During the recent Grammy Award ceremony, the Columbus, Ohio Band Twenty One Pilots won for Best Duo/Group Performance. It is probably safe to say that before that night most adult music fans were unaware of the group even as it has scored a few radio hits with “Ride” and “Stressed Out.”
So anybody who stumbled into Twenty One Pilots show at Verizon Arena on Friday night – and nobody stumbled in because it was a sold out with 13,900 souls in attendance – would be gobsmacked at the devotion and adoration displayed. While the audience was comprised primarily of the coveted tween and teenage demographic, the mood was so infectious that it felt like one was seeing something new and something certainly powerful. History will sort out whether Twenty One Pilots is going to be a trailblazer or a footnote. There is no doubt it’s a band having a very large moment.
And what an unusual band it is – two guys, drummer Josh Dun and singer Tyler Joseph. During Friday night’s concert, Joseph played bass guitar, piano and ukulele. To say that Dun played the drums is an understatement to end all understatements. Dun attacked his drum set from the jump and his animated physical bashing was one of the key visual components of the show.
The opening song, “Heavydirtysoul,” was a spectacular visual storm with Dun and Joseph dressed in suits and wearing ski masks. It set a high bar – surely two dudes can’t keep this up for the whole night? – that they cleared quirky song after quirky song.
Here’s where we marvel how a concert of Twenty One Pilots songs gets one no closer to describing exactly what kind of music the two men play. Indie rock? No guitar solos. Hip-hop? Lots of hip-hop breaks but hardly a consistent feature. Synth pop? Outside of a gorgeous, synth-heavy rendition of “Fairly Local,” not really. When you thought you had the duo pegged and explained, they slipped away.
Toward the end, the two opening acts -- Jon Bellion and Judah & The Lion -- were brought on stage to sing covers – Chumbawumba, House of Pain and Black Eyed Peas got the honors. Suddenly the stage was filled with performers including a banjo-playing man dressed as Santa Claus and somebody dressed as a lobster.
It was absurd, goofy, and blissful. It was clear then that whatever is going on with Twenty One Pilots isn’t going on by accident and isn’t likely to end anytime in the near future.