This past Saturday my teenage daughter and I went to see twenty one pilots in concert. My daughter loved the concert, calling it the best concert she's ever seen. That's out of about 8 concerts in her life. I found out about twenty one pilots because I knew that she was a fan. Before the concert she kept on saying "it doesn't feel real". I know what you really want to know is how did her almost half-century old man like it?
Honestly I liked it quite a bit, I didn't exactly think it was the best concert I've been to though. But it was a lot better than the Billy Idol concert I saw in the spring. The concert was held in Salt Lake's Oh My Hell That's A Long Name Stadium. I'll get my two biggest complaints out of the way. It seemed the air conditioning was on the fritz as I went to a concert and a sauna broke out. My second complaint is that I wish the opening acts were better. We purposely missed Chef Special and MuteMath was okay. MuteMath doesn't so much have songs, they have song ideas. Some of the ideas seem like they could be pretty full if they were a bit more fleshed out. I've never seen a drummer featured as much as he is in this band. In fact MuteMath closed their show with the drummer featured in a solo. The other thing I liked about their concert is how all band members are the same distance from the front of the stage. Thus the drummer is near the front of the stage, equal with the singer and the other musicians. That's a genius idea.
After MuteMath left the stage the anticipation was very high. However 8:30 passed by, then 8:40 and then 8:50. At 8:54 twenty one pilots took the stage. While waiting for them to take the stage a droning sound was playing. (Old fart moment, I miss the good old days when actual music played during sets.) That helped build tension and anticipation, like any help with anticipation was needed. The crowd was getting anxious as chants of "T.O.P." and "Let's Go Pilots" were occurring. The wave even made an appearance. Does that help that in other cities or is that only an Utah thing?
Why do they have to start their concert with my favorite song. Although it is a great way to start a concert. 1) "HeavyDirtySoul":
2) "Migraine":
3)"Hometown" (featuring an intense rabbit running on the screen behind the stage) At the end of this song Tyler and Josh take off their ski masks to raucous cheers. :
4) "Polarize":
5) "Heathens", featuring a brief drum solo:
6) "House of Gold" intro/ "We Don't Believe What We See On TV":
7) Another one of my favorite twenty one pilot songs "The Judge":
8) "Lane Boy":
twenty one pilots come to a stage in the middle of the arena for "Ode To Sleep" and the medley
9) "Ode To Sleep":
10) Medley: "The Pantaloon"/"Fall Away"/"Johnny Boy"/"Forest"/"Addict With A Pen"/"March to the Sea"/"Kitchen Sink"
11) "Holding On To You":
The members of Chef Special and MuteMath join twenty one pilots on the stage for some very interesting covers.
12) "Twist and Shout":
13) "My Heart Will Go On":
14) "Love Yourself":
15) "Jump Around":
The other bands leave the stage so the pilots can close out the show.
16) "Ride":
17) "Stressed Out":
18) "Guns For Hands" (One of the boys gets in a hamster ball and rides around the crowd for several seconds.):
19) "Tear In My Heart":
20) "Car Radio":
Encore
21) "Goner":
22) "Trees":
I give twenty one pilots a solid B+ grade. They played for about two hours. There was a bit of filler between the songs, but that wasn't much of a nuisance. They act like they still remember what it's like to be fans as they mingle a lot with their adoring audience. Their setlist was good, I can't think of a song of theirs I like that they didn't play. The so so songs are a lot better in concert and the good songs are that much better. They are great performers, the vocals and musicianship were spot on. They jump around the stage, Josh even did a back flip from a piano during the show. As you can tell they perform with a lot of energy. It's the same setlist night after night, but that didn't bother me. Maybe if I saw them night after night it would. One of my favorite things about twenty one pilots is they don't swear much, I can't think of one swear word from the whole night. twenty one pilots definitely deserve the headliner slot. I would recommend twenty one pilots for all ages and music tastes. My daughter and I had a great time.
themusicaddict
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