who they were. Upon exiting the venue, fans were in agreement: two years from that night, Twenty One Pilots would be selling out one of Boston’s largest stadiums. A bold statement? Yes. Were they right? Yes.

September 12th of this year, Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph, better known as Twenty One Pilots, returned to Boston for another sold-out show. This time, the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston’s Seaport District was their venue of choice. All 5,000 seats were filled. In the two years that passed since Twenty One Pilots performed in an intimate rock club a lot had changed, but a lot had also stayed the same.

Everything about the Blurryface Tour is grander than their previous tour. Their fan base is skyrocketing, their light show is brighter, their genre-bending music is riskier, and their onstage acrobatics are even more in your face than before. All of these pieces have come together to solidify Twenty One Pilots as one of the world’s fastest-growing music groups most people have most likely never heard of.

Even major fans of the band were not disappointed leaving the amphitheater. Dun and Joseph practically played their entire album from beginning to end, with most of their old hits sprinkled in. They even played a medley of songs they wouldn’t otherwise have time to fit into their short time slot. There was a sense that the band was slightly annoyed there was assigned seating and no room for the crowd to move around, but in true Twenty One Pilots fashion Dun and Joseph found ways to take these “deal breakers” and turn them into piano backflips and a hilarious race around the venue.

The Blurryface Tour is well worth the $40 general admission ticket price and it is a must-see event for all Twenty One Pilots fans and avid concertgoers alike. From their integration of hip-hop into indie acoustic lines, to their slow-burn piano ballads, there really is something for everyone at their show. And if their sound isn’t your cup of tea, at the very least attend a show to witness Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph jump off of every climbable structure in and around the stage. It is a spectacle not to be missed in a time when mainstream artists like Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Justin Bieber are controlling the touring circuit. Twenty One Pilots are revitalizing the live music scene and it is a breath of fresh air for those getting tired of the same old, same old.